The Basel Killings by Hansjörg Schneider (translated by Mike Mitchell) is out. The first novel available in English from a highly acclaimed series featuring Basel police inspector Peter Hunkeler, a legendary character in Continental crime fiction. The Basel Killings won the prestigious Friedrich Glauser Mystery Prize in Germany.
"Schneider moves his gripping story from the seediness of Basel’s underbelly to the gloom of the forests of the Alsace and back again probing the fractures in Swiss society much as Friedrich Glauser did in his own memorable crime fiction. Haunting, eerie and strange in its imagery but often grimly humorous. A vintage Swiss mystery fiction that appears to only be improving with age." CrimeTime
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Praise for The Basel Killings:
"An atmospheric plot and setting frame a compelling police inspector as he investigates a murder on the borders of Switzerland. This piercing and smart crime novel almost creates a physical ache as it worms its way under your skin." Liz Robinson, LoveReading
"Ideal for anyone who enjoys reading about detectives like Martin Beck, Wallander or even Maigret." CrimeFictionLover
"Much has been written about the twentieth-century political sins of the Germans and the French, but relatively little about the skeletons in the Swiss cupboard, skeletons that turn out to be the driving force behind the Basel killings: a history of the powerful versus the powerless.": European Literature Network (ELN)
"An excellent first mystery and series launch. Schneider makes his flawed protagonist relatable and the truth behind the murders satisfyingly surprising. This gripping, plausible debut bodes well for the future." STARRED REVIEW. Publishers Weekly
Other reviews including praise from the Wall Street Journal HERE
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Based in Basel, Switzerland, Hansjörg Schneider is a famous playwright, philosopher and crime novelist. Books from the Peter Hunkeler series have won several awards on the Continent and four have been adapted for film and/or television. However, none of the ten books in the series has been translated into English. Until now.
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This is the 125th anniversary of Swiss author Friedrich Glauser's birth. Diagnosed a schizophrenic, addicted to morphine and opium, Glauser spent the greater part of his life in psychiatric wards, insane asylums and prison. He died in 1938, aged 42. Glauser’s elegant prose and acute observation in the Sergeant Studer crime series conjure up a world of those at the margins of society. These novels have ensured his place as a cult figure in Europe and we are proud to have published them all in English.
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In Matto's Realm
Finalist for the 2005 CWA Gold Dagger Award
“His masterpiece. Imagine Maigret rewritten by Philip K. Dick.” Mail on Sunday
“After reading Friedrich Glauser's dark tour de force In Matto's Realm, it's easy to see why the German equivalent of the Edgar Allan Poe Award is dubbed "The Glauser." But it's surprising to note that this classic, originally published in German in 1936, has not appeared in English until now, 70 years later." Washington Post
“Studer investigates the death of an asylum director. The way in which life in the sinister walls mirrors the chaos outside underlies a despairing plot about the reality of madness and life, leavened at regular intervals with strong doses of bittersweet irony. The idiosyncratic investigation and its laconic detective have not aged one iota.” Guardian
BUY HERE
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Fever
"Given the bleak sensibility of the international authors favoured by small presses, the scarcity of modern German-speaking writers seems surprising. Not many of them could outdo Friedrich Glauser. Fever, a deviously plotted procedural first published in 1937 sees Studer travel all the way to a remote outpost of the Foreign Legion in pursuit of an elusive priest who may have had something to do with the apparent suicides of two old women who were once married to the same mysterious man." New York Times
"Fever is so complex and artfully crafted that it hardly seems possible that anyone, let alone a committed drug addict, could have put it all together. It's a fascinating dark tale of money, love and intrigue, and is just the first of several Sergeant Studer mysteries I plan to read." Eclectica Magazine
BUY HERE
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Congratulations to Joachim and Kristin, just married in Reykjavik. We will be publishing his Icelandic mystery novel Kalmann next year.
Sjón is a fan : “Joachim B. Schmidt’s novels show a sensitivity to how the accumulation of seemingly small events makes up the drama of human life. In his recent works, he has built literary bridges between his birth country Switzerland, and Iceland, the country he lives in. In them, as elsewhere, he proves that it is by telling our shared histories and sharing our individual stories that we overcome being strangers and instead meet eye to eye as citizens of a single world.”
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Just Married
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