In Joseph Heller''s classic, Catch 22, Doc Daneeka is listed on a flight that crashes into a mountain. He is declared dead
while standing next to the officer who makes the announcement. Heller goes on to describe the absurdity of a living person being declared dead.
Robbe-Grillet in his first novel, the Erasers, treats the matter far more seriously. There has been a series of deaths, possibly murders, perhaps connected, maybe by a terrorist network. When Daniel Dupont is targeted as the ninth victim, Inspector Wallas is sent to investigate. By the time he arrives, there is no corpse and no clue as to the identity of the perpetrator, if the fatal wound was not self-inflicted. There is a death certificate and an evasive gynecologist who treated the wounded man. Dupont, having surprised the
assassin before the latter could turn off the lamp in the study, escaped with a flesh wound to the arm. He then concocted his own death in order to help investigate the terrorist ring. Hiding in the doctor''s clinic, he is oblivious to the investigator''s attempts to solve the murder, as well as the local police commissioner''s inquiries. The would-be assassin promises his boss that he''ll get it right the next evening. The boss congratulates his thug; even if orders were not followed meticulously, the victim is dead (according to the newspaper). A friend of Dupont is asked to remove some papers from the ''dead'' man''s study the next evening. Getting wind of the second attempt, possibly directed at him, he flees the city. Wallas picks up the pieces, in between visits to stationers where he looks for a specific type of eraser. A mysterious character has been receiving coded messages at one of the post offices. Post office employees mistake Wallas for him. Ultimately, Wallas decided to await the assassin the second evening in Dupont''s study, only to be surprised by the mysterious character with the post office box.
A fascinating account of an
investigation of the murder of a man who is already dead.