Kühlfach 4

Pascha #1

by Jutta Profijt

»Wer bist du?«, fragte er flüsternd.
»Ich bin Pascha, der Kerl aus dem Kühlfach vier.«
»Aber du bist tot, du kannst nicht mit mir sprechen«, wandte er ein.
»Hast du noch nie was von Nahtod gehört?
Die Seele verlässt dem Körper und macht sich dann irgendwann auf den Weg durch den Tunnel. Aber hier ist kein Tunnel, ich weiß nicht, wo ich hin soll.«
Dr. Martin Gänsewein trägt Dufflecoat, fährt Ente und sammelt Stadtpläne. Außerdem hat er täglich mit Leichen zu tun, denn er ist Rechtsmediziner - und zwar ein gewissenhafter. Wo die Seelen der Verstorbenen bleiben, überlässt er den Glaubenseinrichtungen der Angehörigen. Bis die Seele eines kleinkriminellen Prolls sich im Institut einnistet und behauptet, ermordet worden zu sein. Pascha verlangt von Gänsewein die Aufnahme der Ermittlungen ...

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Paranormal, Ghosts, Thriller, Fantasy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Jutta Profijt is a crime novelist and translator.

Author photo (c)Doris Seffern, used with permission.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morgue Drawer Four (Pascha #1) by Jutta Profijt, Erik J. Macki (Translator) is a clever and funny ghost story. Pasha is a street punk that is a professional car thief. Martin is a very quiet doctor that enjoys his job doing autopsies. They end up together. Martin can hear Pasha talking during Pasha's autopsy. Now Martin's life will never be the same! It ends in a semi- cliffhanger. You know what is going to happen, you hope, but you have to get book two to be sure. I planned to get book two anyway. I really thought this was a fresh take on ghosts because of the relationship between Martin and Pasha! 😁
The narration has a guy that sounds like a street punk! Perfect!

[Lolly's Library · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry, I really wanted to like this, I did. After all, even though the premise isn't exactly unique (the spirit of a dead man comes back to enlist the help of someone who can see him in order to avenge his murder) the method in which this particular premise is told is. After all, the ghost is a petty thief and the man who helps him is a shy coroner who really only wants to do his job and be able to collect his antique city maps and be left alone. However, even five pages in I kept wondering why anyone was supposed to care who or why Pascha/Sascha Lerchenberg was murdered. At one hundred pages in, I was glad the annoying little oik had been bumped off. As a narrator/protagonist, Pascha is the most uncouth, disgusting, perverted, sexist pig of a man I've ever encountered. And we're supposed to care he's dead? Excuse me, but as a reader, we're supposed to be able to connect with the protagonist on some level, to have some sympathy for him. With Pascha I felt nothing but irritation that I had keep hearing his "voice." Martin, the coroner, is a much more sympathetic character and I kept wishing the book had been told from his P.O.V. I would much rather have seen the story unfold from his shy and hesitant perspective as he encountered all manner of thugs and ruffians and had only the patronizing promptings of a ghost, who was more interested in looking up nearby womens' skirts, to help him out of sticky situations. Martin's use of legal-ese and medical mumbo-jumbo to intimidate the men bullying him were the most funny and creative bits in the entire novel.

Then we come to the method of storytelling. I've already mentioned how annoying Pascha's voice is, but his many interjections interrupted the flow of the narrative rather than added to it. The overwhelming number of his snarky asides and inner monologues and puerile sniggerings were just downright distracting. There also seemed to be unnecessary pauses in the action. For instance, when Pascha's body is being autopsied and Pascha makes his ectoplasmic self known to Martin, instead of exclaiming over the fact that someone can hear him and badgering that living person to talk to him, Pascha instead shuts up and slips into the morgue drawer holding his physical remains, waiting until the next morning to begin conversing with Martin. Now, me personally, if I were a ghost and discovered that when I spoke, someone living heard me, I'd be all up in that person's face, immediately asking what's going on, hey can you help me, and other assorted questions to do with my current incorporeal state. It just didn't sit right with me.

I wanted to blame the translation. After all, sometimes things get lost when switching from one language to another. The original story is in German and the German people have words (like Schadenfreude, a gorgeous one) which just do not translate into English. However, the more I read, the more I could see that the translator actually did an excellent job and the problems I encountered with the story were in the actual source material. One hundred pages in, I just had to stop pretending; I no longer had the energy or desire to continue with the book. I flipped through the rest of it just to see how the mystery ended and gratefully put the book away, somewhere far out of my sight. I really hate giving up on novels, but I hate wasting my time and energy on losers even more. And believe me, I hate calling something a "loser"; after all, I'm a writer, I know how attached we writers become to our work and how difficult it is to hear criticism of said work. So my problems with this book may not be your problems. After all, Morgue Drawer Four was shortlisted for Germany's 2010 Friedrich Glauser Prize for best crime novel, so, hey, what the hell do I know?

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Related to this ebook in General

The Kindle daily deal is awesome. Every morning, I open up an email from Amazon and click over to get the skinny on the latest offering. Whoever picks these changes things up, and the title of the day could be genre fiction, a memoir, history, something more "literary," what have you. So far, I'm picking up between 1-2 books a week, most of these being titles and writers that I hadn't previously heard of. Affordable books, new discoveries, daily surprise? Damn I'm sold on this thing!


Pertaining to Morgue Drawer Four's Story

This was a Daily Deal buy. I had never heard of Profijt, nor her series. Seeing as I'm looking to read more female-authored books this year; and that I'm always on the look-out for good commute reads; and that this is relatively short (less than 250 pages), I decided to go the extra effort and scoot the mouse pointer over a few centimeters to the 1-Click Button. Oh that dirty little 1-Click Button...


Ok, this is what I Actually Thought about the Book

Two-stars = ok = a book that was easy to read when I did, and easy to forget about when I wasn't reading it. I haven't read a lot of urban fantasy (or whatever the hell this stuff is called these days); compared to Huston's Pitt books, Williams's first Detective Chan joint, and Connelly's Child of Fire, this was surprisingly unsophisticated. The gimmick attached to the narrator runs short in short time, and the remaining characters barely put on weight from start to finish of the story. The plot reveal is underwhelming, and there isn't a lot of action to speak of. Don't ask about plot holes, they are many and I've written enough about this book.


In Conclusion

Beer me the next Daily Deal.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Morgue Drawer Four by Jutta Profijt just sitting there on the New Arrival Shelf at the Library begging me to take it home. Like the protagonist, Dr. Martin Gänsewein, I tried in vain to ignore the little voice calling my name, picked up the book, read the synopsis and was hooked. Not that I don't have oodles of books sitting in TBR piles in my backroom calling my name as well...but, you see, they were across town in my house so their voices were fainter. After reading the blurb on the back I was hooked. I told myself that it was okay that I bring home another library book--after all, this one is set in Germany and written by a German author and I could use it for my European Reading Challenge! (Shhh, let's not talk about the other European settings and authors that are sitting in the TBR piles...)

This was a fun read. I loved the unique set-up and hearing/seeing things form Pascha's point of view was quite interesting. Now, I have to admit, Pascha isn't the most likeable fellow. It's not clear why we should care who bumped him off (other than we ought to care when anyone is killed)--I mean, after all, he's rather egotistical and opinionated and well....not sympathetic at all. But that doesn't matter. It was a great concept and I did want to know. And the translator has done a wonderful job with the story. I think he got the tone just right. And, I didn't guess who did it--which is a big plus. Three stars for a decent debut mystery and interesting concept. I liked it enough that I'm interested to see where the next installment takes Martin and his ghost.

{This review is mine and was first posted on my blog at http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/20.... Please request permission to repost any portion. Thanks.}

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time, I couldn't finish this. This time it was fun and I'm on the 2nd. Cute and funny.

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sounded so different I thought I'd give it a go. I skimmed some reviews just before I started it and was a little disappointed so many mentioned how hysterical it was which put me off a little as I don't like comedic books. So I started it anyhow, expecting some sort of slapstick nonsense, but I'm happy to say that wasn't the case at all. Yes, it has a lot of amusing lines in but it didn't go too far. One incident did give me slight pause but thankfully it was only that once so I enjoyed it. I liked both Martin and Pascha a lot. Talk about poles apart, though !! It was interesting to see how their "friendship" evolved and I look forward to reading another in the series, as I see both still feature going forward. I did feel sorry for Martin a lot of the time, since he didn't ask to have this chap hanging around bothering him and causing all sorts of upheaval in his very quiet life !!
I was a little disappointed this European author chose to go with American spellings but when I finished I saw at the end that the translator lives over there so that is maybe why. On the very first page, there was a passage that had no fewer than 9 commas and I was dreading this being the case throughout, which would have made for some hard-going but thankfully that was the worst example.
There were the odd apostrophe mistakes as usual in e-books and one error made me smile, as read with the wrong spelling it was funny. She writes, "He just kept on chattering at her about this grizzly corpse he'd examined" and not grisly. I laughed aloud at this, too (and others had highlighted the very same portion)...."looking as sad as a dog into whose bowl you've sliced a piece of tofu sausage" !!
I did get a bit baffled right near the end by a couple of things that were said, which pretty much cost it the 5* for me, as, however many times I re-read it, I couldn't resolve things properly. Anyway, I won't lose sleep over it. I've looked at it again as I compose this review but I'm none the wiser.
I'll definitely be giving book 2 a go.

[Emmalynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprise fun read discovered as a read/listen on kindle Unlimited. Martin and Pasha are downright goofy. Pasha, a car thief has unfortunately boosted the wrong car that may or may not have led to his untimely demise. Martin, the coroner is rudely interrupted in the middle of his autopsy by the spirit of Pasha and thus the adventure begins. Pasha has some soul searching (pun intended) to do as he reflects on his actions and how it led to his death. Martin is trying to be a boyfriend but Pasha isn’t helping. Their fight and Pasha efforts to make up 😂😂😂😂

[Toralf Saffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hey, nimm deine Wichsgriffel von meinem Sack"
Mit diesen Worten begann die "Zusammenarbeit" zwischen Pascha, einem eigentlich ziemlichen toten Kleinkriminellen und Martin, dem peniblen Rechtmediziner, welche sich im Rahmen von Paschas Obduktion gerade an letztgenanntem zu schaffen machen wollte.
Pascha liegt auf dem Seziertisch weil er angetrunken eine Brücke herunterstürzte und nur er weiß, dass ihn jemand stieß. Jetzt geistert seine Seele in der Rechtsmedizin herum und ausgerechnet der alte Stadtpläne sammelnde, penible Junggeselle und Entenfahrer Martin ist das einzigste Medium weit breit zu dem Pascha Kontakt aufnehmen kann - was für Martin natürlich auch recht überraschend kommt. Um Pascha`s Geist wieder loszuwerden muss Martin sich auf Mördersuche begeben, wobei ihm Pascha natürlich hilft, wie auch in anderen Situationen seines so beschaulichen Lebens - ob Martin will oder nicht. Mit der Beschaulichkeit ist es somit bald vorbei und auch die berufliche Zukunft, ja die Zukunft von Martin im Ganzen stehen innerhalb kürzester Zeit auf dem Spiel.
Die Geschichte der zwei grundverschiedenen "Ermittler" ist morbid komisch, spannend, witzig und flüssig geschrieben. Ein entspannender Spaß für Zwischendurch ohne viel Tiefgang.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Die Idee, dass der Geist einer Leiche mit dem Gerichtsmediziner Kontakt aufnimmt, um seinen Mörder zu finden, mag ja ganz nett sein. Aber der Ton im Buch ging mir schon nach zwei Seiten ziemlich auf die Nerven. Der Tote war ein "Gangster", weshalb es offensichtlich absolut notwendig ist, dass er auch derb spricht. Das ist auf Dauer nicht lustig, sondern einfach nur nervig. Und wenn dann mal ein etwas "gehobeneres" Wort auftaucht, muss man da natürlich auch über mehrere Seiten drauf rumreiten (von wegen 'Oh, das Wort kannte ich ja noch gar nicht. Das hat mir der Herr Doktor beigebracht! Ja-ha!').
Ich war froh, als ich druch war. Und es war wirklich eine Qual. Sorry.

[Nightwitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so much fun. I'm guessing at some point Pascha will get kind of wearisome, but for one book he was entertaining, and Martin is endearing as all get-out.

[Tamminem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am Anfang war der Schreibstil extrem nervig, irgendwann hat man sich dran gewöhnt und die Story war ganz spannend/lustig

[Heather Baez · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this (my first audible book) and in the beginning I couldn't decide if I didn't like audio books, didn't like THIS book, or I didn't like the narrator. I'm hoping it's just the last two. But I really didn't like this book at all! The premise was fine - ghost of the body in morgue drawer four and the forensic pathologist cutting his body open unwillingly team up to solve Pasha's (the ghost) murder. Except Pasha is the most annoying, self aborbed, selfish pig. I did not care who murdered him or why. It almost seemed like the murderer did the world a favor. The book ended with a cliff hanger and I won't be reading book #2 to find out what happens because I just don't care. Also, the narrator of the audio book was horrible. His different voices were annoying and distracting. Maybe I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it, but I doubt it. The main character was one I just didn't care about at all.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

By page 37 this book just became annoying.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Take the “buddy cop” mystery formula, where two cops or detectives with contrasting and conflicting personalities have to work together to solve a case. Substitute a forensic pathologist for one of the detectives. Now, substitute an apprentice auto mechanic and a small-time criminal for the other one. But wait, make the other guy dead. Yes, dead. The pathologist works together with the ghost of the expired auto mechanic to find his murderer. That’s the premise of “Morgue Drawer Four” by the German author, Jutta Profijt. The pathologist, Martin Gansewein, and dead Pascha Lerchenberg meet when Martin finishes cutting Pasha’s body. The plot takes place in the city of Cologne, Germany.

Although I do not particularly like the premise (I am not fond of any paranormal elements in literature), it could probably work great, were it well developed. Unfortunately, there is not much of a payoff from the contrast between the physical and the spiritual detectives. The plot is pretty pedestrian and the author relies way too much on the novelty of the premise.

The prose is chatty. There is nothing wrong with chatty writing, if the author has interesting things to chat about. Unfortunately, both Martin and Pascha are quite uninteresting people. Their observations are shallow and predictable. There is little sense of the place in this novel. The plot could be taking place in any city of any country. The little humor present in the novel is limited to Pascha’s fascination with the size of female breasts. Quite low-level stuff.

One and a half stars.

[Amy Corwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just started Morgue Drawer Four (I'm on chapter 3) and so far, I'm LOVING IT! It is hilarious in a wry, dry, dark sort of way. I'm almost afraid that anything I say will end up being a spoiler, but so far, the narrator has been through an...accident, shall we say, and ended up an a morgue drawer. Drawer four to be precise.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book, a guy dies and his ghost can only talk to the guy who performed the autopsy on him, but I was a little leary because this is actually the English translation.

Now I've read a lot of books translated from other languages, and they all suffer one HUGE problem: lack of a voice. In fact, most of the time, the writing is boring/lackluster/Jack-n-Jill stuff. Translations mostly work because of the story, not becaues of the writing (which is generally abysmal).

Not so with this book. I don't know how they managed to get such a terrific translator and had to wisdom to allow him to have an actual (very British) voice, but it totally made the book for me. I love his voice. It's a riot.

It reads really, really quickly and in fact, I had a hard time putting it down last night in order to go to bed. I'm dying to find out if they find out who gave the dead guy a fatal shove.

Love it!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book about poor Martin, who is minding his own business getting on with his job as a coroner, when suddenly the ghost of one of his "clients", Pasha, starts to talk to him. Martin is really not the type of man to go out solving crimes, especially when this involves visiting criminals and prostitutes, but he is the only person Pasha can communicate with. They form an unlikely partnership as they hunt down Pasha's killer. This book is a good read and is a different take on the usual detective fiction. The book appears to be the first in a series so it will be interesting to see how the storyline develops.

[Zogman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like Lolly, I wanted to like this, but the main subject, Pasha, became so irritating that I had difficulty finishing the book. I grew to like the forensic surgeon and his character developed well in the story. The story itself had enough detail and twists to keep me interested, but the constant interruptions from Pasha's ghost broke the flow too often. I found the denouement unbelievable with the murderer explaining everything in the last few pages.
An interesting idea, but the main subject, I cannot call him a hero, must be believable and likeable. Such a shame as some of Pasha's asides were quite funny.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin is a coroner in Germany and he's a happy little scientist who takes pride in his work. And then suddenly, during the autopsy of a small-time car thief, he finds he can hear the spirit of the aforementioned deceased thief. Pascha finds that he can't move on until his death is solved and so the two of them investigate the underworld that Pascha inhabited whilst alive. This was rather amusing and ended up being a kind of German Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Will definitely be seeking out more in the series.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, a police procedural where the narrator is a ghost. Definitely different, and offering a new spin on the genre. Overall I liked this, although Pascha, the narrator, takes some getting used to as he's not the most pleasent individual. Still, its written with a black humour that kept me reading, and I did like the poor confused coroner, Martin, who suddenly finds himself able to talk to a ghost.

[Rebecca Rockman · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an original, clever, funny book! I don't want to say anything about the book at all because I think it is such a nice surprise to read it knowing nothing about it, which is exactly what I did. Highly recommended light reading fun!

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise. Enjoyment of this book requires a suspension of belief. A sentiment ghost is a primary character who moves the story along. I got bogged down at a couple of points in the world of crime and petty criminals. Not sure if I will go in to read more in this series.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

actually pretty amusing, with the complete contrast in characters between the two central people, and what with one being dead and all.
good fun, with a who dunnit nicely thrown in

[Heather Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an enjoyable read. You can't take it seriously or you won't like it. It has some seriousness to it but is meant to be light hearted and entertaining and it is.

[Tealo · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Man würde mir meinen Körper wegnehmen. Mein Kühlfach. Mein Heim. Meine letzte bekannte Adresse: Rechtsmedizinisches Institut, Kühlfach vier. Ich wurde obdachlos." S.116

Pascha, 24, Autodieb deines Vertrauens, wurde tot, aber stark alkoholisiert am unteren Ende einer glatten Treppe aufgefunden. Für die Ermittler ist der Fall eindeutig: selbstverschuldeter Unfalltod.
Für Pascha allerdings, dessen Seele nun durch die Rechtsmedizinischen Abteilungen geistert, besteht die Aufgabe darin, seine*n Mörder*in zu finden.

Nicht nur das Cover sondern auch ein Zitat unter dem Klappentext versprachen mir eines: Witz, Humor, Momente des Schmunzelns. Doch was ich bekam war ein absurdes Maß an sexistischen Bemerkungen, die sich zunächst immer mal in die Gedankenwelt von Pascha einschlichen, doch zunehmend die Hauptthematik dominierten. Ich kann verstehen, dass man als Leser*in nicht alle Charaktere zu hundertprozent mögen muss/kann/soll, aber mir kam es irgendwann so vor, als ob das Hauptziel darin bestand Frauen auf die abartigsten Weisen beleidigen zu müssen. Dies half dem voranschreiten des Plots aber absolut gar nicht. Für den Protagonisten sollte man in irgendeiner Form eine Verbindung aufbauen können - dies fiel mir aber aus besagten Gründen schwer. Demnach war es mir auch völlig egal, ob Pascha seine*n Mörder*in findet und wie die Story ausgeht.
Nach knapp 100 Seiten habe ich dieses Buch abgebrochen.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

...it’s quite natural to wonder how to get rid of a ghost you didn’t even summon. [p. 31]

Martin Gänsewein is a mild-mannered forensic pathologist, approaching middle age. Pascha Lerchenberg is a small-time car thief, in his twenties. Together they fight crime: or, rather, they attempt to solve a murder that Pascha is taking extremely personally, given that he was the victim. The first-person narrator of Morgue Drawer Four, Pascha can communicate with nobody except Martin, who initially thinks he's going mad but gradually begins to accept the truth of Pascha's existence.

Martin and Pascha are a typical 'odd couple': Pascha is uneducated, dishonest and enjoys -- enjoyed -- drinking, gambling and whoring, while Martin is shy, middle-class and socially inept. Pascha mocks Martin's car and tries to muscle in on what might be a date with a potential girlfriend. (He is extremely sexist, but at least he can't do much about it any more.) Martin tries his best not to talk out loud when he's answering Pascha. And Pascha is constantly awake and aware, and finds himself becoming more philosophical -- and more compassionate -- than he ever was in life.

This was a very entertaining read. I identified the murderer quite early on, though was prepared to be wrong: there were warning signs, though, and several clues. Regardless, the fun was in the interaction of the two protagonists, and in the sympathetic way that Pascha (who's really not a likeable guy) was written.

I purchased this item on 17 December 2011. Wow.

Translated from the German (original title Kühlfach 4), this fulfils the 'crime novel or thriller in translation' item of the Reading Women Challenge 2021.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wild ride with Pascha!
MacLeod Andrews, an accomplished narrator, proves why I chose this title. Having and this in my library for years, I decided to give it another attempt. As you can see from reading the intro, “Morgue Drawer Four Book 1” by Jutta Profijt is an unusual choice, and an exceptional one at that. This unusual yet exceptional mystery follows shy coroner Martin Gänsewein as he's haunted by the ghost of Pascha, a chatty small-time car thief whose accidental death turns out to be murder. Pascha's determined to find his killer, and Martin reluctantly agrees to help. A witty and unexpected mystery that introduces a memorable duo, it’s a fresh take on a new genre for me. “Morgue Drawer Four" was a great choice; featuring devious and humorous elements {{one extreme to the other}}, I thoroughly enjoyed it. An awesome nod to Andrews and Profijt for combining their prime talents and bringing “Morgue Drawer Four” to Audible. The other ones in this series have disappeared from Audible. Ummm, where are they?

💥🤙🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟👍💥

[Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not Your Typical Ghost Story

This series must be read in order. This is the first book. I can't wait to read The Morgue Drawer Next Door!



Pascha never expected to die... He expected even less to wake up as a ghost! Having Martin (the coroner) be the only person able to perceive him in any way isn't ideal but at least someone can hear him. Knowing he was murdered and everyone thinks he just had a drunk accident is galling. Not knowing who did him in or even why is even worse! Will Pascha be able to convince Martin to figure out who killed him? Or will Martin write him off as a hallucination brought on by stress and overworking? Will he be forever stuck in morgue drawer four?



***This series is suitable for adult readers who enjoy avant guard murder mysteries with a supernatural bent and plenty of surprises :)

[Dani · Rating 1 out of 5]

Die Grundidee des Buchs fand ich richtig cool, deshalb wollte ich es unbedingt haben. Ich hatte mich auf allerfeinste Situationskomik gefreut, die die Geschichte auf jeden Fall auch hergegeben hätte. Leider wurde diese Chance von der Autorin nicht genutzt. Dafür aber die Chance, den Leser eine Fremdscham nach der anderen fühlen zu lassen. Der Bewohner von Kühlfach 4 soll ein 24-jähriger Autodieb gewesen sein, der aber Schimpfworte und Flüche benutzt, die einfach nur peinlich sind, wie beispielsweise "Himmelarschundgleitschirmstiel".

Auch ein paar andere Ausdrücke sind zum fremdschämen. Das Wort "Peitschen" für Euro beispielsweise. Wer sagt sowas? Doch nur jemand, der auf Krampf cool wirken will, aber genau das Gegenteil erreicht.

Zugegeben, ab der Hälfte des Buchs wird das erträglicher, aber die Komik habe ich leider immer noch vermisst.

[Rulesbydaisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this book I kept thinking it would make a wonderful TV show. The problem is that although I would love it, it would get cancelled immediately. Of course it could also go the route that the show although based on the book, is nothing like it. I really enjoyed this story. It was definitely quirky. As much as I felt bad for the characters, I loved how their relationship grew. This is the second book I have read by this author, and I really enjoy her writing. I think I even liked this book a bit better than Dust Angel. This is one of those books that I kept yelling at in my head. The funny thing is that with this book it made me feel closer to the characters.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hoot! The story is told by Pascha, especially after his demise and acquaintance with the doctor who performed his autopsy. The two men are as different as chalk and cheese, and not just because one's dead. Pascha is a younger streetwise moocher who regularly gets into messes and the doctor is staid and rather wrapped too tight. The characters certainly are, and the publisher's blurb gives some idea of what's happening but there's no need for spoilers here, just go ahead and enjoy!
The translation from the original German is done by Erik J Macki and I expect that he knows just how to translate tricky idioms.
MacLeod Andrews is the narrator and his presentation is so in character, just listening makes you laugh and picture the characters clearly!