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Journalism of Courage
By all accounts, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s memoir, Freedom, published this year, lets on little about who she really is beyond the staid shrewd politician who guided Germany through the turbulence of the near two decades between 2005 and 2021. She’d embraced, she writes, the British royal family adage to “Never explain, never complain”. The gap, however, is more than made up for in German writer David Safier’s absurdist crime series in which Merkel gets a post-retirement makeover as a detective. Published in Germany since 2021 and serialised after its breakaway popularity in the West, the English translation of the first of the four books in the series, Murder at the Castle (Old Street Publishing), has just been released. Retired to the nondescript village of Kleinfreudenstadt where she whiles away her time with nothing more consuming than baking and choosing which coloured blazer to sport, Merkel’s life takes an exciting turn when she chances upon the murder of local aristocrat Baron von Baugenwitz. Accompanied by her husband, Achim, pug Putin (so named after his human namesake arrived at a meeting with a huge dog because he knew of her cynophobia) and bodyguard Mike, this is Merkel’s chance to put her problem-solving skills to a whole new test. The mystery is cosy, which is to say, it’s not an edge-of-the-seat thriller. But what makes it a very pleasurable read are Safier’s quirky one-liners, rendered by Jamie Bulloch in a punchy translation. A young acerbic young girl “sounded about as enthusiastic as David Cameron had when they were discussing the free movement of people in the European Union”; a dismissive gesture by her husband is brushed off thus: “…when a man gave her a condescending smile, it was usually a sign she was on to something. If she had a euro for each patronising male smile, she sometimes thought, she would be able to finance the clean energy revolution single-handedly.” This is Richard Osman territory, done with equal verve and compassion. One can only look forward to what comes next in the series.
Speaking of Richard Osman, the void left behind by the winsome foursome of Elizabeth, Joyce, Ismail and Ron of The Thursday Murder Club has been adequately compensated by Osman’s brand new series, We Solve Murders (Penguin). Featuring Amy, a private security officer on duty guarding Rosie D’Antonio, “the world’s bestselling novelist” bar Lee Child on a private island, and her father-in-law Steve, a retired police officer still trying to come to turns with his wife’s death, this is another classic Osman tale where the people who populate the novel are far more intriguing than the mystery itself.
Steve and Amy share a deep bond — he’s the only one Steve is willing to get up on a flight for — and Rosie, the certainly octogenarian writer, is a joy unto herself, ever ready for adventures and for vodka martinis and mayhem. There are hired assassins and influencers dreaming of making it big and people out of their depth at how fast the world is changing. Osman puts together a quirky ensemble cast whose eccentricities and frailties show that what age lacks in strength, it more than makes up for in experience and vim. We Love Murders isn’t The Thursday Murder Cub, that is to say, the passage of time is not the beating heart of the novel, but it is characterised by Osman’s warmth, wit and what appears to be a genuine appreciation of people in all their variations. And that makes for a cosy read all over again.
If so much of nicety isn’t your thing, then Bella Mackie’s What a Way to Go (The Borough Press) might be right up your alley. This is a novel about the mysterious death of Anthony Wistern, a multi-millionaire who can’t remember how he died in the middle of his lavish 60th birthday party in the afterlife. Of his potential murderers, the most likely is his own dysfunctional family — his wife, the icy Olivia, and their four children, the sycophantic Jemima, the disinterested Freddy, the acerbic Lyra and the scheming Clara. There is even a true crime podcaster chasing the family to unearth the “real” criminal. Mackie makes it a truly unlikeable cast of the ultra rich, whose contrived problems and petty concerns make for a hilarious read. A cross between Succession and The Good Place, this is a worthy successor of How to Kill Your Family.
If you have read Irish writer Tana French before you know there are very few who can do atmosphere like her. In The Hunter (Penguin), former cop Cal Hunter, who debuted in The Searcher returns for another turn at sleuthing. He has built a new life for himself in an Irish village and is mentoring Trey Reddy. But there is only as much lull that a retired cop can handle. When Trey’s estranged father reappears, and murder follows on his heels, Hunter must do what he is best at: dig deep into the community life and unearth the twisted strands of evil. This is a slow burn of a thriller worth the time it takes to get to the heart of the mystery.
