In Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle there is actually everything that the culinary heart desires. In the very special atmosphere, various traders offer their delicious, usually very high-quality goods for sale, with not only different country specialties, but also completely different characters behind the market counters for a colorful picture and the unique atmosphere that is so popular and appreciated by customers. Life pulsates here. But on a sunny Monday morning in late summer, Martin Schwaner, Chief Inspector of the Frankfurt Homicide Squad, discovers that the Kleinmarkthalle can also have its darker side. The body of the stall operator Alexis Kazikis is found in cold storage warehouse number 4. It quickly becomes clear that this is not an accident, but a murder. But who would want to kill the universally popular man? When a short time later the lifeless body of star chef Mirko Leininger is found in the Main, there seems to be no connection between the two deaths, especially since Leininger apparently committed suicide. But the longer Schwaner and his colleagues look into these cases, the more culinary secrets come to light, which soon shed a whole new light on the events...
With his first crime novel "Doppelmord" Jakob Stein has published an entertaining work that spices up its entertaining and quite exciting story with plenty of local Frankfurt color. The fact that some descriptions of the way have turned out to be very detailed or that for non-Frankfurters rather unnecessary place names are used will not bother Frankfurt crime fiction fans in the slightest. For even if the story and its protagonists are pure fiction, the picture of the Main metropolis that Stein draws seems very close to reality and thus has a high recognition value.
The story itself is well constructed and has a few nice ideas that lead to a pleasantly high reading pleasure. True, the resolution comes off a bit rushed in the last four pages, but that's truly not uncommon for the crime genre. Nevertheless, a slightly more detailed ending would certainly have added to the overall positive impression.
"Doppelmord" is light crime fiction entertainment in the best sense of the word. There are still small stylistic weak points here and there, such as words repeating themselves several times in a sentence. Nevertheless, the novel reads extremely pleasantly and at the end even ensures that one wanders through the Kleinmarkthalle with a much more interested eye after reading it. If you're still looking for some exciting summer reading, this Frankfurt crime novel is well worth reading. Recommendable
An article by Frankfurt-Tipp
