Set in a small town in Switzerland, The Pledge centers around the murder of a young girl and the detective who promises the victim&;s mother he will find the perpetrator. After deciding the wrong man has been arrested for the crime, the detective lays a trap for the real killer&;with all the patience of a master fisherman. But cruel turns of plot conspire to make him pay dearly for his pledge. Here Friedrich Dürrenmatt conveys his brilliant ear for dialogue and a devastating sense of timing and suspense. Joel Agee&;s skilled translation effectively captures the various voices in the original, as well as its chilling conclusion. One of Dürrenmatt&;s most diabolically imagined and constructed novels, The Pledge was adapted for the screen in 2000 in a film directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson.