Review: The third volume of the thriller series “Grenzfall” – Munich

She takes ibuprofen for the pain. An orthosis supports the shoulder. Alexa Jahn starts the third volume of the Grenzfall series. It’s called “In the silence of the forest,” but it quickly becomes clear that this isn’t a collection of poems by Eichendorff. What is discovered here on the first few pages in an excavation pit on the edge of the Tiroler Gnadenwald are two badgers. Stuffed ones though. A baby bodysuit and a blond curl are hidden in her stomach. “It’s getting scary for me,” says one of the workers.

At the beginning of 2021, the first volume of the series playing back and forth between Bavaria and Tyrol was published. It was added every year, and at the end of volume three you slip straight into the reading sample of volume four, which is to be published at the beginning of next year. Anna Schneider made it onto the Spiegel bestseller list with all three novels. Before that, the author, who lives in Gauting, had already published three thrillers for young people and two crime novels about a prison doctor under the pseudonym Anna Simons. Anna Schneider delivers – and knows how to construct the large narrative arc over several novels.

The current update: Alexa Jahn, who has moved from Aschaffenburg, works for the Weilheim police department and lives in Lenggries. And nibbles on the last case, in the escalation of which she was not uninvolved. Meanwhile, Bernhard Krammer is sitting at the desk in the LKA Tirol. Both now know that they are father and daughter. Alexa is actually not on duty at the moment. However, in the form of her ex-colleague Jan, she not only catches up with the amorous dreams of the past, which she actually wanted to forget. “She sighed. It didn’t help.” Jahn is also at the door with new results from an old case that once led to the conviction of a refugee. Only now the ex-boyfriend of the murdered woman is suspicious, has also disappeared and is writing ominous postcards to his mother. Time for Alexa and Jan to follow the trail on an extended mountain tour.

The flushes of emotion lie like inscribed foils over the figures

This brings her close to LKA investigator Krammer, who is rummaging in the dark family depths of a taxidermist at the same time. Suction has built up over three books. Precisely because the language does not generate any significant intellectual frictional resistance. The shock of realization is announced here as a leitmotif: “Alexa’s mouth was suddenly very dry.” The flushes of emotion lie like transparencies written over the characters: “He knew the direct way to her heart, and she could hardly resist the intense feelings that welled up in her.” Formulated in a pleasantly approximate manner, the love of flirtation, which does not hinder the investigative work, is only slightly colored.

As quickly as the cases that develop in parallel in alternating chapters and are still unconnected build up, there is also a construction problem in the volume. In the end, resolution is only an intermediate stage. With a plethora of loose ends, the novel heads for a cliffhanger. The exciting question: Will the author manage to link them in a meaningful way?

An inkling that the story was told a little too quickly remains after reading it. It remains to be seen whether it is really a commendable investigative idea to finally compare postcard motifs with the postmark date and place of posting. Running after a suspect and leaving your unconscious, injured colleague is obviously not the optimal response for an experienced police officer. And then there is the field of facts, which becomes dangerous precisely because Schneider always tries to explain in high-resolution: The amperage of a car battery may be enough to heat a doorknob so much that you burn your hand – here too would be still open questions. However, even the most resourceful hobbyist with twelve volts will not trigger life-threatening high-voltage effects and fainting.

Anna Schneider: “Borderline. In the silence of the forest”, Fischer, 423 pages, 12 euros, Reading: Wednesday, May 24th, Munich Police Headquarters Ettstrasse 2, 6 p.m

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