A co-authored thriller set in OSLO
Police procedural set in BASEL (and Alsace)
28th February 2025
Hunkeler’s Secret by Hansjörg Schneider, police procedural set in BASEL (and Alsace).
Translated by Alice Freuler.
This is the 4th outing for Peter Hunkeler, retired police inspector and as the novel opens he is in hospital having had an operation. Sharing his room is Stephan Fankhauser who is undergoing end-of-life care. The two were acquainted in earlier years and therefore there is some dialogue between the two.
One evening a sleeping draft is given to Hunkeler and he would swear that the very same nurse who ministered his drugs, then went over to his room-mate and brutally injected something into his stomach. Upon waking in the morning, in a very drowsy state, he is told that Fankhauser has died during the night. Apparently his heart gave out. Hunkeler doesn’t believe this at all.
He leaves hospital and travels between his homes in Basel and Alsace, convalescing, but he cannot shake the vision he had in his hospital room.
This story is very much about an older man pondering life’s vagaries, sure that he has seen something suspicious, whilst ruminating on the bucolic surroundings in which he lives. It involves a goat! He also ponders the changing nature of what it means to be Swiss and learns more about aspects of recent Swiss history.
There is a real ruminative element in this short novel – it almost feels like it might the last in the series, but no doubt we shall soon see if that is the case.
A nicely crafted translation by Astrid Freuler. It would be nice to see her name actually on the cover.
There is also a good sense of Basel in the story.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
Join team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)
Please wait...
