The Basel Killings

It is the end of October, the city of Basel is grey and wet. It could be December. It is just after midnight when Police Inspector Peter Hunkeler, on his way home and slightly worse for wear, spots old man Hardy sitting on a bench under a street light. He wants to smoke a cigarette with him, but the usually very loquacious Hardy is silent-his throat a gaping wound. Turns out he was first strangled and his left earlobe slit, the diamond stud he usually wore there missing. The media and the police come quickly to the same conclusion: Hardy's murder was the work of a gang of Albanian drug smugglers. But for Hunkeler that seems too obvious a resolution. After all, Barabara Amsler, a prostitute, was also recently found strangled, her ear slit. He follows his own intuition and methods which lead him deep into a seedy world of bars and night clubs. More ominously, he soon must face the consequences of certain events in recent Swiss history that those in power would prefer to keep far from the public eye.

Auteur

Hansjörg Schneider (born 1938) lives in Basel and began his professional career as a journalist and essayist. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed plays and of the bestselling Peter Hunkeler crime series, now with ten titles published. "The Basel Killings" was awarded The Friedrich Glauser Prize, Germany's most prestigious crime fiction prize.

Texte du rabat

"First published in German as Hunkeler macht Sachen by Ammann Verlag, Zurich, 2004"--Title page verso.

Résumé
It all begins with two murders, an old man and a prostitute, both strangled and left with their earlobes slit. Inspector Hunkeler of the Basel police investigates and is soon faced with the consequences of certain recent events in Swiss history that everyone wants to keep buried.