Zen and the Art of Murder: A Black Forest Investigation I (The Black Forest Investigations Book 1)
£4.70
** NOW SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER**
“Gripping” Tatler
The first in a thrilling new crime series set in Germany – the Black Forest Investigations
Louise Boni, maverick chief inspector with the Black Forest crime squad, is struggling with her demons. Divorced at forty-two, she is haunted by the shadows of the past.
Dreading yet another a dreary winter weekend alone, she receives a call from the departmental chief which signals the strangest assignment of her career – to trail a Japanese monk wandering through the snowy wasteland to the east of Freiburg, dressed only in sandals and a cowl. She sets off reluctantly, and by the time she catches up with him, she discovers that he is injured, and fearfully fleeing some unknown evil. When her own team comes under fire, the investigation takes on a terrifying dimension, uncovering a hideous ring of child traffickers. The repercussions of their crimes will change the course of her own life.
Oliver Bottini is a fresh and exciting voice in the world of crime fiction in translation; the Rhine borderlands of the Black Forest are a perfect setting for his beautifully crafted mysteries.
Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | MacLehose Press (11 Jan. 2018) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 1427 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 402 pages |
by Huggermugger
It was ok
by Malcolm R
More of a study of a barely functioning alcoholic than a police procedural but the latter is what this really is and a fascinating one it is. The story is told obliquely without forensic detail just the impressions of Chief Inspector Louise Boni investigating the killing of a colleague and the effect it has on her. She is already damaged by a dysfunctional upbringing, her brother’s death, a divorce and the outcome of a kidnapping which resulted in her killing the perpetrator, all this has caused her drinking but not affected her ability to investigate – unofficially of course. The case is a bit routine and a bit OTT but it does not matter. The short story at the end tells you no more than the preceding book but it is OK.
by Eric James
A difficult book to get into. I was constantly wanting to go back, in order to reorientate myself
by darryl
First third highly atmospheric, next third the mystery deepens, final third rather tedious explanation of it all.
by Elaine Tomasso
I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Zen and the Art of Murder, a police procedural set in around the Franco-German border with Chief Inspector Louise Bonì as the protagonist.
Louise is called out to help the Liebau police deal with a wandering Buddhist monk. The monk is obviously injured and frightened but refuses help and keeps walking so there is nothing they can do but observe. Louise spends the night in the forest with him and comes to suspect that he is being followed and in danger. How this all pans out is the meat of the novel.
I found the first few chapters of this novel absolutely captivating. The cold calm of the forest is so expertly described I could feel the cold and stillness. The puzzle of how to act and what to do with a man who doesn’t want help is beguiling and the sense of helplessness is pervasive. It’s all very unusual, atmospheric and enticing. The pace is leisurely and adds to the atmosphere. So far, so good and then the focus changes to Louise, her problems and her lone wolf investigation. After that it is a fairly run of the mill crime novel.
I think I might have enjoyed the novel more if I had liked Louise but the actions, alcoholic visions, nightmares and thoughts of a functioning alcoholic don’t interest me and the character study of her and her journey, which is the main focus of most of the novel, just made me yawn. Through in some explanations of the Buddhist way of thinking and the crime element gets a bit lost.
Louise is 42 and divorced. She appears to have had a troubled adolescence and had to shoot a suspect a couple of years ago which preys heavily on her mind. She is a sensitive soul and has turned to drink in an effort to cope with life but it’s catching up with her. Her superiors are on to her, she has no real friends and is very obviously lonely. It’s all a bit clichéd but, at the same time, amorphous. I found her a difficult character to understand or grab hold of. The author very helpfully includes, at the end, a short story about the shooting which haunts her. Maybe I should have read it first.
Zen and the Art of Murder is not a bad book, in fact I like the linear timeline, third person narrative, the flashes of humour and the opening chapters and I will certainly give the next book in the series a read, but the concentration on Louise and her character are not to my taste.
by Rowena Hoseason
The cover art perfectly captures its sensibilities: a lone individual, trudging in an endless, featureless expanse – seemingly aimless, isolated and disoriented.
‘Zen’ shares much with the stranger side of Scandinavian crime fiction: that slippery sensation of disconnectedness; an understanding that important things are happening but they seem to be just out of sight. As much is expressed through implication as explanation – a form of storytelling which some people find rewarding but which demands active participation.
The opening scenario is simply superb. It has the feel of a scene which the author dreamed and then was compelled to share with an audience – attaching a plot and storyline to it seems almost superfluous.
A shoeless, speechless monk stumbles through the snow. He won’t stop. He has no apparent destination but a definite direction of travel. He has no food, water or warm clothing. He doesn’t seem to have committed a crime but could so easily become the victim of one. Is he running away from something, or struggling to reach someone?
Inspector Louise Boni is sent to resolve the situation while struggling through an emotional breakdown. Louise is surrounded by ghosts; the people she’s loved and lost, the people she’s been unable to save, and the people she’s been forced to kill in the line of duty. Her self-esteem is at rock-bottom: her reliance upon alcoholic assistance has become inescapable.
She’s attracted to the stillness and certainty that the Zen Buddhists appear to possess, but the only way she can quiet her own ghosts is by drowning them in Țuică. And as Louise’s grip on reality fractures, so does the reader’s certainty about which events are really happening.
The result can be quite bewildering at times. You definitely get the impression that you’ve come in part-way through an extended story (and indeed there are earlier books in the series).
Disappointingly, that masterstroke of the opening chapters – the mysterious monk, the main motivator of the mystery – is abandoned mid-way. Instead we spend more time with Louise in her fracturing and fragmenting reality, where she can’t remember a taxi driver from one day to the next – where her fragile psyche propels her to break rules and take unsupportable risks. She’s a wild card, tugging on loose threads in a bitter winter – propping herself up with booze and ill-judged intimate encounters.
Eventually, the author delivers resolution and some sense of an ending. But the second storyline (which takes over where the monk left off) was less than satisfying for me. Zen is not an easy or especially accessible read – I wished I’d read the previous books before tackling this one.
7/10
by DorothyG
Not for me