The Third Policeman

A one-legged gentleman farmer takes part in a clumsy robbery that ends in a killing, and the story is narrated by him. Soon afterward he finds himself in a long conversation with the dead man, Mathers, and he also hears from his own soul, which he calls Joe. Joe speaks with the calm detachment of a wry observer, while Mathers has a nasal, sickly, and drolly sardonic manner.

Mathers directs the farmer to a flat, two-dimensional police barracks staffed by three otherworldly officers. In this strange afterlife, people can turn into bicycles, and eternity is only a short walk away. The largest of the officers, Sergeant Pluck, has red cheeks, a bushy mustache, and heavy eyebrows, and he is both jovial and menacing.

The Third Policeman was written by Flann O'Brien, the pen name of the Irish author Brian O'Nolan, who also wrote At Swim-Two-Birds. The novel was published in 1967, after O'Brien's death. This paperback edition, with 240 pages from HarperCollins Canada, includes an introduction by Denis Donoghue and a publisher's note on the last page that is offered as a possible aid to understanding. An audiobook version narrated by Norton gives each character a distinct voice, with an Irish accent that varies from one character to the next.