Title: Dead Calm
Expected
publication: 18 May 2017
Synopsis:
When the body of a retired paediatrician is found dead in
his holiday cabin, all first signs point towards a burglary gone wrong. But
Detective Konstantin Dühnfort has his doubts. Wolfram Heckeroth suffered an
agonising demise, slowly dying from thirst and heat exhaustion whilst bound to
a radiator with his own belts, unable to free himself. The nature of the crime
appears so unnecessarily cruel that it doesn’t sit right with Dühnfort. As he
looks deeper into the man’s past and talks to his family, it soon becomes
apparent that the role of respectful doctor has been a facade, hiding a dark side
that may have made the good doctor many enemies. It seems that there have been
many victims of his cruelty who would have a motive for murder – including his
own children.
My thoughts:
I love discovering new interesting crime series from around
the world, and welcomed the opportunity to read Dead Calm, which is set in
Germany. And even though it took me a little while to get into the story, since
all the members of the Heckeroth family are just so unlikeable, this well
constructed mystery slowly but gradually drew me in and kept me captivated.
Detective Dühnfort is an engaging main protagonist who really intrigued me, and
with a cliff-hanger ending I know that this will not be the last in the series
for me. I was happy to see that there are already six books out in the KommisarDühnfort series (of which Dead Calm is the 2nd, and so far the only book translated into English), which hints at a
lot of reading pleasure yet to come!
Dead Calm is told from the different viewpoints of various
protagonists, including some of the victim’s adult children and their spouses,
as well as Detective Dühnfort himself. Not having read the previous book in the
series, I loved discovering little snippets from Dühnfort’s own private life,
which fleshed out this character into a sympathetic investigator who is longing
for love and a family of his own. He would like nothing more than to settle
down and marry his lover Agnes, but the woman’s traumatic past always gets in
the way of happiness. Dühnfort balanced out the thoroughly unlikeable
characters of the Heckeroth family, whose actions must be seen in the context
of the whole story to be able to muster up some empathy. Exploring the dark
side of family dynamics and love gone wrong, the story carries a sinister
undertone that sets a somewhat disturbing scene, reminiscent of the stark
honesty of Nordic noir. I loved the way the investigation slowly unfolded, from
Dühnfort’s initial impression of the victim:
An old man who had a good relationship with his children. One son came up for a barbecue, the other to fix a drain – a solid family. And now, abruptly, it was missing its anchor.
To an altogether different picture, of a narcissist who took
advantage of women, cheated on his wife and played his own children off against
one another. Of his many victims, who finally took their revenge?
Summary:
Set in Schwabing, Germany, Dead Calm is a well-constructed
murder mystery based on complex family dynamics and carrying the sinister and
somewhat disturbing undertones of hidden secrets and love gone wrong. Not
afraid to expose the darkest corners of the human psyche, it is all the more
disturbing in that it features everyday, ordinary people and respected pillars
of society. Realistically drawn and somewhat dark and disturbing in its
honesty, it should appeal to lovers of Nordic noir looking for a new crime
series with a sympathetic investigator in a European setting.
Quotes:
You don’t make a bad thing better by not calling a spade a
spade. Yes, you do, he thought. Words are like colours. We paint over the truth
with them, make the ugly sublime and a muddy trench a field of honour, turn the
cruelty of death into a patriotic act. It’s the only way to bear it.
Thank
you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free electronic copy
of this novel and giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
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