"Every corpse is a clue." That's what one of the blurbs says on the back of Ursula Archer's debut mystery, Five. Archer is an Austrian writer who lives in Vienna and has written award winning children's and young adult novels; this is her first for adults. Five is my first choice for this month's German Literature reading. I was a little trepidatious when I started reading as the prologue begins "the place where his left ear used to be was throbbing to the rhythm of his heartbeat."
I guess it has been a while since I have read any really gritty crime novels and too many cozies may have left me a little 'soft' when it comes to descriptions that verge on the gruesome. While I am still just at the start of the story, I think any details will be just enough to set the scene and move the story along and not gratuitous. Hopefully there will not be anything too over the top. I know that as I was reading yesterday I was eagerly turning the pages of the book and getting more and more drawn into the story.
So let me set the scene, introduce Bea to you and then give you a little teaser of Archer's writing. Imagine an Alpine meadow with the sound of cowbells ringing in the distance. All is peace and quiet until the body of a woman (the story promises this will be the first among several . . .) is found. And she has obviously been murdered as her hands are tied behind her back. The most curious thing about the crime scene, other than this shocking murder, is the corpse is missing her shoes and a series of numbers have been tattooed on the bottom of her feet.
This is our crime (or the first one anyway). Now, on to a more important aspect of the story. Detective Inspector Beatrice Kaspary (or, in the story she is called Frau Kommissarin Kaspary by her partner) works alongside Florin Raininger to solve the crime. I haven't quite gotten a fix on Florin (hopefully more details will be forthcoming)--other than his significant other is called Anneke, but I am learning a little about Bea. She is a single mother and her relationship to Jakob and Mina's father, Achim, is an uneasy one. She's already had to call her mother to pick up the children from daycare, and it is not the first time. Bea is smart and perhaps a little intense and maybe doesn't look after herself as well as she should. First impressions, however, so I look forward to seeing how close I come to the real Beatrice. I'm not entirely sure yet where Bea and Florin work, but I think it must be Salzburg as that is where the victim lived.
Part of what I like about crime novels, other than the unraveling of the crime, is getting to know the detectives and the more the better. I like knowing their personalities and what their private lives are like. So here is a little description that might give you a sense of Bea's personality.
"At Florin's insistence, they stopped off at Ginzkey's instead of driving straight back to the office. 'Vegetable curry helps to restore the balance,' he informed her, ordering two portions. By now, Beatrice was starting to feel like her stomach had been sewn shut. It was only once the aromatic plate of food was put down in front of her, and she had shoveled in the first mouthful, that her appetite finally kicked back in. She devoured the entire curry, then ordered some cake and hot chocolate."
"'Sugar therapy,' she explained. 'It generates temporary feelings of happiness. By the time I feel sick I'll have forgotten everything else.' She was relieved to see Florin grinning."
Why does all this endear her to me? I think this is going to be a good read. Certainly my interest has been well and surely caught. It is definitely what my reading needed--a little injection of 'new and interesting'! I wonder if I should be happy or disappointed that this is Archer's first book for adults and first crime novel? On the one hand I am getting in on the story from the very start, but on the other, there is nothing more for me to buy when I finish this one. I don't see another Bea Kaspary mystery out there yet! I'll have to pace myself and not read too quickly, I guess.