For the programme “M19 – The Long Interview” on the radio station Mephisto 97.6, Patrick Kurtz, owner of the Kurtz Detective Agency Trier and Luxembourg, spoke for an hour with editor-in-chief Paula Drope about the detective profession. In the following fifth part, the topic turns to writing detectives. You can find the third part about the role models of our private detectives in Luxembourg and Trier here.

A Cinematic Detective Office?

Paula Drope: “You’ve already described your office to us and we had a look around. When you take that in and look at your website, you get the impression you want to present a crime novel atmosphere à la Sherlock Holmes or Philip Marlowe. You want people to immerse themselves, don’t you? Why create that atmosphere?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “It is not my conscious intention to immerse people in such an atmosphere, because the objective facts of each case come first. Yet if that is the impression, I think it comes simply from the fact that I like it so much myself and that it’s part of who I am. That is reflected accordingly: in the office, on the website, and so on.”

 

Paula Drope: “Before we continue about Sherlock Holmes — and we will, we are not finished yet — let us do our quick-fire question round. We do this often on M19. I ask a short question, you answer briefly. Ready?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, I hope so.”

Getting Personal: the Quick-Fire Round

Paula Drope: “Your childhood career ambition?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Writer.”

 

Paula Drope: “What kind of writer?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Back then, I think fantasy.”

 

Paula Drope: “Favourite subject at school?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Phew, for a while French, sometimes German.”

 

Paula Drope: “Agatha Christie or Dan Brown?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Hmm, both … rather Agatha Christie.”

 

Paula Drope: “Why?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Because Dan Brown has recently been writing a bit sensationally for my taste. He always did to some extent, but lately it’s become a bit too much.”

 

Paula Drope: “Which film would you stay home for?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Many — The Dark Knight springs to mind first, but I am not limited by title or genre.”

 

Paula Drope: “Crime stories as book, film or radio drama?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Most of all as a book.”

 

Paula Drope: “Do you prefer a glass of red wine or a beer with a good crime novel?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “More likely a beer, even more likely a whisky.”

 

Paula Drope: “So you are a detective just like he’s written in the books — indeed.”

Radio Needs Music — a Request from Ireland

Paula Drope: “And now your final music request. You chose ‘Cocaine Chest Pains’ by the Irish band Kopek. Why that track?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Because they are a relatively unknown band — relatively, since last year they supported Die Toten Hosen on tour. I met the band in 2013 at a concert in a small club in Berlin. Very likeable guys, and it’s a great song.”

An insert follows, the theme of the BBC series Sherlock:

On Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes

Paula Drope: “With the theme tune of the BBC’s most popular series we begin our fourth and final round on M19, the long interview on Mephisto97.6. My guest, Patrick Kurtz, could well be welcomed with that music, because he is a private detective. Mr Kurtz, after a quick reading of the clues: what theme tune was that?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “BBC-Sherlock — didn’t you just say that?”

 

Paula Drope: “No, I only said ‘most popular BBC series’; you linked it subconsciously. Are you a fan?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, I find the series excellent and I have all seasons on my shelf.”

 

Paula Drope: “A new cult has formed around the Sherlock Holmes figure. But already in the 1950s there were television and, above all, cinema adaptations. Today there are not only the BBC series and Sherlock Holmes films, but also the US films of 2009 and 2011 starring Robert Downey Jr.. There is also a different interpretation in the US series Elementary, where Dr Watson is played by a woman. Are you familiar with the adaptations mentioned?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, though I only watched a few episodes of Elementary — I must say I didn’t take to it.”

 

Paula Drope: “Why not?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “It felt a bit like a cheap German TV production to me. I didn’t warm to the portrayal of Sherlock, and I didn’t warm to Lucy Liu as Watson — it just didn’t fit for me. I’m afraid I didn’t like it.”

 

Paula Drope: “Cinematically, in other words?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Visually on the one hand, but it also seemed a bit too simplistic. Maybe I caught the wrong episodes — that may be — but what I saw didn’t appeal.”

 

Paula Drope: “Which of the cited adaptations do you like best?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Of those mentioned, definitely the BBC-Sherlock, because it’s the most creative and because Benedict Cumberbatch is by far the most convincing Holmes of these adaptations. The atmosphere is superb, the cases are brilliantly constructed, the twists are great, and the adaptations of the classic material — novels and short stories — are very well done. In my view, alongside the series starring the brilliant Jeremy Brett from the 1980s and early 1990s, it is by far the best realisation of Sherlock Holmes.”

On Novels and Detective Blogs

Paula Drope: “Let us move from film heroes to real heroes. You are not only a private detective but also a writer. Besides an essay collection you have written a novel: in 2012 Livingstones Mahnung was published — the first volume of the memoirs of Detective Inspector Aidan Johnstone. So you are ultimately a writer? Does that come naturally when you work as a detective?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “That I want to express myself is certainly true. I have done it since childhood: ever since I learned to write I have been writing. At six or seven it was continuations of Pippi Longstocking stories, later all sorts of texts. At the moment I don’t have time, but I intend to devote more energy to it in 2016. I have a manuscript in a drawer that I have yet to revise, and many other projects in my head that I would like to realise when time permits.”

 

Paula Drope: “What you certainly identify with is your detective agency blog. There you describe, anonymised of course, cases that your agency uncovers across Germany. How did the idea of presenting cases in a blog occur to you? Sherlock Holmes and Watson do something similar in the Sherlock series.”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “I haven’t really thought about it; I couldn’t tell you how the idea came about. It happened some time ago. It just developed naturally.”

 

Paula Drope: “Is the detective blog perhaps the new detective format?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Not many people do it, I suspect. I enjoy it because it combines different things that appeal to me: I like to write and I am a detective. On that level I can unite both, even though the blog must of course be much more matter-of-fact than what I would normally write. It’s a nice format in which to express myself. It’s also good publicity — something a service provider should not overlook.”

Closing Words

Paula Drope: “That was the private detective and owner of Kurtz Detective Agency, Patrick Kurtz. We have reached the end of our programme. Thank you for the interesting conversation and thank you for coming!”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “My pleasure. Thank you as well!”

 

Paula Drope: “If you would like to listen again, you can do so on our website: mephisto976.de. Today’s programme was edited by Caroline Bernert, the music was chosen by our guest Patrick Kurtz himself and Andreas Wolf looked after the technical side. That concludes Mephisto 97.6 for today; tomorrow morning at 10:00 we continue with our magazine show Faustschlag. I am Paula Drope; thank you for listening and have a pleasant evening.”

Kurtz Detective Agency Trier and Luxembourg

Güterstraße 55a

D-54295 Trier

Tel.: +49 651 2094 0060

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-luxemburg.com 

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-luxemburg.com/en

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