The Investigation: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Stanisaw Lem

First published: Sledztwo, 1959 (English translation, 1974)

Genre: Novel

Locale: London, England, and its environs

Plot: Detective and mystery

Time: The 1960's

Gregory, a Scotland Yard lieutenant detective. Tall and lean, with a broad face, square jaw, and dark complexion, he lives in a mysterious rooming house, where barely audible noises at night disturb his sleep. The first case of his career involves finding the perpetrator of a series of apparently related crimes: Several corpses have been removed from mortuaries and strangely mutilated. A well-trained detective, Gregory must find a human cause for these events, but his odd methods of investigation and his passion for truth gradually convince him that these are “natural” reanimations of corpses rather than crimes. He then faces a paradox: Although he believes that there has been no crime, he must still act as if there has been. He cooperates with Chief Inspector Sheppard in fabricatinganexplanationinwhich there is a human criminal agent.

Sheppard, a Scotland Yard chief inspector. An older man with rheumatism, he is an eccentric, keeping pictures of executed criminals on the walls of his study. Sheppard directs the strange case, reluctantly giving it to the inexperienced Gregory. He follows Gregory closely, evaluating his work and sometimes criticizing his methods, especially when Gregory makes Sciss his main suspect. He offers a number of hypothetical explanations in which rational agents of various kinds figure. Finally, he provides a workable but fictional solution for the “crimes” that Gregory is willing to support.

Harvey Sciss, a statistical genius. He is thin and dark, with gray eyes, puffy cheeks, and a receding chin. He seems interested in perverted sex and has a heart condition that threatens him with an early death. He develops the theory that the mysterious reanimations are a statistical anomaly with a probable natural cause. They only appear miraculous because they are so rare and because there are elements of a pattern in their occurrence. He repeatedly points out to the police that mass statistics, though they reveal large-scale phenomena, do not explain them.

Armour Black, a best-selling novelist. He is fifty years old, large, dark, and athletic. In an extended conversation with Gregory, Black explains necessary fictions. For the police-man's world to make sense, there must be crimes and criminals; Scotland Yard, he says, has no choice but to interpret these mysterious events as crimes to fit them into this perspective. He predicts that the police will be forced to create a story that explains these events as crimes if they do not discover actual criminal causes.

Dr. McCatt, an associate of Sciss. Like Sciss and Black, McCatt believes that the world is less thoroughly understood than most people believe. He shows Gregory an arcade game to illustrate the necessity of using the human mind to solve problems. Each game, including the detective game, has principles that determine how it is to be played, principles that make the world appear more comprehensible than it really is.

Williams, a suburban London constable. The only eyewitness to one of the events, he reports that he saw a corpse come to life and move about on its own. Because he panicked and ran into the path of a car and is near death when he gives his testimony, Gregory and Sheppard choose not to believe him.