Frankfurt in 1979: the strangely masked bodies of two drug addicts are found on a bench at the Goetheturm. Suicide? A simple drug death? Or a ritual murder after all? The investigation of the case keeps prosecutor Martin Flamme losing sleep. Time and again, the investigation reaches a dead end. Actually, Flamme has enough on his plate with these two deaths. But then he gets a very special case of defamation of character on the table. Two completely different cases, but they have more in common than it first appears.
"Totengräber vom Goetheturm" is already the second novel by Dr. Harald Hans Körner alias Johannes Frumen, in which public prosecutor Martin Flamme is at the center. Körner, who himself worked for 40 years at the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt and was mainly responsible for drug offences, deals with real cases from his professional life in his books. He presented his new work today at the foot of the Goethe Tower. In the crime novel, a case of character assassination, which attracted a lot of attention in the 70s, not only in the regional media, is at the center of the plot. The author has expanded this into an exciting thriller with set pieces from other cases. Names and places were not only changed to protect those involved, but also to offer the reader another piece of Frankfurt's contemporary history. Körner told us that he had moved part of the story to Bockenheim in order to be able to include the student movement and the actions of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution against the Sponti scene in the events.
What is particularly important to the retired public prosecutor is to paint as realistic a picture as possible of the work of the public prosecutor's office and to incorporate this into an exciting and gripping story. He has succeeded in this very well. In the description of the individual investigative steps, it is clearly noticeable in the book that the author is "vom Fach". Even if some passages seem very factual, the novel is never dry or boring. However, there are two minor weak points that spoil the reading pleasure a little. On the one hand, names such as Jonny Langbein, Franz Nothelfer or Kommissar Frühauf seem too obviously invented, which somehow seems inconsistent in connection with the very authentic descriptions. Also, the decision to have some characters speak with a strong dialect proves to be not always successful. When crook Toni talks about the sexual abuse of a drug addict in the deepest Hessian, it is not only a bit exhausting to read, but also seems a bit inappropriate in terms of tone. However, this may be primarily due to the fact that the Hessian dialect is mainly used humorously in film, theater or literature, whereas here exactly the opposite is the case.
Aside from these minor criticisms, "Totengräber vom Goetheturm" is an exciting and interesting crime novel that gains its very special appeal not only through its local references, but through a somewhat different, more realistic approach to the investigation. The linking of the two cases is successful, although their real-life models had nothing to do with each other in reality. Who would like to undertake with pleasure an exciting time journey into the Frankfurt of the 1970er and to receive thereby an insight into the work of the public prosecutor's office, the investigations approximately around the "Totengräber of the Goetheturm" can be warmly recommended to. Worth reading!
The author in front of the Goetheturm. Photo: Sebastian Betzold
An article by Frankfurt-Tipp
