While in the German-speaking world, Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt is best remembered as an important contributor to the ‘Epic Theatre’ movement, he was also a writer of prose fiction, including at least three novels that are clear, if unusual, examples of crime fiction. These novels, featuring Inspector Hans Bärlach of the Bern Police, include The Judge and His Hangman, Suspicion, and The Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel. Dürrenmatt’s detective novels are characterized by their philosophical critique of pure reason, but are also notable for their early engagement with Holocaust themes: Suspicion is one of the first novels to use the techniques of detective fiction to approach the events of the Holocaust. Dürrenmatt’s novels suggest that Switzerland, despite its wartime neutrality, was not immune to Nazi contamination. Similarly, his detective Bärlach often operates in a morally ambiguous world where the lines between good and evil are blurred. Ultimately, Dürrenmatt’s novels suggest that the Holocaust is best approached not through literary realism, but through texts including strong elements of the fantastic.