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Monday 21 April 2014

EN: Another crime novel in German: "Hour of Death" by Michael Huebner

In Hour of Death (Sterbestunde) by Michael Hübner we are invited to follow how criminal lieutenant Becker discovers that a privately owned retirement home is carrying out distressing medical tests on humans. Did I find this plot credible? - No, not really!

So, did I at least learn something about Koblenz or the rural areas surrounding this city during the reading? - No, not at all!

Was I, in spite of this, so captivated by the simple, linear narrative style combined with an almost excessive build-up of suspense that I sometimes "sneak read" the novel at other times than on the tram to and from work? - Yes, I gladly admit to this!

Michael Hübner's Hour of Death is not the best thriller I have read in German, but perhaps the one which I have had the biggest difficulties to put to the side. And I forgive the author for cultivating one of the most common stereotypes in this genre - that our politicians are just as conniving and dishonest as corrupt - because he does let a journalist and a police officer cooperate in solving a case. To me, this was a unique fresh feature of a book which I can recommend to anyone who knows to accept it for what it is, i.e. entertainment.

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