About children of women and men

The novel takes place in the family residence of the Olmet family, which, as the author foreshadows, can only look like a defect on a satellite image. For the people living there, it is the centre of the hitherto known Universe.

Albert Olmet, a tough, influential and aging patriarch, heads his empire, a multibillion-dollar conglomerate of prosperous companies. He lives with his second wife, the beautiful but not very shrewd Malvína, the pathologically overcautious daughter Hana, the son Libor affected by a strange Raelists sect, their partners, children, the children of their children… Olmet's time is short and he cannot be satisfied enough with anyone to hand over your empire. The struggle for power begins, in which the sarcastic Vlasta, Olmet's previous wife and mother of his children, Albert's brother Rudolf and vaguely, but no less substantially, also his lawyer and long-time friend Max. The tension between the participants is growing, especially when everything is approached by relentlessly developing suspicions of an ancient crime. Suspicion, however incomprehensible, emerges from the past and returns to Olmet like a boomerang. Everything culminates in the very conclusion as a black anecdote with an unpredictable, cynical and at the same time merciful point.

Against the backdrop of a dramatic story, Ritter explores the themes of power, family, money and politics.

The Table Society: stories and miniatures

The book is usually created by a flash of an idea that has barely a few sentences and is an extract of what the writer has been thinking for a long time, in order to finally repeat it in many other words. In The Table Society, Petr Ritter remains at that initial flash. With an acronym and accurate aiming, he tries to hit the target.

Stories that one wants to listen to because they are worth telling. Sometimes they are full of truth, another time of frivolous fantasy. They are often bushy, straddling several horizons, have their headings, introductions, articles and conclusions, and are told during several days. Others are subtle, often just one-sentence miniatures, one would say: instant. They expect the public to first dissolve them or boil them inside themselves. Only there they will develop and release their flavours; inside everyone with a different spice of his (her) own experience.

The Book of Power and Elegant Harlots

The Book of Power and Elegant Harlots is a book written brilliantly, with confident energy, intertwining elements of grotesque and political sci-fi thriller. The thrilling story, concluded with a strong, surprising point, seems like an absurd comedy giving you chills. When reading it, one realizes: It could happen! It's even happening! 

It is the story of a friendship between two men who tried to repair a corrupt world. One of them - endowed with the charisma that brought him to power to become a tyrant and the other who agrees with Arthur Schnitzler that "order is something artificial and the natural state is chaos", and therefore democracy is "the Gemini union of disorder and freedom ". And that “the only evil that can arise from democracy is self-destruction. The former is never protected enough against the latter… "

The story cleverly works with exaggeration, grotesque and witty aphorisms, stemming from the question of whether and how to legalize the world's oldest craft in a state of corruption and hypocrisy, strikingly resembling policy. It is no coincidence that the little girl Trina, the daughter of the prostitute Vahaya, finds both the point and the solution.

Against the background of the humorous form, we feel the author's ever-present fear of the future. From a world full of morbid ambitions and growing uncertainties.

Judge Brenner`s Guilt

Judge Brenner does not hesitate, has no doubts. His judgments are unshakable. They contain an essential substance of justice - the judge's clear conscience.

Such a verdict should also crown the case of a murdered businessman found one December night on a deserted street, in which a police inspector with the unpleasant name Evan can be an accidental witness as well as a clever, police experienced killer. 

However, Judge Brenner is not expected to issue a fair trial in this case. Neither by the cops nor Brenner's superior. Interventions, coercion, covert threats, extortion enter the lawsuit. In addition, a mysterious woman enters the life of a judge by coincidence at the same time - too unknown and too young to fall in love with an aging judge. And yet it apparently happened. 

The story taking place on the ground plan of the trial is motivated by a real event more than thirty years old. Ritter tells it as a psychologically detailed story of conscience, justice and guilt that can cast long shadows over decades.

The book directed by Tomáš Soldán was staged by Czech Radio; read by Jaroslav Krejčí

Here They Lived

Here They Lived is, in fact, a double novel. It takes place in several story lines, in the middle of which Franěk Podhajský, an aging lawyer, formerly a prosecutor, a public prosecutor and today a private lawyer, finds himself. The ubiquitous second most important character is his late father Polda, imprisoned by fascists and communists many years ago, a stubborn idealist with whom Franek has late conversations from the spirit world. In the plot line passing through the present, mysterious, attractive and eccentric Sasha, having emerged from the depths of the communist and fascist past, enters Franěk`s life. However, the political problems Franěk is manipulated into today are entirely contemporary.

At the background of the dramatic story, covering almost one hundred years of the Czech history, gripping criminal plots, as characteristic for the author, are not missing.

The novel directed by Tomáš Soldán was staged by Czech Radio; read by Josef Bartoň

Trial of Alvin Karr`s Judges

Actor Alvin Karr may have murdered his disabled wife, Rutta. 

This unproven event led together three judges, a prosecutor, a lawyer, a recorder and, of course, the accused Alvin Karr, to the courtroom. The process routinely follows established rules when a mysterious man without a name (He) enters. He does not ask for anything, but he also does not explain anything, he only insists on his quiet presence, which cannot be denied by the court.

The process mysteriously deviates from judicial rules, laws and natural order. Maybe the inexplicable turn was caused by the unknown, but maybe He is just a passive figure in someone else's game. Maybe it's a cynical joke, maybe someone is striving for the dignity of the participants, maybe it's about their lives… The upper classes of judges, those professional interpreters of justice, the prosecutor as guardian of the rule of law, the advocate as a servant of the rights and interests of his client, gradually fall like slices of onion until the cores of real people appear beneath them. 

Ritter - a writer and lawyer with many years of experience, unfolds a thrilling, single-day court drama in which he does not hide his skepticism towards judicial justice.

Brody`s Will

From many stories inspired by real events, Petr Ritter spins a generational novel describing the second half of the twentieth century until the beginning of the twenty-first century, when illusions about the new world become a reality.

The evening turns into night and doctor Marian Brody writes a will in an empty house. He is waiting for Šedivka - his killer and at the same time his best friend. Why should their fatal clash take place? Any buried misunderstanding? Is it somehow related to Brody's prosperous private clinic, Šedivec's sister or his mad mother, or is it an unforgivable injustice from ancient times - the memory of the girls who taught them love or sex? Having been hikers, they insisted on their freedom until it was brought to justice - isn't there a mysterious reason hidden in it? They went through years of tired totalitarianism, the velvet of revolution, the chaos of privatization, the harshness of democracy …, and apparently: they are at the end.

The novel directed by Michal Bures was staged by Czech Radio; read by Igor Bareš

And the Last Who Came Was Headsman

In Petr Ritter's book, entitled And the Last Who Came Was Headsman, contains three original short stories. Although they read like detective stories, their stories contemporary, without the reader realizing it, are diving deep into the philosophy of life and death. 

Tomorrow's plans describe an attempt by a successful, life-weary businessman to live his life again, simpler and cleaner under a changed identity. It ends as it must naturally end, which the reader will understand, only when he and the writer come to the end of an artfully constructed story.

The murderess's diary is the diary of a woman filled with irrational resentment, in the lines of which we follow the growing hatred of people day after day until the fateful decision to murder from internal overpressure, followed by just as much surprising as a logical point certifying the power of evil from a completely unexpected side. 

The final novel And The Last Executioner is the story of a strange murder, which not only lacks motive, but also takes place on an irritating layout: there are three men in the room, one of whom remains murdered and the other two assert: I have not killed; or: I have killed. Whether the killer is missing or abiding, only one of the men is innocent. Before reaching a surprising resolution, we go, together with Petr Ritter through the psychology of suspects and characters who seem to have nothing to do with the murder.

The theme of death on the noble and timeless level as well as on the level of a completely current is mixed by the writer with humour and erotic as naturally as he mixes human life does.

Friends, Listen to This

Friends, Listen to This is a short story book by Petr Ritter, in the title of which the author foreshadows: A story that has no narrator did not happen. This is followed by thirty-one quick-legged stories written by chance, comic and pathetic coincidences, bad luck and luck… - an inventive destiny. There are political scandals taking place in our current present, inflated and blown rumors about imminent deadly epidemics, circumvention of unjust taxes, attempts to get rich…

When reading them, some places really evoke the urge to call for your loved ones: Friends, listen to that! About how a seasoned fraudster and an experienced police inspector find their own justice over a bundle of money. Or about judges dying without conscience. About the symbiosis of a legal battle in court and sex in a hotel room, when a coincidence seduces a seasoned lawyer and a sinfully beautiful lawyer. About the fact that the idea of ​​throwing people in the gas chamber can be amusing - if those who will be gassed are contemporary Nazis. 

As a literary critic wrote: Ritter is a seeing and knowing writer and refuses to disguise it, no matter how many enemies he makes.

Some of the stories were directed by Tomáš Soldán and staged by Czech Radio;
starring Jan Kolařík, Tomáš Krejčí, Vlasta Hartlová, Vladimír Hauser and Petr Kubes

They Studied Law

They Studied Law is a book about two friends, David and Jakub, who have found that studying law does not mean to graduate. They have to face the capricious pleasures of university professors, the duty to drinking bouts and their reputation as bohemians, politics at the turn of the sixties and seventies, the smell of made-up women`s beds, the whole student world living in the belief that life is endless and pulsates with a light rhythm of hope and open opportunities.

The book can be brought closer quite well by comparing it to an akin one. If the book by Petr Ritter and Zdeněk Šťastný is to be compared in this way, then it is closest to the British humourist Richard Gordon and his Doctor in the House.

In addition to the two protagonists and colourful portraits of a number of colleagues sharing dormitory accommodation, canteen meals, theatrical performances and culture in general, two then university teachers are standing out in the text: Senior Lecturer Čad, Lecturer of Marxism-Leninism, and Senior Assistant Pavel Léč, lecturing on the history of the state and law. One noisy, the other quietly modest, a classic scholar. In addition to other, slightly caricatured scholars, legal scholars, who timidly or defiantly follow the changing faculty events. 

     What happened to everybody? What were their futures? Where do all those students - nerds, creepers, girls' beauties? Have they fallen into legal anonymity - or have they had the coveted careers? 

     They succeeded in describing characters so vividly that the reader inadvertently substitutes some well-known names for them. Supposedly false, the authors say. Then probably because some types are repeated in quantity.

Wirth Versus the State

The main character of Petr Ritter's novel Wirth Versus the State is a lawyer who has been vainly claims restitution of the property from his ancestors before the court for more than fourteen years, when almost all of them perished in the concentration camp. The book points out the problems of justice of the time, which resulted in poor law enforcement.

Apart from current problems, such as corruption and neo-Nazism, the author also returns to the communist, Nazi and pre-war past, to the world of First Republic Jewish families, which eventually paid more than hard for their former deserved prosperity.

When reading a psychologically well-crafted story, every reader will surely wonder what an absurd world we are living in.

The novel directed by Michal Bures was staged by Czech Radio; read by Igor Bareš

A Seal for the King

A set of four fairy tales written this time in tandem with Ms Dagmar is a book showing how to make the most of a story. The book begins with the fairy tale About the Truth, which is a sign of what it is all about. And if we read at the end of the book that the fairy tale is "the greatest literature ever" and that fairy tales are "the most important stories in the world", it is already an overlap from literature into life, an accent on the irreplaceable role of fairy tales in human and world cultivation.

Fairy-tale themes seem to be directly tailored to the conditions of Czech society in recent years: the absurdly stubborn King George, the kingdom cursed in lies, the First Courier, who pretends even the worst nonsense as ruling wisdom, or the fear of imaginary danger, and especially the need to denounce evil before it grows into monstrosity.

What Happened Next

The fairy tale ends happily, but it`s not enough. What happened next? Did the hard-earned heroes` happiness last for days and years to come? After all, it is so easy to waste everything again. How much effort does it cost to defend victory over and over again so that the fairy tale does not turn into a tragedy?

Probably everyone has also thought about the fates of your favourite fairy-tale heroes. A fairy tale book What Happened Next, doesn't do it for the reader, but with him.

Anti-Firing Squad

The Anti-Firing Squad is a novel about punishment and death. The plot is concentrated in a week-long trial with Josef Biesinger, accused of sexual murder committed in a psychiatric hospital. The trial took place in 1989, when the criminal law recognized the death penalty as the ultimate punishment. The five judges who have and must decide on the defendant's life, and even not two have the same opinion on the death penalty. The author managed to play a drama here in the courtroom and especially in the minds of judges. He thus shed light on the problem of absolute punishment, which still excites the Czech and European public, from a legal, ethical and philosophical point of view. On one occasion, the anti-execution squad resembles a social novel, on another a psychological prose, and then a forensic detective story - even with an unexpected point at the end. According to the novel, director Ivo Trajkov is preparing a film called The Capital Trial.

On the Edge

The central character of the novel On the Edge is lawyer JUDr. Verner Pajda, whose profession forces him to look into the psychology of the convicted and into the structure of families in which children grow up without love and emotion - the next perpetrators of crimes. 

The author introduces us to the environment of law practice. Coincidentally, the hero of the book has recently come across cases that all have a common denominator: brutality, indifference, callousness. Delinquents - two young murderers, a mother abusing her children, a thief, vandals… They all acted seemingly nonsensical, without any understandable reason.

However, it is part of Verner's nature that he tries to find a deeper truth about his mandates, to penetrate to the bottom of their souls. Gradually, a similar picture of several broken families, which lacked love, care, security, reliability, is revealed.

At the same time, however, Verner also has extremely personal problems. He discovers his wife Erika`s infidelity, and in divorce proceedings, disputes who should take care of their son. Against this background, the author develops another, private story, which blends more and more distinctly into the stories of Pajda's clients.

The book was dramatised by Czech Television as a three-part production directed by Jaroslav Dudek,
starring Marek Vašut, Simona Postlerová, Ivan Vyskočil,
Barbora Kodetová, Josef Vinklář, Libuše Štědrá, Tomáš Töpfer.

Misdiagnosis

The central figure of the book is the thirty-year-old chairman of the senate, Štěpán Dyk. He handles his cases with foresight, with a certain routine in which responsibility is often shifted to a higher instance. He works this way until he himself becomes the target of a denunciation, for the judge the most feared one: that he has taken a bribe. From day to day he finds himself in a gorge of distrust, investigation, doubt and sideways glances, in a situation at the end of which we meet him as a defendant. His social status is shaken by his former self-confidence in ruins. Only now he becomes aware of the necessity of moral and human maturity as the prerequisites for the performance of judicial - and of course not only judicial - work.

The book was dramatised by Czech Television as a three-part production directed by Jiří Adamec,
starring Ondřej Vetchý, Yvetta Blanarovičová, Jan Teplý Sr., Radoslav Brzobohatý.

Billiards

The book Billiards written by the pair of lawyers Petr Ritter and Zdeněk Šťastný consists of four attractive stories inspired by the civic profession of the authors. It's far from just short feuilletons from the courtroom, but much more. They are true images of life, in which real and living people are suffering and rejoicing.

Tomáš Kryst's billiard is the story of a party of hicks who behave quite logically, and yet, together with their charismatic boss, they stand in front of the gates of a jail.

Bedřich Mikuláš's billiard depicts a dispute between a genius engineer and the management of the company and with envy and smallness concentrated in a court process for a fair reward.

In Přemysl Schourek's billiard, the authors described how easily a person can become a recidivist. 

The billiard of Theodor Kapička, an exceptional teacher, is a story about the amazing and often insurmountable power of slander.

The Billiard of Bedřich Mikuláš was dramatised by Czech Television
under the direction of Milan Růžička under the title: 'It will be about money',
starring Martin Stropnický, Bořivoj Navrátil, Jaroslav Satoranský.

Ex Officio Lawyer

The story of the career of a young lawyer who, after the unexpected death of the head of a law firm, becomes its boss. A cheerful young man becomes a lonely, bilious man, and over time all personnel, including his best friend and colleague, are against him. 

The authors embarked on a serious topic and looked under his skin. This book is about how to drown in your own importance, how to burn with your own importance. Both heroes are placed into a sunny clearing of life, which is, for one of them, gradually turning into a ring. We follow their first skirmishes with life practice, their friendly duality, which, however, eventually falls apart. When David, though sympathetic, falls ever lower and lower during his social ascension. However, the authors did more. They could pull their hero back from the precipice.

And they did all this in the brilliantly portrayed atmosphere of offices and meeting rooms. It is a gripping story about the fact that a person capturing position without having what it takes, does not necessarily have to lose his own self. 

The authors of this book saw their problem of succession through the eyes of peers, eyes that don`t lack almost boyish humour. Such a presentation of a serious problem is reminiscent of Vancura's: "... humour means better knowing."

The book was dramatised by Czech Television as a three-part production directed by Jaroslav Müller,
starring Josef Novák, Jiří Sedláček, Jiří Sovák.