At the beginning an anecdote, brand: it was long ago. A friend of our father was a promising reporter of the Southern German Newspaper, And he had one novel written, his first. He had offered the book publishers, and indeed, he got an appointment with the publisher Helmut Kindler, then one of the greats of his guild. Our friend told this encounter as follows: Kindler was sitting at his desk, in front of him the novel manuscript was. First of all, Kindler praised him for his texts in the SZ, Preiess his narrative talent. But then something terrible happened: he took the manuscript and threw it into the trash.
Our friend, somewhat shaken, asked: What do you not like about the novel? He didn’t know that, Kindler replied that he hadn’t read it. In principle, he didn’t read first novels, they never good. Then he said he was looking forward to the second that he would read.
We had to think of this anecdote after reading the thriller The institute – in the shadow of science by Hendrik Streeck (Piper, 432 pages). Streeck is virologist by profession, a well -known face at the time of the corona crisis, and now he is also sitting for the CDU in the German Bundestag. So he is a man with a wide variety of skills.
You don’t have to say many words about his thriller. In contrast to Mr. Kindler, we read this first novel, unfortunately, you would like to add. Of course, he deals with the abysses in virus research: a scientist dies, and two investigators find that the woman wanted to transform fatal viruses into deadly weapons. Dangerous thing, you suspect it. The book is helpless and cumbersome, not exciting. As if the author had felt this himself, Streeck writes in his afterword that he wanted to “make science tangible” with the book. Maybe not the ideal ingredient for a thriller.
A crime novel is a special game between the person writes him and the person who reads him. What is the reader told and what is not? When will what will reveal? A game with false traces, distraction maneuvers and, yes, bluffs. All cards are only uncovered on the last pages.
When the author brothers, who call themselves Max Landorff, were still small, there was the American TV series Department S. It was characterized by very exciting beginnings (an airplane ends up, the passengers rise, but have to find out that they are too late for a whole year, such things). The dissolution was such a great disappointment every time that our father, who himself wrote crime novels, decided after three episodes: we no longer look at that.
The book that has just appeared shows that there are crime novels that end up without disappointment, which also master the special game between wrong and correct traces Dark moments by Elisa Hoven (S. Fischer, 336 pages). Hoven is criminal law professor in real life. Her main character is the defense lawyer Eva Herbergen. Different cases, each with a surprise kick, are masturbated into the soul life of the lawyer. This Romaner Erstling (!) Develops a suction that you can hardly avoid.
Hendrik Streeck: The institute – in the shadow of science. Piper, Munich 2025; 432 pages, € 18, as an e-book € 14.99
Elisa Hoven: Dark moments. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am, 2025; 336 p., € 22, as an e-book € 18.99
