The Polish science fiction writer has taken the format of the procedural police mystery and turned it into a metaphysical puzzler of considerable power.  Dead bodies are inexplicably moving and disappearing.  Has a crime been committed or are stranger forces at work?  The young Scotland Yard officer in charge of the case struggles to find a resolution that will preserve his determinedly prosaic view of the world.  Reality, however, proves less mundane and certainly less comprehensible than he had hoped.  A compelling and disturbing book, closer to Kafka than the police precinct house.

The Kirkus Reviews

Andre Deutsch, London 1992

  I am not entirely happy with The Investigation although it is quite well written and keeps the reader in suspense. The ending, a departure from the literary genre, addresses certain philosophical issues by showing possible explanations and courses of events. The Chain of Chance (Katar) seems in this respect a better work because it is more credible. Even in the categories of "naturalism" and "naive credibility" this second novel seems "better made". My attachment to this idea results from the fact that I was always interested in the role played by pure chance, coincidence and fate.

  The funeral was scheduled for the morning. When the family showed up at the mortuary they noticed that the body was lying face downward - that is, the back was facing upward - and that its hands were open, which gave them the impression that Thicker... had come back to life. At least that's what the family believed. Before long, rumors about some kind of trance were circulation in the neighborhood; people said that Thicker had only seemed to be dead, then woke up, found himself in a coffin, and died of fright, this time for good."

"The whole story was nonsense, " Farquart continued. "A local doctor had certified Thicker's death beyond any shadow of doubt. But as the rumors spread through the surrounding area, attention was drawn to the fact that people had been talking for some time about so-called moving corpses that changed position during the night."

 Translated by Adele Milch, Andre Deutsch

Bibliography 

• MON, 1959
• Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1969, 1988
• Interart, Warszawa 1995

•  Seabury Press, 1974
• Secker & Warburg, London, 1975
• Avon Books, New York, 1976
• Seabury Press, 1976
• Harcourt Brace, 1986
• Andre Deutsch, London, 1992