Un policier particulièrement bien fait, et surtout un retour dans l'Allemagne à la sortie de la guerre. Un cadre incroyable, et pourtant très documenté. ( )

Hamburgo, 1947.
El cuerpo desnudo de una chica que ha sido degollada aparece entre las ruinas de unos edificios bombardeados. No se encuentra ninguna huella del culpable ni ninguna pista para identificar a la víctima. No hay testigos y nadie denuncia su desaparición... Para el inspector jefe, Frank Stave, un hombre traumatizado por la guerra, que perdió a su mujer en un bombardeo y cuyo hijo lleva dos años desaparecido, se presenta un caso complicado. Pero cuando aparece el cadáver de un hombre mayor en las mismas circunstancias, Stave intuye que no será la última víctima. Con la ayuda del oficial británico James McDonald y del compañero de la Brigada de Orden Público, Lothar Maschke, el inspector se adentrará en una investigación que también pondrá en juego su salvación personal.

This is the first in a murder mystery trilogy set in the ruins of post-WWII Hamburg, a city devastated by Allied air raids. In the freezing winter of Jan/Feb 1947, with food and fuel in very short supply in the ice-bound city, Chief Inspector Frank Stave (pronounced Stah-vay) has to investigate the discovery of a series of naked bodies in bombed and rubble-strewn working class areas in the east or west of the city, bodies that seem to have nothing in common, lack clues as to their identities and, even more strikingly and hauntingly, are completely unclaimed and unrecognised when posters seeking for clues are posted all over Germany. The eventual solution to the mystery has its roots in the events of the war, which still looms large over the city and its inhabitants. This novel is very well written and Inspector Stave quite a well drawn and already quite hard bitten and cynical character, but who still hopes for a better life for his country. Hamburg itself is really the principle character of the novel, with its bleak and rubble-filled streets and wrecked buildings creating a very haunting atmosphere against the background of the one of the bitterest winters for many years. The storyline is based on a real series of murders carried out by a, still to this day, unknown "rubble murderer". A very good, if stark read, and I have already purchased the following two books in the series. ( )

Bis kurz vor knapp war ich bereit, dank gepflegt unterkühlter Atmosphäre und storydienlich knappem Erzählstil 4 Sterne zu zücken - und dann kam dieser dämliche Schluß, in dem alle vorher elegant vermiedenen Klischees auf einen großen Haufen geworfen wurden. Das gibt derben Punktabzug in der B-Note! ( )

Started this on January 24th, 2013, just after the last book I read.
This was a free giveaway from Amazon at Kindle 12 days of XMas in Germany. Being German and born and living in Hamburg, I thought I would read this for a change, but of course it also has Nazis, though so far only on the sideline. Interesting to see my hometown described in rubbles after the war. The time is 1947, streets are often destroyed, a cold winter, people starving. And a killer, probable serial, leaves is victims naked lying in the open, though in places not too easily found. No CSI yet, and no DNA, not much to go on.
For those who are born late after the war this book may be much more interesting as for those, who lived through the hard times.
This is a book I will not recommend to my father.
Good story and based on a true case. For that and the very authentic feeling 5 stars.
( )