The Murder of Anton Livius by Hansjorg Schneider

 The Murder of Anton Livius by Hansjorg Schneider

The Murder of Anton Livius by Hansjörg Schneider, translated by Astrid Freuler is published on 15 June 2023 by Bitter Lemon Press. My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour.

The latest in the international crime series featuring Inspector Peter Hunkeler, to follow on from the success of prize-winning The Basel Killings and Silver Pebbles, selected by the FT as a thriller of the month.

 Hunkeler is a legendary figure in German language crime fiction, often compared to Simenon, gruff, intuitive, endowed with a deep sense of psychology and a horror of social injustice. 

 The city of Basel and neighbouring Alsace are evoked with great love by Schneider, who in real life lives on the same street and frequents the same bars and restaurants as Inspector Hunkeler

Synopsis

Inspector Hunkeler is summoned back to Basel from his New Year holiday to unravel a gruesome killing in an allotment garden on the city’s outskirts. An old man has been shot in the head and found in his garden shed hanging from a butcher’s hook. Hunkeler must deal not only with the quarrelsome tenants of the garden but with the challenges of investigating a murder that has taken place outside his jurisdiction, across the French border in Alsace. The clues lead to the Emmental in Berne, and then events from the last weeks of the Second World War in Alsace come to light, the wounds of which have never healed in the region.

My Review

This was an intriguing detective story set on the border between Switzerland and France with Inspector Peter Hunkeler having to wend his way carefully between the two police authorities whilst trying to find out who murdered Anton Livius and the background that led to his death.

I am a huge fan of Maigret and this story could just as easily have had Maigret as the detective within the storyline. However, it is refreshing to find another Detective who works in a similar and methodical manner. The way Hunkeler weaves his way between the different aspects of the story, both past and present, as he finds all the missing pieces of the jigsaw is intriguing.

The descriptive aspect of the story is not lost in the translation and it allows the reader to build up a clear image of all the characters within the novel and the settings they are to be found in.

Schneider is one author I am going to read more of and I hope Astrid Freuler will translate further stories in the series whilst I now hungrily await the first tow books to discover more investigations with this thoughtful and meditative Inspector; The Basel Killings and Silver Pebbles which are on their way to me right now.

A huge 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟s for this new Detective .

About the Author

Hansjörg Schneider lives in Basel and began his professional career as a journalist and essayist. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed plays and of the bestselling Hunkeler crime series, now with ten titles published.

About the Translator

 Astrid Freuler lives in Lidney, Gloucestershire. She is a young translator from Germany and has published translations of non-fiction and fiction, including the crime thriller A Shadow Falls by Andreas Pflüger which is another excellent book I wold highly recommend.