Book Review: BÖSER WOLF by Nele Neuhaus

Title: Böser Wolf
Author: Nele Neuhaus
Publisher: Ullstein
Read: March 24-28, 2013


Synopsis (Goodreads):

An einem heißen Tag im Juli wird die Leiche einer 16-Jährigen aus dem Main bei Eddersheim geborgen. Sie wurde misshandelt und ermordet, und niemand vermisst sie. Auch nach Wochen hat das K 11 keinen Hinweis auf ihre Identität. Die Spuren führen zu einem Kinderdorf im Taunus und zu einer Fernsehmoderatorin, die bei ihren Recherchen den falschen Leuten zu nahe gekommen ist. Pia Kirchhoff und Oliver von Bodenstein graben tiefer und stoßen inmitten gepflegter Bürgerlichkeit auf einen Abgrund an Bösartigkeit und Brutalität. Und dann wird der Fall persönlich.


My thoughts:

In her latest novel “Böser Wolf”, Nele Neuhaus goes one step further than in her five previous novels and lets her main characters investigate a crime which transcends local boundaries and uncovers a large conspiracy so evil that it will sicken and disturb most readers when thinking about these crimes happening to real people, in real life.

Several threads start in the first part of the book:

Pia Kirchhoff has settled into a comfortable life with her new partner Christoph, trying to get used to looking after a small child when his granddaughter Lilly comes for an extended visit from Australia. With Oliver von Bodenstein away on a trip, she is the first person on call when the mutilated body of a teenage girl is found floating in the Main. Despite extensive investigations into the identity of the girl, the team are unable to make real progress in the case, as nobody even seems to be missing the teenager. An autopsy reveals a horrific history of old injuries pointing to years of unspeakable abuse and captivity.

In the meantime Hanna Herrmann, a famous TV talkshow host, is about to contact a person who could potentially provide her with the biggest story of her career. After recent complaints about her and her show, which centres around heartbreak and personal disaster, often at the expense of the victims themselves, Hanna really needs this break to keep her show on air. But Hanna may have underestimated the lengths other people may go to to keep her from finding out the truth – brutally attacked, raped and left for dead she barely escapes with her life with no memory of how she got into this situation.

Emma, eight months pregnant with her second child, is worried about her five year old daughter, whose violent outbursts and strange behaviour seem too extreme to be the normal temper tantrums and mood swings of a child her age. On top of that, her husband has been acting cold and remote and Emma is sure that he is having an affair. At a school reunion Emma bumps into her old friend Pia Kirchhoff, and the two women reconnect again after many years.

In Neuhaus’ typical style, all these separate threads ultimately connect and culminate in a terrifying finale involving all characters, this time becoming very close and personal to Pia Kirchhoff’s own life.

Again I was totally captivated by the plot and found it hard to put the book down until all was revealed. Personally, I love the way Neuhaus introduces many separate storylines and characters, which make reading the novel an exciting journey and introduce many different interesting elements and angles. However, by centring the novel around a topic which elicits very strong emotions in most people, the violent and sexual crimes against children, I feel that Neuhaus paid the price of making the story a bit too black and white. In previous novels there were always several sides to the contemporary topic explored, with the varying emotional responses of supporting characters lending the story depth and credibility. A difficult topic such as explored in Böser Wolf creates many “no-go” zones, often at the expense of character development. I found that this led to several unanswered questions as to the motives and means of the main perpetrators in the novel, as well as a conspiracy almost too large to be believable for the setting.

However, Neuhaus’ passion about exposing the subject to the wider public is evident, and she certainly manages to elicit strong emotions through uncovering the horrible-beyond-words aspects of the crimes. I shudder to think of the emotional toll researching such a topic must take, and take my hat off to the author for being brave enough to tackle such a horrific task. Living quite a sheltered life in our quiet corner of the world here, I was sickened to think about organised crime against children – an unspeakable horror. In that regard Neuhaus’ latest thriller serves two purposes: the entertainment value of an intelligent, well-written murder-mystery combined with raising awareness of horrific crimes committed in our own environment. Since awareness is the first step to change, and packaging it in an approachable format is a great way to get the message out, I hope that the awareness Neuhaus raises with her novel will indeed work towards making a difference.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and found it hard to put down. Kirchhoff and von Bodenstein have become so familiar over the course of the series that I am eager to find out what the future holds for them, and look forward to Neuhaus’ next book in the series!

Going back to the beginning - Nele Neuhaus' EINE UNBELIEBTE FRAU

Title: Eine unbeliebte Frau
Author: Nele Neuhaus
Publisher: Ullstein Buchverlage
Read: February 25 - 27, 2013


Synopsis (Goodreads):

Eine Ladung Schrot aus dem eigenen Jagdgewehr beschert dem Frankfurter Oberstaatsanwalt ein schnelles, wenn auch sehr hässliches Ende. Die schöne junge Frau, die tot am Fuß eines Aussichtsturms im Taunus liegt, ist viel zu unversehrt, um an den Folgen eines Sturzes gestorben zu sein. Kriminalhauptkommissar Oliver von Bodenstein und seine neue Kollegin Pia Kirchhoff sind sich einig: Der erste Todesfall war ein Selbstmord, der zweite jedoch ein Mord. Bald häufen sich sowohl die Motive als auch die Verdächtigen. Doch was hat den Staatsanwalt in den Tod getrieben?


My thoughts: 

I finally managed to track down an ebook version of Nele Neuhaus’ Eine unbeliebte Frau which was available in Australia and worked on my kindle! After reading (and loving) the fourth and fifth books in the series, I decided it was time to go back to see where it all began ….

Eine unbliebte Frau (an unloved woman) is the first in the Kirchhoff and von Bodenstein series and takes us right back to where Pia and Oliver first team up to solve a case together. Called to the apparent suicide of a young beautiful woman, the pair’s suspicion of foul play is soon confirmed. However, when trying to track down the woman’s murderer, the detective duo find out that dozens of people had a good motive of killing the victim – in fact, they can only find a couple of people who have anything good to say about her.

In typical Nele Neuhaus style, the case doesn’t remain a simple matter of solving a murder, but opens up into a complex conspiracy with a lot of sub-plots and secondary characters who are all somehow involved in the events leading up to the killing. Although there are a lot of characters and events to keep track of, the style works for me, building intrigue and keeping me interested to find out more.

With Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein, Neuhaus has created a charismatic and likeable detective duo who are still going strong in the later books in the series. By giving her characters everyday problems, flaws and insecurities, the reader can relate to them as we catch small glimpses of their private lives and backgrounds. And yet these two people are not as flawed as many other protagonists in popular thriller series – their lives are almost ordinary, with family, friends, pets to take care of, cars to repair and housework to be done. And all of that in the setting of an ordinary town, where evil and crime can still simmer under the surface. Very refreshing!

I really enjoyed going back to the origins of this exciting new detective duo and now look forward to reading the next instalment in the series.

 

Book Review: SCHNEEWITTCHEN MUSS STERBEN (SNOW WHITE MUST DIE) by Nele Neuhaus

Title: Schneewittchen Muss Sterben (German); Snow White Must Die (English)
Author: Nele Neuhaus
Publisher: Ullstein Buchverlag (German edition); PanMacmillan Australia (Australian edition)
Read: January 07 - 14, 2013

Synopsis (Goodreads):
Skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony and lips as red as blood... But this is no fairy story...

In a small town in Germany a boy is accused of murdering a beautiful girl. But does a "wicked queen" lurk in their midst?

On a September evening eleven years ago, two 17-year-old girls vanished without a trace from the tiny village of Altenhain, just outside Frankfurt. In a trial based on circumstantial evidence 20-year-old Tobias Sartorius was convicted and imprisoned for the murder of his childhood friend Laura and his beautiful girlfriend Stefanie – otherwise known as Snow White.

After serving his sentence, Tobias returns home. His presence in the little German village stirs up the events of the past. Events that the locals would prefer to remain hidden. When the Sartorius family is subjected to a number of attacks, Detective Inspector Pia Kirchhoff and DS Oliver von Bodenstein are tasked with monitoring the tense atmosphere in the tight-knit community. As the village inhabitants close ranks it becomes apparent the disappearance of Snow White and her friend was far more complex than imagined.

Then history starts to repeat itself in a disastrous manner when another pretty girl goes missing. The police are thrown into a race against time. Will they be able to save her, or is she destined to die?

My thoughts:

After reading reviews of Snow White Must Die, I was instantly intrigued – especially as this was an author new to me, and one I could read in two different languages. I decided to download the German version and read it in its original format, partly to help set the scene and get absorbed in the book’s atmosphere. And I was not disappointed – this author is now firmly on my TBR list!

The novel opens with the release from jail of a young man convicted of murdering two 17-year-old local girls, and his return to his small hometown Altenhain, where despite having served his ten-year sentence he is not welcome. During Tobias Sartorius’ absence things have changed for the worse for his family and friends – his father’s restaurant has had to close after villagers blackbanned him for being the parent of a murderer; his parents’ marriage has suffered under the strain and his mother has left town to start a new life where nobody knows her; and his best friend has not been in contact with him since the night of the murders. Only his old childhood friend and girl-next-door Nathalie, now a famous actress and known as Nadia, has been faithful to him all these years.

Tobias’ release triggers some dark forces in the village – his mother is mysteriously thrown from a railway overpass and Tobias himself is bashed by masked intruders, who threaten to kill him unless he leaves town. Things come to a head when another young 17-year-old, Amelie, who has met Tobias and bears a striking resemblance to one of the dead girls, vanishes. Amelie’s disappearance and the discovery of the body of one of the dead girls Tobias was convicted of killing ten years ago prompts a renewed police investigation into past and present crimes, involving detective team Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein, who detect some inconsistencies in the old murder files and the circumstantial evidence used to convict Tobias. Whilst struggling with issues in their own personal lives, Pia and Oliver reopen the old files, and get soon drawn into the village’s dark and sinister secrets.

With Snow White Must Die, Neuhaus has created a thriller with so many clever plot lines that it is truly impossible to guess the outcome – and a cast of interesting, flesh-and-blood characters who each bring their own demons into the story. I was totally engrossed in this book from the very first to the last page, and could not rest until I had unravelled the mystery. Neuhaus’ insight into small town politics as well as the dark forces of human nature which motivate people to turn a blind eye to injustice, or worse, conspire to obstruct the path of justice, was eye-opening and drove the story all the way. Neuhaus is clearly familiar with the setting and its people, and her descriptive writing soon draws the reader into an atmosphere of lies, corruption, cruelty, violence and conspiracy.

For me, there were a few minor inconsistencies in the story and a couple of loose ends, which could possibly be explained by this book being the fourth in the series – but the first to be translated into English. Whilst the first part of the book built tension and suspense, the story dragged a little bit in later sections with the different agendas of the many characters involved, and the many parallel storylines introduced – however, it did not lessen my enjoyment of the book. Kirchoff and Bodenstein make a solid, intelligent and likeable detective pair, and I will definitely not stop here but am looking forward to getting my hands on the other books in the series – sometimes being bilingual is very useful!

To sum it up in one sentence, Snow White Must Die is a well-rounded, cleverly constructed and totally addictive police procedural with an engaging pair of detectives I am sure we will hear a lot more of in the future.

Highly recommended!

I read this book as part of the 2013 Monthly Keyword Reading Challenge - and it contained two of the key words chosen for January: "white" and "snow".