Murder and manslaughter instead of Christmas contemplation
Published: Tuesday, Dec 10th 2024, 12:10
Updated At: Wednesday, Dec 11th 2024, 00:59
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Crime novels are among the most popular literary genres. They regularly occupy prominent places on the bestseller lists. A selection from the lavish Swiss crime fiction year 2024.
Sticky biscuits, cheesy Christmas carols, dear relatives: Sometimes the Christmas season brings too much of a good thing. If you need a break from the contemplation of Advent, treat yourself to a crime thriller and dive into the dark human depths. Well, the Swiss crime thriller year 2024 has plenty to offer.
The following is a selection of both the more palatable and the more challenging. The latter includes "Die Verfehlung" by Petra Ivanov: the Zurich author delivers a brilliant conclusion to her KRYO trilogy. Silvia Götschi's "Biberbrugg", on the other hand, is as light as usual and has plenty of local color, as does Sandra Hughes' "Ticino Retribution", which is set on Lake Lugano.
Fans of unusual crime thrillers are more likely to get their money's worth with Markus Bundi. "Wild Animals" is a cleverly orchestrated story in which the resolution of the case becomes a minor matter. And "Macht, Mord und Gartenzwerge" by Rahel Urech has its very own zest thanks to its black humor and situation comedy.
Great characters, surprising twists and turns
CLAUDIA BARDELANG: Snow and absolute peace and quiet - that's what detective inspector Johann Briamonte has traveled to the Black Forest for. But in his third case, the Bulgarian mafia soon turns up in this idyllic setting. And in the neighboring village, Josef Wenk, an old man who probably only had a few weeks to live anyway, suffocates in the soup. Bardelang effortlessly keeps the narrative strands side by side and ultimately weaves them into an escalating plot with great characters and one or two unexpected twists. (phe)
Claudia Bardelang: "Black is the snow. The third case for Johann Briamonte". Kampa Verlag, Zurich, 2024, 240 pages.
Entertaining and unusual
THOMAS BLUBACHER: A shouting director and a mixed-up prop knife on a film set: you soon realize that this was written by a theater person - also because "Ausgespielt" consists mainly of casual dialogue. The debut novel by German-Swiss non-fiction author and theater director Thomas Blubacher takes us into the Basel cultural scene of 1938. Extra Samuel flees the scene of the crime in the heat of the moment in order to avoid deportation to Germany as a gay Jew - and thus becomes the focus of the investigation. An entertaining book with an unusual plot. (vb)
Thomas Blubacher: "Played out". Zytglogge Verlag, Bern 2024, 168 pages.
Cleverly orchestrated
MARKUS BUNDI: Early in the morning, the police show up at the art museum. A body has been found in the men's room. Nobody knows for sure, which is why a lively gossip and conjecture ensues. Markus Bundi lets three protagonists take it in turns to talk about the alleged murder case. They contribute nothing to the investigation, but instead provide eloquent insights into their own quirks and secrets. "Wild Animals" is a cleverly orchestrated, slender novel in which the resolution of the case is wisely relegated to the background. (bm)
Markus Bundi: "Wild animals". Septime Verlag, Vienna 2024, 120 pages.
Fast-paced and surprising
CHRISTOF GASSER: The Jura conflict, in particular the riots in Cortébert in 1980, are the real-life background to a fictional crime novel. Journalist Cora Johannis gets caught up in a maelstrom of murders, abysses and intrigues. It all begins when an old acquaintance of Cora's falls down the cat stairs behind the cathedral in Solothurn. "Spiegelberg" is a fast-paced story with surprising twists and at the same time a lesson in recent Swiss history. However, the woodcut narrative style and the fact that the bestselling author invents his women in the novel the way he sees them as a man is a matter of taste. The motto is: sex sells. (fa)
Christof Gasser: "Spiegelberg". Emons Verlag, Cologne 2024, 352 pages.
Sweet with local color
SILVIA GÖTSCHI: Policewoman Valérie is faced with a mystery when a young woman is found dead in a float at the Einsiedeln carnival. While she is investigating, her son is recruited for a secret mission and is shot. The main character, who may appear gruff on the outside, descends into emotional abysses. The bestseller "Biberbrugg" is the tenth in the series of sweetly written novels about Valérie from the Schwyz police force. Local color and the author's palpable love for her characters characterize this crime novel. (vb)
Silvia Götschi: "Biberbrugg". Emons Verlag, Cologne 2024, 352 pages.
Thickly applied
PHILIPP GURT: A new case for country hunter Caminada: "A gruesome crime, three dead", announces an anonymous caller in a disguised voice. Just two days earlier, the red-bearded Zoltan escaped from the wing for "mentally ill sex offenders". In addition to mental illness, xenophobia and exclusion, Philipp Gurt uses the Holocaust as a backstory for his characters, including some helpless young women, in his third crime thriller this year. It's all very thick and superficial, but with a lot of dialect coloration. (phe)
Philipp Gurt: "Graubündner Morgengrauen. Landjäger Caminada and the blind shepherdess". Kampa Verlag, Zurich, 2024, 320 pages.
Solid, sophisticated, but also annoying
SANDRA HUGHES: Strange dolls appear around Lake Lugano and pose a mystery. The investigating team Tschopp & Bianchi believe that they contain a warning that points to a murder. Against the backdrop of autumnal Ticino, Sandra Hughes unfolds a murder mystery that raises questions about law and justice. While the plot is solidly developed and has a few clever scenes, the numerous lists of attractions and specialties to enhance the local color seem a bit annoying. (bm)
Sandra Hughes: "Retribution in Ticino. The fourth case for Tschopp & Bianchi". Kampa Verlag, Zurich 2024, 256 pages.
Nerve-wrackingly good
PETRA IVANOV: Exciting and sophisticated: in her thriller trilogy, the Zurich-based author links the story of Julia and her son Michael with the theories of transhumanism, which aims to overcome the mental and physical limits of humans using technical means. The final part, which can also be read separately, leads to a nerve-wracking finale in the battle for money, power and eternal life. Ivanov is able to convey complex scientific topics in an understandable and entertaining way - love story included. (mk)
Petra Ivanov: "KRYO. The transgression". Unionsverlag, Zurich 2024, 311 pages.
Charming intimate play
GABRIELA KASPERSKI: The Grand Hotel Matterhorn is located in the Gotthard region, far away from the famous mountain. Pensioner Libby Andersch and a film crew are stranded in the run-down house because of a snowstorm. Very different characters clash in the seclusion. And then the lead actress, Gwendolin, lies at the foot of the stairs with a broken neck. Libby, her knitting always at hand, extends her antennae. However, this thoroughly charming intimate play with a Miss Marple 2.0 as the investigator sets the bar too high. It doesn't come close to its role model, Agatha Christie's classics. (fa)
Gabriela Kasperski: "Murder at the Grand Hotel Matterhorn". Oktopus by Kampa, Zurich 2024, 192 pages.
Crime thriller for die-hards
EBERHARD MICHAELY: Shortly before Christmas, the sprightly Hamburg woman Mrs. Helbing is baking cookies, solving crossword puzzles and rehearsing for an amateur theater, where the first murder soon occurs. Mrs. Helbing's sixth case reads like a comedy, whereby the amateur detective and mystery reader seems more preoccupied with her brother-in-law's surprise visit than with the murder cases around her. The somewhat schematic, one-dimensional characters are not always easy to understand, but fans of the series will probably get exactly what they want. (phe)
Eberhard Michaely: "Mrs. Helbing and the deadly Christmas cookies". Kampa Verlag, Zurich, 2024, 208 pages.
Pleasurable play with narrative patterns
FRANCESCO MICIELI: Francesco Micieli's novel is a crime thriller. But his hero, the agent of small things, doesn't even know what's happening to him. Waking up from a stupor, he literally stumbles into a story that turns out to be a rebellion against the state order. More by chance than anything else, he helps to thwart it. The fact that crime novels often have flimsy plots is at the heart of Micieli's experimental novel. It is not a crime thriller in the usual sense, but a fun game with narrative patterns. (bm)
Franceso Micieli: "The agent of small things awakens by the stream". Published by Die Brotsuppe, Biel 2024, 108 pages.
The figures pull it off
DONNA LEON: Interpersonal relationships in a city that is in danger of being swallowed up by the sea and tourists: this is what readers are served up in the 33rd Brunetti crime thriller. This time it's about gangs of young people who turn on each other out of sheer boredom and pessimism about the future. And it's about the wounds left behind by war. The actual case is more of a side note. No matter. The characters are much more important anyway: first and foremost the sharp-tongued and well-read Commissario Brunetti and his compassionate and smart colleague Claudia Griffoni. (mk)
Donna Leon: "Trial by fire. Commissario Brunetti's thirty-third case". Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2024, 328 pages.
Irony and surprises
RAHEL URECH: The setting is well known: A Swiss idyll - in this case Rapperswil-Jona -, a retired investigator and a colleague half his age who puts his foot in every mouth. Plus a dead body: Fiona Bär, universally disliked. What sets "Macht, Mord und Gartenzwerge" apart from other regional crime novels is the cleverly dosed irony with which Urech approaches the small-town setting. The story takes a few pages to get going, but then the suspense is maintained until the end thanks to unexpected twists and turns and situational comedy. (mk)
Rahel Urech: "Power, murder and garden gnomes". Harper Collins, Hamburg 2024, 303 pages.
Drive despite bold figures
HELENA VÄISÄNEN: An international watch fair in Zurich, a Finnish-Swiss investigator, a master thief who is after an exhibit worth millions, the "Supercomplication" watch, and a professor from Eritrea who never arrives in Zurich: in her second crime novel about investigator Saara Joho, the Finnish author, who lives in Switzerland, weaves a complex web of perspectives and narrative threads. While the tension builds slowly and the story gains drive, the characters remain somewhat bold. (mk)
Helena Väisänen: "Supercomplication". Antium Verlag, Wangen 2024, 282 pages.
Braking puns
PETER WEINGARTNER: As in Weingartner's previous novels, it is once again the walker Melchior Kaufmann who discovers the body. The dead man, sniffed out by his new girlfriend's dog in the woods of the small Lucerne town of Sursee, is a real estate entrepreneur. The grounded Anselm Anderhub and his team from the Lucerne police soon set their sights on the victim's family and their history. The case moves along at a leisurely pace, not least because of the author's wordplay and the characters' thoughts on everyday trivia, which slow down the plot more than enrich it. (vb)
Peter Weingartner: "Wurmstichig". Edition 8, Zurich 2024, 288 pages*.
*This selection by Maria Künzli (mk), Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation. Collaboration: Vittoria Burgunder (vb), Philine Erni (phe), Andrea Fiedler (af), Beat Mazenauer (bm).
©Keystone/SDA
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