Mattress House

Another skilful psychological thriller exposes the dark underbelly of provincial society in Austria. Springtime in Furth am See: psychiatrist Raffael Horn worries about his marriage, Criminal Commissioner Kovacs is dreading a visit from his daughter; life goes on for the cast of unhinged townsfolk who peopled The Sweetness of Life. But when a man falls to his death from scaffolding, murder is suspected. Then a beaten child is brought in to the police, soon followed by others showing similar signs of abuse. This leads to an outbreak of hysteria in Furth, and Horn and Kovacs are put under serious pressure to find the perpetrator. But more horrifying crimes lie behind these beatings. A local businessman heading a paedophile ring has been filming the abuse of young girls from India, and one of them has been showing the films to the town's schoolchildren, beating them and threatening the same abuse if they speak about what they have seen. When the evidence is passed on to a teacher, Kovacs and Horn home in on the network. Full of tension and unease, and tackling a sensitive issue, The Mattress House is another brilliantly accomplished psychological crime novel by the Austrian winner of the inaugural European Literature Prize.