Best-selling crime author
Mr. Wolf, why are you allowing murders to happen in East Frisia?
Klaus-Peter Wolf is one of the most successful crime authors. With the star he spoke about the scene of his crimes: East Frisia.
© Wolfgang Weßling / S. Fischer Verlag
Murder in an idyll – East Frisian crime novels inspire millions of people, even abroad. He talks about which novels are particularly popular and what fascinates readers about East Frisia as a crime scene star with bestselling author Klaus-Peter Wolf.
White beaches, dunes, salty air, cozy beach bars: this is Norderney. Anyone who has ever visited the East Frisian Island is familiar with the idyllic image of the resort. And even if not: a gruesome backdrop is hardly the first image that comes to mind when you think of East Frisia. Or? Klaus Peter Wolf, author of the well-known East Frisian crime novels, chose the rural idyll as the scene of the crime. And that’s good for the readers. Why?
East Frisian crime novels: Klaus-Peter Wolf’s successful novels
More than 15 million copies sold, translated into 26 languages: Klaus-Peter Wolf’s East Frisian crime novels are a complete success. In around 30 crime novels, the 70-year-old takes his readers to places that could hardly be more peaceful: dikes, lighthouses, the mudflats, beaches. If it weren’t for all the corpses, serial killers and investigators, Wolf’s literature could be a short vacation of around 400 pages. Wolf himself is so fascinated by the area that the Gelsenkirchen native moved there years ago. Dem star He explains why he allows murders to take place in East Frisia of all places.
Klaus-Peter Wolf (born 1954) is one of the most successful authors in the field of regional crime fiction. The Gelsenkirchen native has made East Frisia his adopted home and uses this idyllic region as bloody crime scenes in his novels. Many works have already been made into films.
© Wolfgang Weßling / S. Fischer Verlag
“I wanted to write a big social panorama. Because I wanted to depict how people live here, the madness that surrounds them, the errors, the longings, the stupidities. At some point I realized that the actual literature, which really has something about them “Crime literature is the only thing that can tell society,” says Klaus-Peter Wolf.
“I put my corpses in the most beautiful places in the world”
It is the unexpected that Wolf plays with in his crime novels. The dark city, the bad neighborhood, the anonymity – all of this is too predictable for a murder. The discovery of a corpse in the well-kept front yard of a paid-off single-family home is much more exciting. “I believe that art thrives on contrast. That’s why I put my corpses in the most beautiful places in the world,” says Wolf. Afterwards, the readers would come there to look at the places. The horror would then be much greater.
This is also the case in Wolf’s latest crime novel, which will be published on May 29, 2024. Here too the author plays with contrasts. In the second part of his trilogy “A Murderous Couple – The Suspicion” It’s about a hospital manager who kills and who seems sympathetic to the readers because of the choice of his victims. “He is our country’s most popular serial killer,” says Wolf. He is a serial killer who wants to make the world a better place with his murders. The novel’s big showdown takes place on Norderney, an East Frisian island known for white-sand beaches and laid-back tourists and islanders.
In his books, Klaus-Peter Wolf repeatedly plays with the real fears of East Frisians. “The big problem here at the moment is that the hospitals are closing. People are unsettled. They don’t know where to go if something happens,” he says. The serial killer in his trilogy is trustworthy and also treats patients who do not have health insurance. “In the novel I play with the longing for security that we have. That we can get medical help when we need it,” says Wolf.
We recommend starting with the first part of the trilogy: “A Murderous Couple – The Promise”
East Frisian crime sequence
But not only the scenes of the crime and the real fears correspond to the reality in Wolf’s novels, the characters are also real. In 18 East Frisian crime novels investigates Commissioner Ann-Kathrin Klaasen. Peter Grendel, the neighbor, supports her not only technically but also morally and is often there to give a helping hand in good time. Peter Grendel is author Wolf’s neighbor in real life.
“My inspector needed a friend and he had to be a down-to-earth guy. I was invited to a party and saw my neighbor standing at the grill. He has hands like frying pans, is a master bricklayer and flips sausages. I then went up to him and… said: ‘Tell me, Peter, can I fictionalize your life?'” says Wolf. Grendel agreed and that’s how the character in his book was created. The 18-part crime series was so well received that eleven of them have already been filmed by ZDF.
Real places, real fears, real people: it is the tangible, the existing that perhaps makes Klaus-Peter Wolf’s crime novels so successful, fiction that reflects reality. He plays with the safe – and unsettles. He transforms East Frisia from an idyllic place of longing to a dark danger area. Wolf says: “If you were a serial killer and wanted to hide, yes, I advise you, don’t disappear into the anonymity of the big city, but go to East Frisia.”
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