Spoilers!
Urgh this book did my head in. Where do I start?! This was my first book of this series, which I got as a gift. I probably should have read the others before, in order to get used to the characters. Not sure.
Overall, I liked the storyline (go figure, people get killed). It kept me guessing about the murderer a lot. I really struggled with the amount of (main) characters though. In my opinion it was just far too many. I frequently had to read back in order to understand who is who again, and who did what which was just too much. Upon starting the book, I actually loved the fact that the characters were listed on one of the first pages.... until I saw there was more on one of the last pages of the book.
I felt the mix of first names and surnames in english and german confusing, especially since they all seemed to be Germans. Additionally, I was puzzled by names being used for certain generations, and I thought they just did not fit - which resulted in me mixing up who is who. Someone called Ben represents to me a younger person, whereas a John somehow is the older person to me. In this book, Ben is the 78 year old dad and John the son.
The whole book is rather long and at times I felt the story was dragged out too much. I had to put it down several times as I struggled with it. The last three chapters however, I read in minutes and it felt that the author couldn't seem to wrap it up quickly enough.
Something I still shake my head at: Benthien's kid, Jenny..
...so she climbs into a stranger's car and doesn't even get any telling off? She hits the bloke on the head so that he actually starts bleeding and that, and he just accepts it??? No smack, no tying her up or anything?... she frees herself by cutting and tying up fabric and escaping through the window... like some mini-MacGyver - hmmm not sure about that. And how the little girl just deals with the situation like it was a fun outing. All she wants is Pizza.. I'd probably have been lying on the bed in the fetal position crying for my mum, had I been her.
The most annoyed I got about someone calling Kartoffelpüree "Pü"... ! I mean, WHAT THE ACTUAL...!!! I was literally appalled by this. No one does that. At least none of my german friends and family. I considered throwing the book at the wall, until I remebered it was a gift and I should treat it nicely.
Do we really have to ruin the language even more with those choices of words??!
My partner had to listen to me moan about this for quite some time... (bless him, but he does not know anyone either who would say Pü rather than Kartoffelpüree).
I probably would read another book of this series, just to see if they can all stir my emotions that much. But not that soon!