Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
Retired from his long career as an Inspector with Basel police department and in hospital recovering from an operation Peter Hunkler thinks he is done with crime at last. Fate, though, has other ideas.
His roommate at the hospital is Stephen Fankhauser, the former head of a major bank and a one time student revolutionary. His death, though far from unexpected, triggers Hunkler's instincts, something isn't right and he has no choice but to launch his own unofficial investigation.
In the process he discovers that old crimes leave long shadows and that these are cast over, allegedly, respectable people and institutions.
This reviewer has to admit to having never encountered either Peter Hunkler or Hansjorg Schneider before, and that represents a serious gap in my literary life. Out of a familiar theme, that of a death that seems routine, but is in fact anything but, Schneider has created a novel that feels pleasingly fresh.
One that addresses with a light, but determined, touch the problems around how much neutral countries knew about the horrors unfolding just beyond their borders during the Second World War, and what they did, or didn't do in response. Old sins still have to be answered for, even if the authorities are unwilling to take action.
Hunkler is an inspired creation, a seemingly commonplace man going about the business of detecting in an undramatic way. Beneath the seemingly bland surface though is a relentlessly enquiring mind and a fierce moral sensibility focussed on doing what is right, whoever that may upset.
This is European crime writing at its very best, smart, subtle, sometimes eccentric and always rewarding.
Also read Gwen' Moffat's review of
