Gabi Kreslehner

Gertruds Eltern nahmen Hanna auf als Gertrud sieben Jahre alt war. Die gleichaltrigen Mädchen verstanden sich gut, bis Hannas Freund Tonio während eines Urlaubs in Griechenland ums Leben kam. Daraufhin trennten sich ihre Wege.
Über zwanzig Jahre später wird Gertrud ermordet in ihrer Küche aufgefunden. Hanna wird von Ihrem Mann zur selben Zeit als vermisst gemeldet.
Kommissarin Franza Oberwieser findet bald heraus, dass es da einen Zusammenhang gibt. Aber es finden sich auch noch verschiedene tragische Verbindungen und nun kommen alle Geheimnisse ans Licht. Peu à peu lernt man so die Geschichte von Hanna und Gertrud kennen. Die Geschichte wechselt zwischen Franzas Ermittlungen und Rückblenden in die Vergangenheit der beiden Frauen. Aber auch Franzas Privatleben lernen wir mit der Zeit kennen.
Der Schreibstil ist eindringlich und flüssig. Obwohl die Ermittlungsarbeit der Polizei etwas in den Hintergrund tritt, weil der psychologische Aspekt der Beziehungen der Schwestern untereinander vorrangig ist, ist die Geschichte spannend und packend. Die Lösung ist dann überraschend.
Die Figuren sind ausgefeilt dargestellt, so dass die Handlungen realistisch und nachvollziehbar sind.… (plus d'informations)

3.5 stars

Looking through the dozens of unread books I have in my Kindle app, I found this one, reread the synopsis, and decided to give it a whirl. Turned out to be a pretty good choice.

This is a rather simply mystery set in Munich, Germany, along the Danube and the autobahn. The writing style was terse, with many chapters only a sentence or paragraph long. This felt almost like flipping through a photo album and having the story revealed through simple descriptions rather than in-depth story-telling. I'm not normally a fan of this approach, but it worked pretty well in this instance. The story itself was pretty straight-forward, with some good twists. Recommended for fans of European mysteries.… (plus d'informations)

i hope "Rain Girl" turns out to be the first in a long series; it's a compelling suspense story with interesting central characters, and I'd like to spend more time with them. The book starts when a young girl in a sparkly dress, staggering along the Autobahn in the rain, stumbles towards the headlights of an oncoming car and is killed on impact. Homicide detective Franza Oberweiser starts her investigation with big questions. Who is the girl? And was she attacked before car crash? The story starts rather slowly, as we are introduced to Franza and her colleague Felix, and as the investigation gets underway. But it builds momentum, both around the unknown girl, and around Franza's complicated personal life. The style is episodic, with short chapters (a few from the viewpoint of characters we don't yet know), piling on to produce a coherent whole. Characterization is very strong; the central characters are fully rounded, who make mistakes and have faults. I enjoyed it a lot, and have already bought "Raven Sisters", the only other novel featuring Franza that seems to be available in English. Let's hope there's a nice big lot waiting to be translated.… (plus d'informations)

Rain Girl is about the investigation of the apparent murder of a young woman. It takes place in Germany along the Autobahn (the edition is a translation of a German novel) where a young woman is hit by a car. Soon it is apparent that the girl was attacked prior to being hit by the car and left by the side of the road. The main character is a homicide detective, Franza Oberweiser. None of the characters are particularly likeable. Franza is cheating on her husband (who has cheated on her with the nanny in the past) and she has neglected her son in favor of her work. I really felt like the book was about Franza more than the mystery. The reader gets flashbacks to the dead girl's life as well as looks into the various suspects heads. The killer is revealed to the reader before Franza and her partner, Felix figure it out. But the true story seems to be that Franza's life is at a crossroads and throughout the mystery she must make some important decisions about her own life. It was a quick read that kept my reading. The structure sometimes was choppy and a few times the perspective would switch back and forth from Franza's thoughts to Felix's with little warning. Overall, it was a fun fast read that I enjoyed.… (plus d'informations)