Book Review of The Murder of Anton Livius by Hansjorg Schneider

Name of Book: The Murder of Anton Livius 

Author:  Hansjorg Schneider (translated by Astrid Freuler)

ISBN: 978-1-913394-87-5

Publisher: Bitter lemon press 

Part of a Series: Inspector Hunkeler Novels (Only books 1, 5 and this one, 6th are translated. Other seven aren't) 

Type of book: New Years, Switzerland, WWII, history, dark history, hiding away, secrets, France, border towns, working together, western Europe, mystery 

Year it was published: 2007 (English 2023)

Summary:

Inspector Hunkeler is summoned back to Basel from his New Year holiday to unravel a gruesome killing in a community garden on the city’s outskirts. An old man has been shot in the head and found in his garden shed hanging from a butcher’s hook. Hunkeler must deal not only with the quarrelsome tenants of the garden but with the challenges of investigating a murder that has taken place outside his jurisdiction, across the French border in Alsace.  The clues lead to the Emmental in Berne, and then to Alsace where wounds from the Second World War have never healed. The third in the Inspector Hunkeler series published in English. The first was  The Basel Killings  published by Bitter Lemon in 2021, winner of the Friedrich Glauser Prize, Germany’s most prestigious crime fiction award. The second was  Silver Pebbles , a beautifully crafted thriller about stolen diamonds, drug couriers and people accidentally caught in a vortex of crime. Hunkeler is close to retirement age, gruff, intuitive, and endowed with a deep sense of psychology and a horror of social injustice. “Reminiscent of Wallander and Rebus, a little jaded, a bit rebellious and always independent with a strong intuition." said the Financial Times . It feels like Hunkeler investigates mostly by spending time in the bars and inns of his beloved city and neighbouring Alsace where he shares a small farmhouse with his long-suffering ‘girlfriend’ Hedwig.  Sense of place :  It is a harsh winter with unusually heavy snowfall and persistent sub-zero temperatures. The city of Basel and neighbouring Alsace are evoked with great love by Schneider, who in real life lives on the same street and frequents the same bars and restaurants as Inspector Hunkeler.  As an outsider, Hunkeler is alive to class differences and social milieux. The contrast between the xenophobia of the local police and the Swiss press and the desperate, often lonely, world of Balkan and other immigrants informs the story. 

Characters:

Main character is Inspector Peter Hunkeler, a one time divorced father of a daughter who has been a detective and has solved a lot of other cases. Hunkeler is best described as methodical, determined and a peacemaker, who seems to have understanding of when its best to keep peace and when its not. There are other characters but they are secondary rather than main characters and although I have met them in the past two books, I recall little about them, sorry to say. 

Theme:

Is it possible to buy a reprieve

Plot:

The story is written in third person narrative from Peter Hunkeler's point of view. Unlike some other novels that I read that have starred detectives, this novel doesn't glamorize the detective life and instead seeks to bring the reality of it to the forefront. THE MURDER OF ANTON LIVIUS is also educational as was the previous tales in that the reader gets to see a history that is all too hidden away. The story is highly engageable and there is an odd contradiction on that one needs to read the previous novels yet this one can be seen as a stand-alone too. However as someone who enjoys Hunkeler novels, I do look forward to reading more of them in the future, and I would like to know why they were translated out of order? 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

N/A

Opinion:

One thing I love about Inspector Hunkeler novels is learning about Europe that most people don't see or aware of. THE MURDER OF ANTON LIVIUS is another such novel that focuses on the ugly history of WWII (and no it doesn't involve Holocaust or Jews) and of what it is like living in a border town. The novel is a sequel to the THE BASEL KILLINGS, being sixth in the series, with SILVER PEBBLES being first. Something else I might have noticed is the ordinary life that's shown through Peter Hunkeler's life, of basically how human he is which is something I don't really see in other mystery/thriller novels. I am definitely of opinion that one needs to read previous Inspector Hunkeler novels definitely in order to understand what is going on. Also, looking forward to future installments! 

This was given for review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)