Contemporary German Crime Fiction Dark Nights Neue Kriminalromane Aus Deutschland
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Dark Nights Contemporary German Crime Fiction Dark Nights Neue Kriminalromane aus Deutschland This selection of German titles is show-cased at book fairs all over the world on the German collective stands organized by the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2018. Authors A-B ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Killing Happiness. Finsterwalde The Supplier A Case for Jakob Franck Finsterwalde Die Lieferantin Ermordung des Glücks. Ein Fall für Jakob Franck MAX ANNAS ZOË BECK 2018, HC, 256 pages 2017, SC, 324 pages FRIEDRICH ANI € 20.- € 14.95 2017, HC, 317 pages Rowohlt Verlag, 978-3-498-07401-2 Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3-518-46775-6 € 20.- Rights available Rights available Suhrkamp Verlag, 978-3-518-42755-2 A right-wing nationalist govern- Great Britain in the not too distant Rights available ment is in power in Germany. future. After Brexit, the next big thing The murder of an 11-year-old boy Dissidents are being persecuted, is “Druxit”: drug use is to be compre- shatters the happiness of all the and daily life is subject to compre- hensively criminalised. A start-up people who knew him. The hero of hensive surveillance. People with finds new sales channels; drug Ani’s crime series, ex-police detective darker skin colour are being locked delivery by drone: effective, cheap Jakob Franck, applies his unique away in heavily guarded camps, and high quality. The old-hands intuition to the case, while the special one of which is located in Finster- in the drugs business see their task force makes no progress with walde in Brandenburg. One group livelihoods threatened, and they its conventional approach. It’s a of internees breaks out so they can declare war on “the Supplier” – method that provides clarity, if rescue children left behind in Berlin. who, on top everything, also has nothing else, even if that clarity is In a life-and-death fight, they have an unpleasant political agenda. unbearable. Narrated in Ani’s inimitable to make their way through hostile Things get ugly on the streets of voice – the crime novel as elegy, as territory. A robust action thriller and London, prowled by racist mobs. a genre of melancholy. incisive dystopian novel. A cool and elegant political thriller. 1 Authors B-C ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Dungeon Child The Right to Punish Death in the Quiet Kerkerkind Das Recht zu strafen Corners of Life Der Tod in den stillen KATJA BOHNET INGO BOTT Winkeln des Lebens 2018, SC, 336 pages 2017, SC, 444 pages € 20.- € 13.- OLIVER BOTTINI Knaur Taschenbuch, 978-3-426-52093-2 Grafit Verlag, 978-3-89425-495-7 2017, HC, 414 pages Rights available Rights available € 22.- DuMont Verlag, 978-3-8321-9776-6 It begins with the charred corpse A brilliant defence lawyer from Berlin, Rights available of a woman. Then the body-count a public prosecutor on the fast track starts to mount in the heat of sum- to the top, and a mean, revenge- The Romanian town of Temeswar mer in Berlin: decapitated men, driven murderer: these are the three lies on the quiet side of life. Police strangely displayed. The detective corners of the triangle of forces that inspector Ioan Cozma should have duo Rosa Lopez and Viktor Saizew form Ingo Bott’s debut thriller. What been happy with this. But the mur- each have their own hindrances to may they do, what can they do and der of a German woman forces deal with, but crime make no allo- what should they do – and what him into action. He has to leave his wances for that. A hot lead points not – each in their respective roles? recluse and follow a trail that takes toward them toward Denmark. Sai- A refined, fast-paced novel with an him to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in zew sets off in pursuit – and disap- intelligent plot that addresses the Germany, where he’s confronted by pears. A race against time begins. moral and ethical implications of our the conditio humana in a big way: Tempo, dynamism, drive, and a legal system, as well as the role and hate, greed, violence and humanity. dash of madness are what make influence of mass media. A delicious A crime novel with a philosophical this novel so great. dose of irony, too. Bott is an exciting lining. newcomer. ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ The St. Pauli Murders Beton Rouge Satan’s Playground Die Morde von St. Pauli Beton Rouge Satans Spielfeld ROBERT BRACK SIMONE BUCHHOLZ UTE COHEN 2017, SC, 432 pages 2017, SC, 227 pages 2017, HC, 216 pages € 9.99 € 14.95 € 21.90 Ullstein Taschenbuch, 978-3-548-28873-4 Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, Septime Verlag, 978-3-902711-61-8 Rights available 978-3-518-46785-5 Rights available Rights available Hamburg 1927, when social change The underage Marie falls into the is becoming more and more obvious Public prosecutor Chastity Riley and hands of a rich businessman in the during the Roaring Twenties, is her sidekick, inspector Stepanovic of wealthy, self-absorbed provincial rocked by a series of murders. the Hamburg criminal police, are up Franconia of the 1970s. He sedu- The victims’ corpses are displayed against pure madness. Someone is ces her, rapes her and prostitu- in prominent places. Is this a gang abusing managers from the publi- tes her. But nobody wants to see war? A message to the populace? shing world, locking them up naked the scandal; no one wants to help. But how does the murder of an in cages, in public view. Hamburg’s Marie attempts to defend herself, upper-class shipping magnate fit elite are annoyed and scared. With but on Satan’s Playground she’s into that picture? The second part plenty of pace and humour, Simone hopelessly out-manoeuvred and of the historical trilogy featuring the Buchholz coolly sweeps through the the plot races towards catastrophe. criminal investigator Alfred Weber. milieu of opinion leaders and puppet A subtle psychological thriller and A critically accurate criminal masters. She has a sharp eye for the linguistically original counterpoint chronicle of the Weimar Republic. absurd, sad and strange details of to Nabokov’s Lolita. A biting, provo- daily life. cative debut novel. 2 Anmeldeformular Nonbook Award 2018 Authors C-F ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Cambridge 5 – Poison Flood A Slap in the Face Time of Traitors Giftflut Ein Schlag ins Gesicht Cambridge 5. Zeit der Verräter CHRISTIAN VON DITFURTH FRANZ DOBLER 2017, SC, 480 pages 2016, HC, 368 pages HANNAH COLER € 15.- € 19.95 2017, HC, 416 pages Carl‘s Books, 978-3-570-58565-8 Klett-Cotta/Tropen, 978-3-608-50216-9 € 19.99 Rights available Rights available Limes Verlag, 978-3-8090-2682-2 Intelligent super-gangsters are Ex-cop Robert Fallner takes a job Rights available undermining the stability of Europe. with his brother’s security firm, whe- A classic spy novel by a German They launch destructive attacks on re he’s given the task of stopping an historian writing under a pseudo- important transport routes and the insidious stalker who’s started fol- nym. Just as the Soviet Union re- centres of power, and even threa- lowing a cult ex-actress. A nostal- cruited its spies among the British ten the water supply of large cities. gic, poetical and funny trip through elite in Cambridge University in the For all their technological ad- the West German pop scene of the 1930s, so today, various secret servi- vancement, the security forces are 1960s and 70s, and an adoring ho- ces are trying to spy on the leading powerless. Only Eugen de Bodt, the mage to the classics of hard-bitten IT researchers there. “Sleepers” and wholly unconventional detective crime fiction, from Jim Thompson to “moles” placed early on now seem with the Berlin police, and his weird Elmore Leonard. Great dialogues, at risk, after the emergence of new team have any chance of halting strange characters and off-beat evidence surrounding Kim Philby and the wave of terror. Grimm comedy, locations; and not least, a fabulous the original Cambridge Five. A clever unrestrained action and a very novel about Munich. game of chess across different times. crafty plot. ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Police Stories Brand Deadly Path Polizeigeschichten Brand Totenweg ERNST DRONKE ULRICH EFFENHAUSER ROMY FÖLCK 2018, HC, 192 pages 2016 HC, 144 pages 2018, HC, 380 pages € 18,- € 17.80 € 20.- Walde+Graf Verlagsagentur und Verlag, Transit Buchverlag, 978-3-88747-338-9 Bastei Lübbe Verlag, 978-3-7857-2622-8 978-3-946896-22-7 Rights available Rights available Rights available In the wake of the NSA scandal, an Frieda is a policewoman rising With his Police Stories, Ernst Dron- old case of espionage resurfaces. quickly up the ranks. When her fa- ke (1822–1891), who was well known At the time, there are questions sur- ther is beaten up and badly inju- for his social reportage and colla- rounding a Soviet hydrogen bomb red she returns to her hometown. boration with Karl Marx, laid the and Chernobyl, and about plots Investigating her father’s case is a foundation for true crime books far hatched by the former KGB – plots colleague who, decades before, removed from the big sensational that remain dangerous, even af- had also been involved in the un- cases. His stories are an impressive ter the fall of the Soviet Union. The solved murder of a young girl whom illustration of the social causes of events culminate in Mexico in 1985, Frieda had known well. The cold crime and justice in the age of rapid but history never just stops, it tou- case gets hot again, as the earlier industrialisation. An important and ches us in the present in significant crime is connected to the attack exciting rediscovery of this classic of ways.