Book Review: Dead Woods

Dead Woods
A 34-year-old computer programmer Philip Birkner is found dead in the woods, but when Lina Svenson and Max Berg of the Hamburg Homicide Division plunge in pursuit of the killer, they are in for a surprise. The man's surviving spouse Katja is nonchalant to the point of indifference, his insurance agent younger brother Lukas, who idolises Philip in every possible way he can, turns evasive when pressed for more details, and his own software company's employees appear to have secretly plotted his downfall. That's when Philip's dark past emerges, leading the detective duo to comb for clues to paint the picture of a man who evidently had something to hide, a man who has had his twisted comeuppance. Dead Woods is definitely an interesting debut for Maria C. Poets - it's armed with a set of likeable characters and the 'who' in the whodunit has a motive that fleshes out his repressed anger - but for a novel set in Germany, it can easily pass off for your run-of-the-mill American crime thriller.

Comments