Another remarkable, sparse, fascinating offering from Schenkel - the 2nd translated (the third Bunker arrived here recently).
From the Blurb:
Munich in the 1930s. Young women are being raped and brutally murdered. They are disappearing along the quiet country lanes outside the city, cycling to destinations they will never reach. A Party member by the name of Josef Kalteis is executed for the crimes, but is he really guilty? Could the murderer still be out there?
Opening Lines:
Secret Reich Business
The condemned man is not to be granted a reprieve. The sentence of execution is to be carried out in Stadelheim prison without delay. No public announcement is to be made.
Andrea Maria Schenkel's first novel, THE MURDER FARM won considerable acclaim for its clever orginality. While it's not exactly factual, it's not entirely fiction either. Rather it's the fictionalised story of a real case cleverly interwoven with witness statements taken at the time of the murder.
Schenkel's second novel ICE COLD does something very similar with the rape/murders of a number of young women in Munich just months before the outbreak of World War II.
The main focus of the book is Kathie. A young country girl who comes to Munich wanting to get away from the restrictions of her life with her family. She discovers getting a job is harder than she thought and finds herself in a somewhat sleazy world of late night bars, casual sex and occasional prostitution.
Kathie's story is the thread that ties the narrative together. In between learning Kathie's story is a series of witness statements taken from people who knew or had contact with other young woman who were murdered at the same time as Kathie is making her way in Munich.