Two drownings, three timelines and multiple suspects in an enigmatic and disquieting crime mystery
Dominika stepped off the boat on the southern shore of Wielka Żuława and dragged it onto land. On the night when she was researching the island, she had pored over satellite photos in which she spotted many details, even the old Janik family house on the other side.
‘Two kilometres, tops,’ she said to herself and took off the rubber boots protecting her shoes. She left them by a large rock and opened Google Maps to plot her position and route. Dusk was still some time away and she was sure to reach her destination, but she might have to walk back in the dark, which wouldn’t be particularly pleasant.
The forest was awake.
It was listening, whispering, breathing down her neck.
Dominika had the impression that she was being followed and constantly watched. She glanced back anxiously, but saw only trees. Ostrowski had mentioned squatters, so she should be vigilant.
She looked longingly towards Iława: from this shore, the town seemed much larger than it really was.
Dominika tried to imagine Wielka Żuława bustling with life. Although tourists still visited in high season, now it was an empty spot in the heart of town. From time to time, local residents raised the subject of improving transport between the island and the mainland; there was news of investors. But what could they build here?
‘I hope they don’t pour concrete all over you,’ the policewoman sighed and walked around a collapsed tree trunk.
She thought she heard a snap. She froze and slowly turned around.
There was nobody there, but she did realise she was defenceless. She didn’t have a gun or a knife. Nothing that could help her. She found a thick stick and, although it wasn’t much of a weapon, it made her feel a bit more confident.
Twenty minutes later she was standing on the edge of the clearing which surrounded the Janiks’ smallholding and house. She’d seen photos of the area online, but she now knew that they didn’t even begin to convey the terrifying atmosphere of the place. ‘The perfect spot for committing a crime and dumping the body,’ she thought.
She approached a small house, about the size of a holiday cottage, in the middle of the farmyard. Dirty net curtains hung in the windows, and the turquoise paint was peeling in strips. Dominika peered inside through a hole in the padlocked door and noticed a futon with a tangle of old bedding. The floor was strewn with alcohol bottles and ripped-out newspaper pages.
She wondered if this was the hideaway of Michał Ullman, the man mentioned by Ostrowski. Glancing at the roof, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to check. She tied the wildlife camera that her ex-boss had given her to one of the beams, deciding she’d return in a few days to check the photos.
She thought she heard the snap of breaking branches and went still. She carefully looked around, but couldn’t spot any movement. As she walked around the edge of the forest surrounding the farmyard, she still had the unpleasant feeling that someone out there was watching her every move.
It started to rain. Dominika glanced anxiously at the door of the old Janik house; it was ajar. She approached it, peering over her shoulder at the barn. Another place to hide in.
A shiver ran through her at the fleeting impression that she could hear someone’s raspy breathing.
Dominika faced a dilemma. Shout ‘Who’s there?’ and give away her presence, or stay silent and get on with her job in the hope that she was alone?
Translated by Marta Dziurosz
Two drownings, three timelines and multiple suspects in an enigmatic and disquieting crime mystery
Translation rights: Karolina Guzik, k.guzik@wydawnictwopoznanskie.pl
The claustrophobic town of Iława is witness to the deaths of two young women, 50 years apart. In 1973, the beautiful but ‘weird’ Ania goes missing; in the present day, Kaja drowns in the local lake. Policewoman Dominika Sajna returns from maternity leave just in time to get involved in the search for Kaja. Circumstantial evidence points to Piotr, a young, possibly autistic man, but on closer examination he does not seem capable of violence. The plot of The Whisper is woven between three timelines, telling the story of two pairs of sisters and their love-hate relationships; the terrible consequences of childhood pranks; and the inescapable demons of the past.
In her tense narrative, Weronika Mathia skilfully employs red herrings, and uses compelling, vivid language, reminiscent of the Scandi noir genre. She manipulates the switching perspectives to enable a slow drip of information which keeps the reader hooked, while the rich detail and complex relationships of her world reward close attention. At its core, The Whisper focuses on the profound burden of loss and how people who seem different from others – Piotr and Ania – become stigmatised. The book leaves behind a lingering sense of sadness and disquiet.
Marta Dziurosz
Selected samples
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The year is 1922. A dangerous time of breakthrough. In the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland, Bolshevik gangs sow terror, leaving behind the corpses of men and disgraced women. A ruthless secret intelligence race takes place between the Lviv-Warsaw-Free City of Gdańsk line. Lviv investigator Edward Popielski, called Łysy (“Hairless”), receives an offer … Continue reading “A Girl with Four Fingers”
This question is closely related to the next one, namely: if any goal exists, does life lead us to that goal in an orderly manner? In other words, is everything that happens to us just a set of chaotic events that, combined together, do not form a whole? To understand how the concept of providence … Continue reading “Order and Love”
The work of Józef Łobodowski (1909-1988) – a remarkable poet, prose writer, and translator, who spent most of his life in exile – is slowly being revived in Poland. Łobodowski’s brilliant three- volume novel, composed on an epic scale, concerns the fate of families and orphans unmoored by the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war and … Continue reading “Ukrainian Trilogy: Thickets, The Settlement, The Way Back”
