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Mountains, Cows and Murder
We are in Italy. Not in the Italian paradise of sea and sun, antiquities, pizza and pasta, but in Alto Adige, South Tyrol. Here, the mountains reign supreme – and most of the time it is cold and snowy. There are bacon dumplings and bacon. In addition to the tourist hotspots, there are still small remote villages where the community lives as it pleases – and the police, the authorities and even the priest have little say.
It is the home of Commissario Grauner, who lives with his family on the farm he inherited from his parents and raises cattle. He is happy with his wife and proud of his adult daughter. He dreams of retiring and spending his life on a beautiful alpine pasture. But … his wife is not so enthusiastic about this… and the farm is handed over to their daughter, who transforms it into an organic wellness paradise – but we are getting ahead of ourselves here. For now, Grauner lives on the farm with his wife and their daughter is still studying away from home.
In the morning, Grauner goes to his cowshed to milk his cows – always with Mahler’s music playing in the background. It is his hour of leisure. Unfortunately, his relaxation is often interrupted by a phone call informing him that a body has been found – somewhere in the mountains, on an alpine pasture or in one of the small villages.
Grauner is head of the homicide division at the Polizia de Stato and works with a small team based in Bolzano that is responsible for South Tyrol, the northernmost part of Italy. Although Grauner dislikes modern technology such as smartphones and the internet, he is a gifted detective who solves all his murder cases – well, sometimes a few very clever masterminds vanish into thin air just before the end, before Grauner and his team can identify and arrest them. He learns that modern crimes with international roots do not stop at South Tyrol and that the number of deaths and other victims can be quite high.
It always becomes difficult when the victims and perpetrators come from the local area. The inhabitants of South Tyrol are often not very talkative, especially if they come from a remote valley and live in a small village where everyone tends to dwell on and live in the past rather than in the modern world. In these communities, where families have been deeply rooted for decades, stories are told of events that happened years or even decades ago. Everyone knows who wronged whom back then, who may even have killed whom … only the police, Grauner and his team are left in the dark for a long time when someone wants to settle an old score. In most cases, it doesn’t stop at one dead body …
Alongside Grauner, there is an Ispettore who has been transferred from Naples, the warm paradise of pasta, espresso and football, with its sun, sea and Italian lifestyle, to the cold and icy Alps … He is unhappy, but he tries to make the best of it. With his special ideas and approaches, which are not rooted in the mountain region, and with Grauner’s help, the two manage to penetrate deep into the world of South Tyrol and solve the cases.
Of course, the Mafia also plays a role in South Tyrol. The Ispettore was once transferred from Naples because he got too close to the Mafia during investigations there. Then it looks as if the Mafia has tracked him down in South Tyrol and …
The novels are set between the traditional worlds of the long-established South Tyroleans, the dream world of Grauner with his farm and cows, the modern tourism industry, and the modern world of crime with international connections. The combination of this diversity with complex murder cases involving many twists and turns is simply thrilling.