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Dr. Felix Hoffmann #1
The Russian Donation
Doctor Felix Hoffmann’s life is textbook success: a seasoned physician at a Berlin hospital, respected by colleagues, and devoted to his amorous and intelligent girlfriend Celine. It’s a life filled with medical work, televised soccer games, and the chill of German beer.
Yet, when a former patient shows up dead by causes unknown, Hoffmann signs a death certificate that may be his own. Curiosity and sheer medical devotion propel him to investigate. However, his autopsy order goes unfulfilled as the body is cremated and hospital records vanish. Soon, Hoffmann discovers a diagnosis of conspiratorial proportions. The deeper he scans, the darker it gets, until a criminal clue emerges from Russia. Despite adversity, Hoffmann is determined to sleuth through with his own brand of logic and the aid of Celine’s powers of deduction.
Yet, when a former patient shows up dead by causes unknown, Hoffmann signs a death certificate that may be his own. Curiosity and sheer medical devotion propel him to investigate. However, his autopsy order goes unfulfilled as the body is cremated and hospital records vanish. Soon, Hoffmann discovers a diagnosis of conspiratorial proportions. The deeper he scans, the darker it gets, until a criminal clue emerges from Russia. Despite adversity, Hoffmann is determined to sleuth through with his own brand of logic and the aid of Celine’s powers of deduction.
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2001
63 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Christoph Spielberg
22 books11 followersCardiologist and Agatha Christie prize-winning author Christoph Spielberg lives in Berlin, Germany, where his mystery novels have gained national notoriety. Spielberg was awarded the prestigious Friedrich Glauser prize from the German Crime Writers Association for The Russian Donation, the first in his ongoing Dr. Hoffmann crime series, and his books have been translated into both English and Japanese.
Critical acclaim for the Dr. Hoffmann series has prompted the German ZDF television network to produce a run of TV movies based on the novels. Today, Spielberg continues to draw from his medical experience, writing novels, short stories, and providing medical care to his patients
Critical acclaim for the Dr. Hoffmann series has prompted the German ZDF television network to produce a run of TV movies based on the novels. Today, Spielberg continues to draw from his medical experience, writing novels, short stories, and providing medical care to his patients
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
June 8, 2024
*Hospital Drama & Connections*
This was one of my earlier free picks with Amazon first Reads. It’s been on my kindle for some time. Well it started off like a normal busy day in the life of a hospital Doctor Dr Hoffman, until a previously treated patient
ends up dead. Intrigued by this Dr Hoffman tries to find out the cause. He faces lots of blocks and when confiding this to his mathematician girlfriend Celine a lover of solving puzzles she finds this piques her interest. Then when a senior member of the hospital is found dead, things start getting tricky.
Throw in illegal ways of funding the hospital, more danger and cover ups, will Dr Hoffman and Celine ever get to the bottom of this......
This is not my usual favourite genre but it was very fascinating
This was one of my earlier free picks with Amazon first Reads. It’s been on my kindle for some time. Well it started off like a normal busy day in the life of a hospital Doctor Dr Hoffman, until a previously treated patient
ends up dead. Intrigued by this Dr Hoffman tries to find out the cause. He faces lots of blocks and when confiding this to his mathematician girlfriend Celine a lover of solving puzzles she finds this piques her interest. Then when a senior member of the hospital is found dead, things start getting tricky.
Throw in illegal ways of funding the hospital, more danger and cover ups, will Dr Hoffman and Celine ever get to the bottom of this......
This is not my usual favourite genre but it was very fascinating
May 17, 2013
Book Info: Genre: Medical Mystery
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Those who like financially based crimes
Trigger Warnings: murder, suicide, physical assault (man on woman)
My Thoughts: In a seemingly International series of books, I've moved from Iceland to Germany in this next mystery on my shelf. (I've also been listening to a Russian singer, and a Japanese heavy metal band, so it's International Week here in the Sozaeva household...)
I was incredibly amused by the way Dr. Hoffman kept comparing the COO, Bredow, to Hitler. It kept making me giggle at inappropriate times. There were a few other places that were pretty funny, too, but mostly short, one-offs rather than more intensive sections.
I was aggravated by the author's (or possibly the translater's) constant misuse of “comprised.” It was consistently written as “comprised of...” when that should be “composed of.” Comprised is not used with of. For instance: Twelve items comprise a dozen. vs. A dozen is composed of twelve items.
Anyway, overall I didn't much care for this book. I did finish it, but I found it overly complex, with way too much musing, not enough character development or plot, and generally just not to my taste. All the financial aspects just made my eyes glaze over, and generally I wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than someone who is absolutely fascinated in financial crime and following the money trail. Attempts to throw in the Russian mafia were subverted by making them way more civilized than they normally are. No, I won't be continuing this series despite it's acclaim elsewhere.
Disclosure: I received an ARC paperback from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Doctor Felix Hoffmann is a seasoned physician at a Berlin hospital, respected by colleagues and devoted to his intelligent girlfriend, Celine. It's a life filled with medical work, televised soccer games, and the chill of German beer. And when a former patient shows up dead by causes unknown, curiosity and sheer medical devotion propel Hoffmann to investigate. But his autopsy order goes unfulfilled as the body is cremated and hospital records vanish. Soon, Hoffmann discovers a diagnosis of conspiratorial proportions, and he must risk everything to save not only himself but the hospital he's always loved.
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Those who like financially based crimes
Trigger Warnings: murder, suicide, physical assault (man on woman)
My Thoughts: In a seemingly International series of books, I've moved from Iceland to Germany in this next mystery on my shelf. (I've also been listening to a Russian singer, and a Japanese heavy metal band, so it's International Week here in the Sozaeva household...)
I was incredibly amused by the way Dr. Hoffman kept comparing the COO, Bredow, to Hitler. It kept making me giggle at inappropriate times. There were a few other places that were pretty funny, too, but mostly short, one-offs rather than more intensive sections.
I was aggravated by the author's (or possibly the translater's) constant misuse of “comprised.” It was consistently written as “comprised of...” when that should be “composed of.” Comprised is not used with of. For instance: Twelve items comprise a dozen. vs. A dozen is composed of twelve items.
Anyway, overall I didn't much care for this book. I did finish it, but I found it overly complex, with way too much musing, not enough character development or plot, and generally just not to my taste. All the financial aspects just made my eyes glaze over, and generally I wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than someone who is absolutely fascinated in financial crime and following the money trail. Attempts to throw in the Russian mafia were subverted by making them way more civilized than they normally are. No, I won't be continuing this series despite it's acclaim elsewhere.
Disclosure: I received an ARC paperback from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Doctor Felix Hoffmann is a seasoned physician at a Berlin hospital, respected by colleagues and devoted to his intelligent girlfriend, Celine. It's a life filled with medical work, televised soccer games, and the chill of German beer. And when a former patient shows up dead by causes unknown, curiosity and sheer medical devotion propel Hoffmann to investigate. But his autopsy order goes unfulfilled as the body is cremated and hospital records vanish. Soon, Hoffmann discovers a diagnosis of conspiratorial proportions, and he must risk everything to save not only himself but the hospital he's always loved.
November 5, 2012
This book is very entertaining. The smooth flowing translation by Gerald Chapple does justice to the fine style of German author, Christoph Spielberg's novel, The Russian Donation. The book introduces us to Felix Hoffman, a doctor who works in the emergency room of a busy Berlin hospital. Dr. Hoffman usually has more than his hands full of work, with normal duty hours and the occasional extra night sifts. Why, when a former patient turns up DOA in the emergency room, does Hoffman take such a personal interest? Perhaps because he had treated this man previously for suspicious looking injuries that could not be explained away by the patient's insistence that he had fallen accidentally. Perhaps because the dead body has an odd yellow cast. Perhaps because after Dr Hoffman signs a death certificate declaring him dead from unknown circumstances, a second death certificate is issued stating death was caused from natural causes. Other paperwork on the patient mysteriously disappears from the ER. Following this, the body is quickly removed from the hospital and cremated. Not normal procedure for any hospital, but Dr. Hoffman is about to discover there is very little normal going on behind the scenes in this hospital. This is a fast paced, medical mystery with just the right blend of light humor and suspenseful action. I look forward to following Dr. Hoffman's cases as the other books in this series are translated. No super sleuths or villains here. The characters are smart but not overly so. Mistakes are made. Opportunities are missed, but this merely has the effect of making the characters more endearing. Book provided by Amazon Vine.
September 3, 2022
Did not finish. I got as far as half way through chapter 4 and couldn’t take any more of this garbage. As far as I can tell, this book is set in a German hospital,and attempts to describe the medical hierarchy (poorly) and boast about medical jargon (inaccurately).
Firstly, it’s in first person perspective, which i find difficult to like in general. Couple with that an arrogant narrator and you have a really obnoxious character.
Secondly, it feels confused between a European healthcare system and a US style set up. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not directly transposable.
Finally the medical inaccuracies. If you’re going to use medical jargon, at least stick to jargon consistently and make sure you are factually correct. Or at the very least get a medical student to read it for some semblance of accuracy. It really got my back up to see jargon mixed with layman’s terms in the same sentence. Either use one, or the other, but don’t mix them. And as for some of the descriptions… to use one example trying to describe how jaundice develops, where we are told the bile builds up and spills back over into the bloodstream. Bullish!t!!! That was the sentence that killed the book for me. No more.
It’s hard to know if the problems are inherently from the author, or a consequence of a sh!t translator. Either way, it’s unreadable.
Firstly, it’s in first person perspective, which i find difficult to like in general. Couple with that an arrogant narrator and you have a really obnoxious character.
Secondly, it feels confused between a European healthcare system and a US style set up. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not directly transposable.
Finally the medical inaccuracies. If you’re going to use medical jargon, at least stick to jargon consistently and make sure you are factually correct. Or at the very least get a medical student to read it for some semblance of accuracy. It really got my back up to see jargon mixed with layman’s terms in the same sentence. Either use one, or the other, but don’t mix them. And as for some of the descriptions… to use one example trying to describe how jaundice develops, where we are told the bile builds up and spills back over into the bloodstream. Bullish!t!!! That was the sentence that killed the book for me. No more.
It’s hard to know if the problems are inherently from the author, or a consequence of a sh!t translator. Either way, it’s unreadable.
June 23, 2018
This is a translation from the German from the Amazon.com translation publisher, AmazonCrossing.
The original German version was published in 2001, which now seems like a very long time ago in terms of many events. The translation was produced in 2013.
Usually reading a detective novel that is a translation seems more "foreign" than reading an American author's effort with a detective in a similar setting. Here it was almost that the hospital-centered story was more foreign than the Berlin setting.
I read this through to the end, but I wasn't that enthralled. My public library doesn't have any more of Mr. Spielberg's books, so I guess I'm done with him.
I will say that within 30 or so pages of the end I couldn't guess how it would end, so I will see that the way it was brought to a close was clever.
The original German version was published in 2001, which now seems like a very long time ago in terms of many events. The translation was produced in 2013.
Usually reading a detective novel that is a translation seems more "foreign" than reading an American author's effort with a detective in a similar setting. Here it was almost that the hospital-centered story was more foreign than the Berlin setting.
I read this through to the end, but I wasn't that enthralled. My public library doesn't have any more of Mr. Spielberg's books, so I guess I'm done with him.
I will say that within 30 or so pages of the end I couldn't guess how it would end, so I will see that the way it was brought to a close was clever.
July 2, 2020
Hier wirkt die Wortwahl - Der Autor kennt sich aus - macht ein wenig Angst - Wer mit der Leseprobe klarkommt, wird auch bis zum Ende durchhalten
September 5, 2024
Absolute rubbish
November 3, 2013
What I really liked about this book was how the main character -- a doctor in a socialist-run hospital -- progressed from being overly concerned about filling out the paperwork so as to avoid scrutiny and more paperwork to a doctor genuinely caring about the fate of his patients. The Berliner author of this mystery that was translated into English unintentionally (I think!) draws parallels to how U.S. medicine might progress under ObamaCare, but human compassion overcomes the paperwork mentality in the end. I really enjoyed the cynical attitude at the beginning, and as a mystery, it held my interest but didn't impress me all that much.
October 10, 2016
Nice medical mystery. Gives u some perspective of German system and working of private hospital ( well it could be anywhere in the world). Author does a fine balancing act in building a thriller with medical knowledge thrown in. However reading becomes quiet heavy when trying to understand the financial jargon. The end was slightly confusing and not which one would expect for. a thriller. Still can say worth a read for its combination of medicine, murder, mafia and financial mystery.
February 14, 2013
While it's not "great art" this book is quite entertaining. The main character, Hoffman, is likable and witty. The fact that this was orgininally written in German, for Germans makes the factoids and cultural details fascinating. Bravo to the translator for his use of English idioms. The "mystery" is average. I'm going to check the library for other books in the series.
February 26, 2013
A likable if not entirely believable read. Weak in some of the computer forensic and forensic accounting topics, but enjoyable. After all, what's better than financial indiscretion with a bit of international intrigue built in.
March 17, 2013
Not a bad mystery. somewhat of a complicated hard to follow plot. Found a few typos or I might have scored it higher. Can't complain as it was a borrowed book and I would read another of the authors books. It is a translation from German, set in Berlin hospital.
March 22, 2013
I found this book when it was advertised on my Kindle. Since I like mysteries, I decided to try it. It was very enjoyable. It was originally written in German but has been wonderfully translated that it reads like an American mystery novel except for all the place names are in German!
August 5, 2013
I enjoy reading murder mysteries. I like a mystery that it is a little different and enjoyed this one. It takes place in Germany in a hospital setting.
I don't want to give away the book.........but the setting in Germany & the hospital made it very interesting to read.
I don't want to give away the book.........but the setting in Germany & the hospital made it very interesting to read.
August 10, 2013
I kept waiting for this book to get interesting, and it just never did. The writing is poor, and the setting - a hospital being used as a money laundering operation for the Russian mob - underwhelming at best.
I read the entire book, but it was a real challenge.
I read the entire book, but it was a real challenge.
April 8, 2014
P not interesting enough for me to read the next book. Too hohum for me.
not interesting to me, wouldn't buy the next book. I needed more action and not so much detail. hohum.
vickiveeb117@aol.com
not interesting to me, wouldn't buy the next book. I needed more action and not so much detail. hohum.
vickiveeb117@aol.com
May 1, 2015
If you like medical thrillers, you will probably like this book. I, however, am not a fan so I had to push myself to complete this novel. I can't say anything really bad about it. I was just glad when it was over.
January 7, 2013
Enjoyable. See my Amazon review.
April 29, 2013
interesting look at hospital administration, plus a good mystery... not sure if story was adequately outweighed by the whining of the Dr./detective.
Read
October 1, 2013a mystery investigated by a heart surgeon. but too too plodding and german style in a non noir way. so abandoned.
October 8, 2013
Not the most well written book I've ever read, but entertaining.
July 24, 2014
I had higher hopes for this. Disappointing. But a greater sense of this actually taking place in Germany than in the last couple of German mysteries I've read.
July 28, 2014
interesting read. I like medicine and mysteries. a little predictable but I liked the PS at the end. I also liked how completely honest and relatable the main character is.
January 20, 2014
Dull book, terrible ending....
September 11, 2014
its a good book keeps you realy interested what happens next
Read
July 10, 2018Review to follow
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews