LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Silver Pebbles is the first crime novel I've read that's set in Switzerland, giving interesting insight into the country and culture. This was an easy and entertaining read, thanks to its vivid descriptions and seamless translation by Mike Mitchell. Unlike many police procedurals, the book doesn't feature a murder investigation. Instead, it provides a fresh approach by following police as they close in on a diamond-smuggling drug mule who has managed to become separated from his sparkling haul. The book focuses heavily on the main character, Inspector Hunkeler, with all his flaws, as he embarks on a search for the diamonds before the drug mule finds them again. It also follows the sewage worker who discovers the diamonds stuck in a blocked pipe - and his mistress, who has a few ideas of what to do with them. As expected, none of the characters have an easy ride. Silver Pebbles is a short read, but there's plenty going on and a lot of shifty characters, turning it into an (almost) one-sitting read for me.
Victoria Goldman
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Silver Pebbles Synopsis
An elegant young Lebanese man carrying diamonds in his bag is on the train from Frankfurt to Basel, a drug mule on the return journey. At the Basel train station, Hunkeler is waiting for him after a tipoff from the German police. The courier manages to get to the station toilet and flushes the stones away. Erdogan, a young Turkish sewage worker, finds the diamonds in the pipes under the station. To him they mean wealth and the small hotel he always wanted to buy near his family village. To his older Swiss girl-friend Erika, employed at a supermarket checkout counter, the stones signify the end of their life together. She knows that Erdogan has a wife and children in Turkey.
For the courier, finding the stones is a matter of life and death. His employers are on their way to tidy things up . For Hunkeler the stones are the only way to get to the people behind the drug trade. They turn out to include not only the bottom-feeding drug gangs but bankers and politicians very high up the Basel food chain.
This is a tale of ordinary people accidentally caught in a vortex of crime, like Hank and Jacob in A Simple Plan by Scott Smith or even Guy Haines in Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. Unusually, and refreshingly, no one gets killed.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781913394622 |
| Publication date: |
13th January 2022 |
| Author: |
Hansjoerg Schneider |
| Publisher: |
Bitter Lemon Press |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
208 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Crime and Mystery
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| Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
Hansjoerg Schneider Press Reviews
“Ideal for anyone who enjoys reading about detectives like Martin Beck, Wallander or even Maigret.”---CrimeFictionLover
“As always, Schneider’s language, with its clarity and sense of calm, is a joy.” ---Spiegel
Author
About Hansjoerg Schneider
Hansjoerg Schneider (born 1938) lives in Basel and is the author of a number of highly acclaimed plays and the bestselling Hunkeler crime series. The Basel Killings was awarded The Friedrich Glauser Prize, Germany's most prestigious crime fiction prize.
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