Marcin Wroński

Commissioner Maciejewski: Cinema Venus

Excerpt

For several years the label “Polish retro crime fiction” has had one single representative – Marek Krajewski, whose series of novels about the adventures of a policeman from Breslau called Eberhard Mock continue to enjoy vast popularity. But now Krajewski has some dangerous competition from a Lublin-based writer called Marcin Wroński. Over the years Wroński has moved from one genre to another, from the post-modern novel via children’s fiction to fantasy. Finally in 2007 he published his first retro crime novel, "Commissioner Maciejewski", and a year later the next part of the series, "Commissioner Maciejewski: Cinema Venus". And in my view he has done his best work as a writer of crime fiction.
The action is set in the early 1930s in the provincial city of Lublin. The leading character is Deputy Commissioner Zygmunt Maciejewski, known as Zyga, from the investigative department at the city police headquarters, the best sleuth in Lublin and the greater area. Once a promising boxer (hence the broken nose), he is a slovenly, arrogant man with an ironical, caustic sense of humour. He is also a passionate reader of Kafka and is inclined to be insubordinate – but at the same time he has “that special something” every good cop should have, an instinct that makes him extremely good at pursuing criminals. Although the action is set in the inter-war period, Wroński writes about issues that are still relevant today. In the first book, as he seeks the killers of the editor-in-chief of the city newspaper and the censor, Maciejewski uncovers an affair involving politicians, businessmen and media people. In the second he has to enter the murky world of sex slave traffickers and the porn industry.
Here in Wroński’s novels the reader will find everything a good crime book should have: a carefully constructed intrigue, some interesting sub plots (not least the one involving Maciejewski’s professional and personal problems in the second book), a leading man whom it is possible to like, and some clear-cut supporting characters (here I am mainly thinking of the commissioner’s colleagues from the investigative department, Zielny, Fałniewicz and Kraft). And on top of that we get some bonuses: a portrait of pre-war Lublin full of details and curiosities, and a sophisticated style, because Wroński is an above-average stylist, which in the case of crime writers is fairly unusual.

Robert Ostaszewski

Marcin Wroński (born 1972) is a novelist, columnist, editor, lyricist and cabaret sketch writer. He lives in Lublin. The first in his series of retro crime novels was "Commissioner Maciejewski: Murder Under Censorship" (2007).