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Inspector Frank Stave #1
The Murderer in Ruins
Hamburg, 1947. A ruined city occupied by the British who bombed it, experiencing the coldest winter in living memory. Food is scarce; refugees and the homeless crowd into shanty towns and sheds. There is a killer on the loose, and all attempts to find him or her have failed. Plagued with worry about his missing son, Frank Stave is a career policeman with a tragedy in his past that is driving his determination to find the killer. With the help of his colleague Maschke from the vice squad, and Lt MacDonald from the British military, Stave has to find out why and who in the wake of a wave of atrocity, the grim Nazi past and the bleak attempts by his German countrymen to recreate a country from the apocalypse someone is still dedicated to murder. The first of a trilogy The Murderer in Ruins is at once evocative, impeccably plotted and beautifully textured, vividly describing a poignant moment in British/German history, with a plot so divinely seamless and riveting, you ll be unable to put it down. A spine-tingling portrayal of pure evil, with multiple twists, turns and subplots, you ll have no idea, until the final extraordinary denouement, what or who will rise from the ashes.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2011
222 people are currently reading
806 people want to read
About the author
Cay Rademacher
54 books132 followers1965 in Flensburg geboren, studierte in Köln und Washington Anglo-Amerikanische Geschichte, Alte Geschichte und Philosophie und lebt heute mit seiner Familie in der Provence.
Seit einigen Jahren Redakteur bei GEO sowie Geschäftsführender Redakteur des Geschichtsmagazins GEO EPOCHE. Außerdem schreibt R. historische Romane und Sachbücher.
Seit einigen Jahren Redakteur bei GEO sowie Geschäftsführender Redakteur des Geschichtsmagazins GEO EPOCHE. Außerdem schreibt R. historische Romane und Sachbücher.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
April 11, 2021
In April 2020 I read and enjoyed Heinz Rein's Finale Berlin. Heinz Rein became a major figure in the 'rubble literature' period and Finale Berlin, published in 1947, was one of the first bestsellers in the tumultuous German rebuilding period.
Partly inspired by the rubble fiction of Finale Berlin, and partly to try and fill the Bernie Gunther sized hole in my reading life (RIP Philip Kerr), I decided to read The Murderer in Ruins by Cay Rademacher.
The action all takes place in the ruins of Hamburg in 1947 during the coldest winter in living memory (-36°C). Despite WW2 being over for 18 months there was no relief for the citizens of Hamburg. The city lay in ruins with people living in wartime bunkers, cellars, nissan huts, or damaged buildings that had retained at least the remnants of a roof. There was little fuel for heating as frozen rivers and railways stopped transport in and out of the city. The limited food and fuel was often traded on the thriving black market. Street lighting was intermittent and it was forbidden to walk around after dark. Power cuts were an everyday event. It's in the evocation of everyday life in this grim scenario that The Murderer in Ruins works brilliantly.
The pressure is on career policeman Frank Stave to solve the mystery of the rubble murderer as a number of naked bodies crop up in the ruins of the city. These murders actually occured in the city during the period. Cay Rademacher uses the murders as the basis of an intiguing mystery which baffles Frank Stave and his colleagues.
In contrast to the evocation of Hamburg during 1947, it's as a murder mystery that the novel is less successful. That said, it was still sufficiently intriguing to hold my interest throughout and to convince me to continue with the next book in the trilogy (The Wolf Children). There are also other narrative strands that will doubtless continue into the second installment and which have piqued my interest.
4/5
More about it...
Hamburg, 1947. A ruined city occupied by the British who bombed it, experiencing the coldest winter in living memory. Food is scarce; refugees and the homeless crowd into shanty towns and sheds. There is a killer on the loose, and all attempts to find him or her have failed. Plagued with worry about his missing son, Frank Stave is a career policeman with a tragedy in his past that is driving his determination to find the killer.
Partly inspired by the rubble fiction of Finale Berlin, and partly to try and fill the Bernie Gunther sized hole in my reading life (RIP Philip Kerr), I decided to read The Murderer in Ruins by Cay Rademacher.
The action all takes place in the ruins of Hamburg in 1947 during the coldest winter in living memory (-36°C). Despite WW2 being over for 18 months there was no relief for the citizens of Hamburg. The city lay in ruins with people living in wartime bunkers, cellars, nissan huts, or damaged buildings that had retained at least the remnants of a roof. There was little fuel for heating as frozen rivers and railways stopped transport in and out of the city. The limited food and fuel was often traded on the thriving black market. Street lighting was intermittent and it was forbidden to walk around after dark. Power cuts were an everyday event. It's in the evocation of everyday life in this grim scenario that The Murderer in Ruins works brilliantly.
The pressure is on career policeman Frank Stave to solve the mystery of the rubble murderer as a number of naked bodies crop up in the ruins of the city. These murders actually occured in the city during the period. Cay Rademacher uses the murders as the basis of an intiguing mystery which baffles Frank Stave and his colleagues.
In contrast to the evocation of Hamburg during 1947, it's as a murder mystery that the novel is less successful. That said, it was still sufficiently intriguing to hold my interest throughout and to convince me to continue with the next book in the trilogy (The Wolf Children). There are also other narrative strands that will doubtless continue into the second installment and which have piqued my interest.
4/5
More about it...
Hamburg, 1947. A ruined city occupied by the British who bombed it, experiencing the coldest winter in living memory. Food is scarce; refugees and the homeless crowd into shanty towns and sheds. There is a killer on the loose, and all attempts to find him or her have failed. Plagued with worry about his missing son, Frank Stave is a career policeman with a tragedy in his past that is driving his determination to find the killer.
January 14, 2021
Intellectually, I was aware of the fact that after the German surrender the situation in Europe did not return to peace and prosperity immediately. However, I feel this story did quite a lot to help me understand how things were for a while afterwards. Author totally succeeds at bringing us into a world of devastation and (gradual) renewal.
Stave proves an incredibly likeable main character; I found myself immediately invested in his success. The secondary characters were also quite well done, although there were a couple that I wasn't as "into" as I suspect I should've been. Overall, they worked well, another success on that front.
Finally, we come to the plot itself, which left me with doubts as to whether I be interested in a sequel, up until the end. The story did come together for me so that I'd be interested in that, but to be honest at times that aspect felt as though it was secondary to a character-and-setting driven story. ("Where is all this going?")
Audio narration and translation are top-notch. If you feel this sounds interesting, you'd probably like it.
Stave proves an incredibly likeable main character; I found myself immediately invested in his success. The secondary characters were also quite well done, although there were a couple that I wasn't as "into" as I suspect I should've been. Overall, they worked well, another success on that front.
Finally, we come to the plot itself, which left me with doubts as to whether I be interested in a sequel, up until the end. The story did come together for me so that I'd be interested in that, but to be honest at times that aspect felt as though it was secondary to a character-and-setting driven story. ("Where is all this going?")
Audio narration and translation are top-notch. If you feel this sounds interesting, you'd probably like it.
May 7, 2019
Ich habe das Buch im Rahmen einer Themen-Challenge zum Thema Nachkriegsdeutschland gelesen. Da ich selber 25 Jahre in Hamburg gewohnt habe, haben mir die Beschreibungen des Nachkriegs-Hamburgs sehr gut gefallen. Vor meinen inneren Auge konnte ich die Strassen sehen und zum Teil habe ich sie mir auch über Google Maps und Street View angesehen. Welche Gebäude zerstört wurden, welche Geschäfte es schon damals gab und heute an der gleichen Stelle sind, wie C&A. Das war für mich faszinierend.
Der harte Winter von 1946/47. Ich konnte mir gut vorstellen, wie hart die Zeit damals war mit Ausgangssperre, britischer Besetzung. Die geschilderten Mordfälle hat es tatsächlich gegeben, jedoch wurden sie nie aufgeklärt. Eine wichtige Fragestellung beschäftigt sich damit, wo die ganzen ehemaligen Nazis, SS-Männer und andere "gelandet" sind.
Oft beschäftigen wir uns mit dem Krieg und vergessen ein bisschen die Zeit danach. Ich fand es sehr interessant und werde wahrscheinlich die anderen beiden Bücher zu dieser Zeit von Cay Rademacher lesen.
Der harte Winter von 1946/47. Ich konnte mir gut vorstellen, wie hart die Zeit damals war mit Ausgangssperre, britischer Besetzung. Die geschilderten Mordfälle hat es tatsächlich gegeben, jedoch wurden sie nie aufgeklärt. Eine wichtige Fragestellung beschäftigt sich damit, wo die ganzen ehemaligen Nazis, SS-Männer und andere "gelandet" sind.
Oft beschäftigen wir uns mit dem Krieg und vergessen ein bisschen die Zeit danach. Ich fand es sehr interessant und werde wahrscheinlich die anderen beiden Bücher zu dieser Zeit von Cay Rademacher lesen.
August 13, 2017
An interesting story and perfectly described life in post-war Hamburg.
December 14, 2015
The Murderer In Ruins, by Cay Rademacher (translated by Peter Millar), is a fictionalised account of a series of murders that were perpetrated in Hamburg during the freezing winter of 1946/47.
Following the devastation wreaked by the Second World War large swathes of the city were reduced to rubble. Utilities and infrastructure were on the brink of collapse and the cold, hungry residents struggled to survive on subsistence rations. Within this bleak landscape a murderer is at large who strangles and strips his victims, leaving their naked bodies in the ruins of the bombed out city. Nobody knows who these people are or why they were selected. The frozen corpses yield few clues.
Frank Stave, is the police officer assigned to investigate the murders. He is required to work with two assistants: Lothar Maschke from the vice squad, who volunteered to join the team; and James MacDonald, a lieutenant in the British army, who was seconded by the Allied Administration as liaison officer. With memories of their active roles in the recent conflict still so raw it is difficult for Frank to know who he can trust to investigate these current crimes within the fair remit of the law.
The prose is precise and, in many ways, as cold as the landscape in which the story is set, yet the humanity behind Frank’s thorough investigations burns through. This is a man struggling with personal tragedy in a city where every survivor harbours torrid memories. The vivid portrayal of the horror that comes after the devastation of war is uncompromising.
Frank is offered every assistance by his superiors but the challenging conditions and few clues leave him little to work with. What he does uncover is a hidden war crime, a national secret, and a moral dilemma. Sides must be chosen where the nebulous concepts of right and wrong have become blurred.
Brought to life within these pages are ordinary Germans. I couldn’t help but consider the parallels between the reasons why Hitler came to power and current attitudes in this country towards those who the media portrays as a threat to the comforts of the British people. If only we could resist the urge to follow self-indulgent leaders and learn from history.
The denouement tidies up the many threads unraveled by this tale. The thaw in the weather feels as much of a relief to the reader as the conclusion of Frank’s varied investigations.
A fine work of crime fiction that is unusual in its detailed, historic setting and Germanic tones. Well worth reading for the telling of the tale, and provides plenty on which to reflect.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Arcadia Books.
Following the devastation wreaked by the Second World War large swathes of the city were reduced to rubble. Utilities and infrastructure were on the brink of collapse and the cold, hungry residents struggled to survive on subsistence rations. Within this bleak landscape a murderer is at large who strangles and strips his victims, leaving their naked bodies in the ruins of the bombed out city. Nobody knows who these people are or why they were selected. The frozen corpses yield few clues.
Frank Stave, is the police officer assigned to investigate the murders. He is required to work with two assistants: Lothar Maschke from the vice squad, who volunteered to join the team; and James MacDonald, a lieutenant in the British army, who was seconded by the Allied Administration as liaison officer. With memories of their active roles in the recent conflict still so raw it is difficult for Frank to know who he can trust to investigate these current crimes within the fair remit of the law.
The prose is precise and, in many ways, as cold as the landscape in which the story is set, yet the humanity behind Frank’s thorough investigations burns through. This is a man struggling with personal tragedy in a city where every survivor harbours torrid memories. The vivid portrayal of the horror that comes after the devastation of war is uncompromising.
Frank is offered every assistance by his superiors but the challenging conditions and few clues leave him little to work with. What he does uncover is a hidden war crime, a national secret, and a moral dilemma. Sides must be chosen where the nebulous concepts of right and wrong have become blurred.
Brought to life within these pages are ordinary Germans. I couldn’t help but consider the parallels between the reasons why Hitler came to power and current attitudes in this country towards those who the media portrays as a threat to the comforts of the British people. If only we could resist the urge to follow self-indulgent leaders and learn from history.
The denouement tidies up the many threads unraveled by this tale. The thaw in the weather feels as much of a relief to the reader as the conclusion of Frank’s varied investigations.
A fine work of crime fiction that is unusual in its detailed, historic setting and Germanic tones. Well worth reading for the telling of the tale, and provides plenty on which to reflect.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Arcadia Books.
June 11, 2016
An evocative police procedural set in the bleak post-war years of Hamburg. Although the translation is a little uneven at times (it's a little heavy on the Americanisms, despite the central characters all being German or British), it does a fantastic job in creating a vivid sense of place and time.
January 16, 2014
Muy buena novela que mezcla los dos géneros que más me gustan: negro e histórico
March 30, 2017
Comment vous parler de ce roman tellement bouleversant ? Une époque bien trouble, une série de meurtres avec des victimes qu'on n'arrive pas à identifier mais surtout un roman basé sur une histoire vraie.
Un roman policier certes mais surtout une petite fenêtre sur cette période très difficile de l'après guerre à Hambourg. Entre un hiver des plus coriaces, une population à la dérive après la fin de la 2ème guerre mondiale et un tueur en série introuvable, l'inspecteur Frank Stave se retrouve devant une enquête pratiquement impossible à résoudre.
L'assassin des ruines est un roman policier atmosphérique alors si vous êtes à la recherche d'un roman d'action passez votre chemin.
Beaucoup de descriptions, une atmosphère sombre, déprimante et oppressive, on ne peut s'empêcher de se retrouver happés par toute cette douleur, tout ce désespoir qui transparaissent à travers les mots de l'auteur. On sent que ce dernier a fait des recherches très poussées sur l'affaire sur laquelle se base le livre et on sent clairement l'authenticité derrière ce récit vraiment émouvant !
Une lecture assez difficile par moment de par sa thématique mais une lecture à découvrir car elle nous transporte à une époque qui j'ai l'impression n'est pas très connue.
Un roman policier certes mais surtout une petite fenêtre sur cette période très difficile de l'après guerre à Hambourg. Entre un hiver des plus coriaces, une population à la dérive après la fin de la 2ème guerre mondiale et un tueur en série introuvable, l'inspecteur Frank Stave se retrouve devant une enquête pratiquement impossible à résoudre.
L'assassin des ruines est un roman policier atmosphérique alors si vous êtes à la recherche d'un roman d'action passez votre chemin.
Beaucoup de descriptions, une atmosphère sombre, déprimante et oppressive, on ne peut s'empêcher de se retrouver happés par toute cette douleur, tout ce désespoir qui transparaissent à travers les mots de l'auteur. On sent que ce dernier a fait des recherches très poussées sur l'affaire sur laquelle se base le livre et on sent clairement l'authenticité derrière ce récit vraiment émouvant !
Une lecture assez difficile par moment de par sa thématique mais une lecture à découvrir car elle nous transporte à une époque qui j'ai l'impression n'est pas très connue.
August 9, 2017
During World War II, the northern port city of Hamburg was nearly destroyed by bombing and the horrific bombing-induced firestorm of 1943 that killed tens of thousands. After the war ended, it was tremendously difficult to rebuild and supply the city. That process had barely begun in the winter of 1946/47, which was brutally cold.
That winter, there was an infamous serial murderer at work in Hamburg, and his identity has never been found. Those murders were called the rubble murders, because the victims’ bodies were left in the rubble of the destroyed buildings. This novel fictionalizes that Hamburg winter, those murders and the police investigation.
The British occupation authorities reconstituted the Hamburg police by cleaning out Nazis as best they could, resulting in Social Democrat Frank Stave being a Chief Inspector as this novel begins. Stave lives alone in a freezing apartment, next door to the bombed building where he lives with his wife and son. His wife was killed in a bombing raid and his son, a Wehrmacht soldier, has not returned from the Eastern Front.
Rademacher expertly blends the story of the challenging investigation—taking place against the backdrop of the brutal winter, the near-starving population living in half-destroyed buildings, Nissen huts and bunkers, a black market where a once-valuable artwork may fetch a bit of butter—and the personal stories of Stave and his family, and of his secretary, a British officer who joins the investigation, and a witness who was once wealthy and is now scrabbling to survive. Rademacher’s style is hard-edged, but his Frank Stave is a sympathetic character whose experiences haven’t completely wiped out all belief in humanity.
This is the first book in the Frank Stave series. It was a finalist for the Crime Writers Association International Dagger Award of 2016. At the moment, two of the books in the Frank Stave series have been translated into English from the original German. The second title in the series is The Wolf Children, and I plan to read it soon. Rademacher also writes a series set in Provence. The first book in that series will be published in English in September, 2017, under the title Murderous Mistral: A Provence Mystery.
That winter, there was an infamous serial murderer at work in Hamburg, and his identity has never been found. Those murders were called the rubble murders, because the victims’ bodies were left in the rubble of the destroyed buildings. This novel fictionalizes that Hamburg winter, those murders and the police investigation.
The British occupation authorities reconstituted the Hamburg police by cleaning out Nazis as best they could, resulting in Social Democrat Frank Stave being a Chief Inspector as this novel begins. Stave lives alone in a freezing apartment, next door to the bombed building where he lives with his wife and son. His wife was killed in a bombing raid and his son, a Wehrmacht soldier, has not returned from the Eastern Front.
Rademacher expertly blends the story of the challenging investigation—taking place against the backdrop of the brutal winter, the near-starving population living in half-destroyed buildings, Nissen huts and bunkers, a black market where a once-valuable artwork may fetch a bit of butter—and the personal stories of Stave and his family, and of his secretary, a British officer who joins the investigation, and a witness who was once wealthy and is now scrabbling to survive. Rademacher’s style is hard-edged, but his Frank Stave is a sympathetic character whose experiences haven’t completely wiped out all belief in humanity.
This is the first book in the Frank Stave series. It was a finalist for the Crime Writers Association International Dagger Award of 2016. At the moment, two of the books in the Frank Stave series have been translated into English from the original German. The second title in the series is The Wolf Children, and I plan to read it soon. Rademacher also writes a series set in Provence. The first book in that series will be published in English in September, 2017, under the title Murderous Mistral: A Provence Mystery.
August 1, 2016
A well researched serial murder mystery, set in Hamburg, Germany in 1947. The story is based on real events - The Rubble Murders - which happened during the freezing winter of 1946/47 and the author effortlessly portrays the hardships undergone by the majority of Germans during that time. The main character, Frank Stave, is a senior Hamburg detective assigned to investigate the murders, aided by Maschke from the city's vice squad, who volunteered to join the team; and MacDonald, a British army lieutenant, seconded by the Allied Administration as liaison officer. Stave ends up mistrusting both his assistants and is frustrated by the investigation's complete failure to identify the victims, all of whom are found naked in the ruins of Hamburg. Occasionally, Stave's thoughts stray to his young son Karl, missing while fighting on the Russian front and his wife Margarethe who died during an Allied bombing raid on the city. The portrayal of a ruined German city in the immediate aftermath of World War II lends a cold, albeit depressing, reality to this crime novel, part of a trilogy - the rest of which I hope is available soon.
December 30, 2018
This is the first book in the “Inspector Franck Stave” trilogy, a historical fiction/mystery set in Germany, 2 years after the end of the Second World War.
At the time, refugees are flooding the britsh-occupied city of Hamburg, already full with a starving crowd, in the coldest winter in living memory, and on top of all that, there is a murderer on the loose who enjoys leaving cadavers in the ruins.
The book is told from the perspective of Franck Stave, an inspector who tries to catch the killer while surviving the hardships of the after war.
I enjoyed this book beyond my expectations. Certainly, the mystery/plot was well written. However, it was the tales of every day in post-war Germany that made this read fascinating to me. It was captivating to see how people survived in a destroyed Hamburg, battling the cold of winter, starvation, British occupation, the loss of loved ones, and especially the loss of what they were and the shame of what they had to become.
At the time, refugees are flooding the britsh-occupied city of Hamburg, already full with a starving crowd, in the coldest winter in living memory, and on top of all that, there is a murderer on the loose who enjoys leaving cadavers in the ruins.
The book is told from the perspective of Franck Stave, an inspector who tries to catch the killer while surviving the hardships of the after war.
I enjoyed this book beyond my expectations. Certainly, the mystery/plot was well written. However, it was the tales of every day in post-war Germany that made this read fascinating to me. It was captivating to see how people survived in a destroyed Hamburg, battling the cold of winter, starvation, British occupation, the loss of loved ones, and especially the loss of what they were and the shame of what they had to become.
September 20, 2015
Im Winter 1946/47 wird Oberinspektor Frank Stabe von der Hamburger Polizei beauftragt, einen Mord aufzuklären. Es wurde eine Leiche in einem Trümmerfeld der ausgebombten Stadt entdeckt. Im Laufe der Ermittlungen, an denen sich ein Kollege von der Sittenpolizei und ein Angehöriger der britischen Besatzungsarmee beteiligen, stößt Stabe immer wieder an Grenzen, die den Fall unlösbar erscheinen lassen. Viele Möglichkeiten und Verdächtigungen, nichts konkretes.
Genauso sollten meine Meinung nach Krimis sein. Dem Autor gelingt es, sowohl die Arbeit der Polizei, als auch die in diesem Fall sehr schwierigen äußeren Umstände, authentisch darzustellen. Die Hauptpersonen, insbesondere Stabe, sind glaubhaft gezeichnet, kämpfen mit inneren Widersprüchen und privaten Sorgen. Die Nebendarsteller von der Sekretärin über den Staatsanwalt bis zur vertriebenen Adeligen sind ausnahmslos gut und wichtig für die Handlung. Actionszenen á la Hollywood sucht man indes in diesem Buch vergeblich, was ich persönlich sehr zu schätzen weiß. Die psychologischen, sozialen und hier auch klimatischen Probleme stehen im Vordergrund.
Auch die Sprache ich durchaus gelungen. An passenden Stellen werden Dinge lediglich beim Namen genannt, und auf Verben verzichtet. Die Dinge an sich handeln ja auch nicht. Lediglich die Fragen, die sich Stabe im Geiste immer wieder stellt, erscheinen mir etwas zu viel.
Krimifans kann ich das Buch nur empfehlen, und auch Lesern, die an der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit in Deutschland interessiert sind.
Allerdings würde ich es nicht unbedingt als Historienroman bezeichnen.
Metaspoiler
Wer das Buch lesen will, sollte vorher nicht, wie ich, den Fehler machen, und den Klappentext zu dem Folgeroman "Der Schieber" zu lesen. Allein dadurch wird nämlich schon ein Handlungsfaden bzw. ein Verdachtsmoment von dem "Trümmermörder" sozusagen zertrümmert.
Echter Spolier
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
January 11, 2013
In der Regel mag ich ja historische Krimis. Warum ich mit diesem nicht so recht warm wurde, weiß ich nicht. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass "Der Trümmermörder" von Cay Rademacher im eisigen Winter zu Beginn des Jahres 1947 in der in Trümmer liegenden Stadt Hamburg spielt. Sibirische Kälte, Ruinen, Misstrauen, Elend, abgestumpfte Menschen, zerstörte Familien und dann noch ein Serienmörder, der seine Opfer nackt zwischen den Trümmern zurücklässt. Dazu ein Ermittler, der den Tod seiner Frau bei einem Bombenangriff vier Jahre zuvor und die Tatsache, dass sein einziger Sohn im Krieg vermisst wurde, nicht verkraftet hat. Insgesamt sehr düster. Elend und Kälte auf jeder Seite. Dazu bleiben die Opfer sehr farblos.
Fazit: Der Krimi war nicht schlecht, nur definitiv nichts für mich.
Fazit: Der Krimi war nicht schlecht, nur definitiv nichts für mich.
October 9, 2019
4,5 Un sobrecogedor retrato del Hamburgo del año 1947, es el escenario donde se desarrolla esta novela policíaca basada en un hecho real.
Rademacher en un ejercicio sobresaliente,consigue sumergirte en esta ciudad en ruinas, dominada por los escombros de los bombardeos y azotada por una ola de frio siberiano, llevándote con descripciones magníficas y muy detalladas, a ser uno más de esas personas que sobreviven como pueden en esas duras condiciones.
En este marco tan desolador, el inspector jefe Stave consigue abrirse paso entre los escombros y desenmarañar los intringulis de este caso y a la vez salir del ostracismo en que se hallaba inmersa su existencia. Como el mismo dice, el invierno por fin ha pasado y yo por fin empiezo a vivir.
Rademacher en un ejercicio sobresaliente,consigue sumergirte en esta ciudad en ruinas, dominada por los escombros de los bombardeos y azotada por una ola de frio siberiano, llevándote con descripciones magníficas y muy detalladas, a ser uno más de esas personas que sobreviven como pueden en esas duras condiciones.
En este marco tan desolador, el inspector jefe Stave consigue abrirse paso entre los escombros y desenmarañar los intringulis de este caso y a la vez salir del ostracismo en que se hallaba inmersa su existencia. Como el mismo dice, el invierno por fin ha pasado y yo por fin empiezo a vivir.
April 5, 2021
Good thriller. The premise is really interesting: a serial killer in Hamberg, Germany, in 1947, during Britain's occupation. There are the politics of the occupation forces, of trying to rebuild a country, of handling the massive influx of refugees and displaced persons. All this while dealing with one of the coldest winters in their contemporary memory, no infrastructure, food shortages, a burgeoning black market, looting, and hidden former Nazis. The period has been deeply researched and details are illuminating for much of the story. Recommend.
June 4, 2017
Bon, sans plus. Faut dire que je ne suis pas en partant une fanatique des polars... et je ne suis pas certaine que la traduction était à la hauteur. Mais le setting - l'Allemagne ravagée d'après-guère - était intéressant. Je lirai peut-être le prochain livre de la série.
January 5, 2020
This is unlike any murder mystery I have ever read. A class of its own translated from the German. This is a heavy powerful read. It takes place immediately after WW2 in the bombed out remains of Hamburg. People are on rations, curfew and order maintained by the occupying armies of America and Britain. No heat, limited electricity, no soap, food, the streets littered with the rubble of fallen buildings. It is winter and the wind blows through with minus 30 degree Celsius temperatures. In the turmoil, Detective Stave is in charge of finding a killer. Two bodies stripped naked and lying in the rubble. No clues, no pattern. No one asks no one cares. In this cold dismal setting, Stave looks like a hero to me. Along with trying to solve crimes he must find a way to rebuild his own restricted life and cooperate with Coalition forces. He must deal as well with a thriving and dangerous Black Market on every corner. It seems that only HE cares about these dead people, everyone else turns away seeking only to scrape out their own resistances in the aftermath of a brutal war.
I learned so much. Had no idea Hamburg was so devastated. I never thought about what it must be like to live in a city without any resources, desperately trying to rebuild; to reestablish a society. Very heavy, very bleak book. At times I found it very difficult to continue reading. But the language is the draw. This author is so talented and the translation so poignant as to keep a true readers appreciation and interest. I definitely drank hot tea and wrapped up as I continued to read. Will look for the rest of this author's canon. Highly recommend.
I learned so much. Had no idea Hamburg was so devastated. I never thought about what it must be like to live in a city without any resources, desperately trying to rebuild; to reestablish a society. Very heavy, very bleak book. At times I found it very difficult to continue reading. But the language is the draw. This author is so talented and the translation so poignant as to keep a true readers appreciation and interest. I definitely drank hot tea and wrapped up as I continued to read. Will look for the rest of this author's canon. Highly recommend.
February 10, 2019
There were lots I liked about this book. I found the place, Hamburg and the time, 1947 in history very interesting. I’d never really thought about what happened in Germany immediately following the Second WW. I just loved it when a book takes me to places I’d never thought of going and I love what I learn. I did think the story was a bit slow, four murders and not a clue in sight made impatient, I don’t expect to have that many corpses and absolutely no clues. Overall it was a good read and I enjoyed it. I’m just about to start the second book in the series.
December 26, 2018
A very good read as the author did a lot of research about the conditions of Hamburg after the war ended. Based on a real, unsolved mystery, this fictional story does a good job with a reasonable conclusion. I did find that sometimes the translations might have been too literal, and I lost the meaning. Still looking forward to the next book.
September 24, 2015
Slightly reminiscent of Philip Kerr's Bernard Gunther series, but with more humanism and less black wit. A good mystery which, set in post-war Hamburg, will keep you in pursuit of the identities of the victims, as well as the murderer, along with Stave.
July 14, 2022
Kriminalroman der Extraklasse. Echter Pageturner, der die Lesenden nicht mehr dem Griff lässt. Starke, glaubhafte Personen. Viel Atmosphäre ohne eine Spur von Info-dump. Absolute Leseempfehlung!
January 18, 2019
Roman policier qui se déroule dans le Hambourg de l’après guerre en hiver 1947. Ambiance sordide, sombre et froide. On frissonne presque en le lisant. J’y ai découvert une autre facette de la guerre et de ses dommages collatéraux. La vie y était tellement dure, les gens crevaient de faim et de froid.
Le roman est basé sur une histoire vraie, plusieurs crimes commis à Hambourg, mais dont le coupable n’a jamais été attrapé, alors que dans le livre, le policier en trouve l’auteur.
Le roman est basé sur une histoire vraie, plusieurs crimes commis à Hambourg, mais dont le coupable n’a jamais été attrapé, alors que dans le livre, le policier en trouve l’auteur.
January 23, 2019
3.5 stars for this detective novel, set in post-WWII Hamburg. Great, gritty description of living in a bombed-out city with harsh conditions and shortages of everything imaginable--and during the coldest winter in decades. The "mystery" was pretty good as were the characters.
July 19, 2018
Interesting story set in post WWII Hamburg, I look froward to reading more in the series.
May 13, 2019
3.5 stars. Not a bad book. Interesting for the historical background of post-war Hamburg. The mystery itself is a bit uneven. In the end a satisfying conclusion, although unnecessarily drawn-out.
April 20, 2019
Hamburg 1947; a humiliated city not yet recovered from British carpet bombing, now under British occupation, during a brutally cold winter. There is not enough food, not enough fuel; rationing is severe; many districts are simply rubble.The evocation of life in northern Germany at the time is superb - but I found the murder story rather laboriously developed. It would have been better as a non-mystery novel. I'd still be interested in reading the next volume, as this is the first of a trilogy.
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July 4, 2019January 1947 - an exceptionally cold winter (-36°C).
Over a relatively short period four bodies are discovered in the ruins of Hamburg, Germany. All had been murdered in a similar manner. What other links are there? Could they have been related? Chief Inspector Frank Stave is determined to find out.
Like almost everyone in Hamburg in the devastating aftermath of WWII, Stave has his own personal tragedies to deal with. In addition he has to solve the Rubble Murder case(s). He is assisted by his secretary Frau Berger, Inspector Maschke and the British Lieutenant MacDonald. However, can he trust his colleagues? Can he trust Dr Ehrlich the prosecutor who seems to be "a man with a mission"? Can he in fact trust anybody? The city (what's left of it) faces problems of starvation and general collapse. Does anyone even care that these murders have been committed? "Our society is a wasteland, the chief inspector thinks to himself. We detectives are just clearing up the rubble."
Fortunately winter doesn't last forever, and with the thaw comes resolution...
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This novel presents an interesting perspective of what it was like to live in an utterly devastated Hamburg after WWII. I was surprised to read the following in the author's Afterword:
"There really was a ‘rubble murderer’ who claimed four victims in Hamburg in the terrible, cold winter of 1946–7. That was the name he was given at the time, a name that struck fear in people’s minds. But who he really was remains a mystery. This thriller is based on the original case.
...
The murders were played out just as described here: the details of the victims, the places where their bodies were found and many other details are based on the investigations carried out by the police and the pathologist’s reports. The wording on the posters erected is authentic as is much of the other data from the autopsies. On the other hand I have inserted a few other, small but consequential, details to help Chief Inspector Frank Stave track down the killer – sadly only in this book."
Over a relatively short period four bodies are discovered in the ruins of Hamburg, Germany. All had been murdered in a similar manner. What other links are there? Could they have been related? Chief Inspector Frank Stave is determined to find out.
Like almost everyone in Hamburg in the devastating aftermath of WWII, Stave has his own personal tragedies to deal with. In addition he has to solve the Rubble Murder case(s). He is assisted by his secretary Frau Berger, Inspector Maschke and the British Lieutenant MacDonald. However, can he trust his colleagues? Can he trust Dr Ehrlich the prosecutor who seems to be "a man with a mission"? Can he in fact trust anybody? The city (what's left of it) faces problems of starvation and general collapse. Does anyone even care that these murders have been committed? "Our society is a wasteland, the chief inspector thinks to himself. We detectives are just clearing up the rubble."
Fortunately winter doesn't last forever, and with the thaw comes resolution...
#####
This novel presents an interesting perspective of what it was like to live in an utterly devastated Hamburg after WWII. I was surprised to read the following in the author's Afterword:
"There really was a ‘rubble murderer’ who claimed four victims in Hamburg in the terrible, cold winter of 1946–7. That was the name he was given at the time, a name that struck fear in people’s minds. But who he really was remains a mystery. This thriller is based on the original case.
...
The murders were played out just as described here: the details of the victims, the places where their bodies were found and many other details are based on the investigations carried out by the police and the pathologist’s reports. The wording on the posters erected is authentic as is much of the other data from the autopsies. On the other hand I have inserted a few other, small but consequential, details to help Chief Inspector Frank Stave track down the killer – sadly only in this book."
May 21, 2016
The Murderer in Ruins is the first book in a trilogy following the work of Chief Inspector Frank Stave in post-war Hamburg. The tale does a good job of situating the reader in the apocalyptic and freezing landscape of the city, filled with people struggling to make ends meet, find missing relatives, and to rebuild their lives. Stave is one of them, haunted by his dead wife, searching for his missing son, and struggling to solve a handful of murders. Rademacher provides a sympathetic and engaging portrayal of his lead character, and populates the tale with other interesting characters. Where the book struggles, however, is with respect to its plot. There are too many elements that do not add up – a major murder spree is being investigated by a team of three and one secretary as opposed a large dedicated team of inspectors, sergeants, constables; the murder book goes missing and Stave does nothing about it; a witness very clearly signals evidence and Stave ignores it – and there are a couple too many plot devices. Moreover, the ending is well telegraphed. The result is a tale that has a good sense of place and time and an interesting set of characters, but felt somewhat clunky and staged at times.
March 25, 2013
Wie sieht eine Stadt nach Zusammenbruch und Kriegsende aus? Fürchterlich! Hoffnungslos! Und auch noch kalt, weil der Winter die Hansestadt Hamburg in ihrem eisernen Griff hält. Vor dieser Kulisse sieht sich Kommissar Stave mit mehreren nackten Leichen in Trümmergrundstücken konfrontiert, während er außerdem noch von seinen eigenen Dämonen verfolgt wird. Wir folgen seiner Spurensuche von Hamburg und lernen immer neue und andere Menschen kennen, die jedoch alle irgendwie nicht zur Lösung des Falles beitragen, bis auf einmal kurz vor Schluss auf einmal alle Puzzleteile (fast zu gut) auf ihren Platz fallen. Unglaublich faszinierend, wie Rademacher uns dieses Hamburg präsentiert, das letztendlich doch wieder als Phoenix aus der Asche erstanden ist. Das ist das Allerbeste in diesem Krimi. Und dass trotz aller Schrecknisse zum Schluss doch noch das Prinzip Hoffnung gilt, sorgt für ein befreites Aufatmen. Der Frühling hält endlich in Hamburg und im Leben der Menschen Einzug
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