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Zen and the Art of Murder: A Black Forest Investigation I (The Black Forest Investigations Book 1) by [Oliver Bottini, Jamie Bulloch]

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Oliver Bottini

Zen and the Art of Murder: A Black Forest Investigation I (The Black Forest Investigations Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Oliver Bottini (Author), Jamie Bulloch (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition

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** NOW SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER**

"Gripping" Tatler

The first in a thrilling new crime series set in Germany - the Black Forest Investigations

Louise Boni, maverick chief inspector with the Black Forest crime squad, is struggling with her demons. Divorced at forty-two, she is haunted by the shadows of the past.

Dreading yet another a dreary winter weekend alone, she receives a call from the departmental chief which signals the strangest assignment of her career - to trail a Japanese monk wandering through the snowy wasteland to the east of Freiburg, dressed only in sandals and a cowl. She sets off reluctantly, and by the time she catches up with him, she discovers that he is injured, and fearfully fleeing some unknown evil. When her own team comes under fire, the investigation takes on a terrifying dimension, uncovering a hideous ring of child traffickers. The repercussions of their crimes will change the course of her own life.

Oliver Bottini is a fresh and exciting voice in the world of crime fiction in translation; the Rhine borderlands of the Black Forest are a perfect setting for his beautifully crafted mysteries.

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

Length: 402 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Language: English

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Review

An exceptional crime novel. - TAZ

It's been a long time since any crime author started out so strongly, so visually. - Die Zeit

Oliver Bottini, one of the few German authors who play in crime-writing's premier league, really knows how to tell a good story. - Frankfurter Rundschau

Tension without brutality, local colour without small-minded sentimentality, good, intelligent reading with depth - Handelsblatt --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Oliver Bottini was born in 1965. Four of his novels, including ZEN AND THE ART OF MURDER and A SUMMER OF MURDER of the Black Forest Investigations have been awarded the Deutscher Krimipreis, Germany's most prestigious award for crime writing. In addition his novels have been awarded the Stuttgarter Krimipreis and the Berliner Krimipreis. He lives in Berlin. www.bottini.de. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN : B01N7VA00B
Publisher : MacLehose Press (11 January 2018)
Language : English
File size : 1427 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 402 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 371,786 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 33 in German Travel
- 5,843 in Police Procedurals (Kindle Store)
- 6,407 in Travel & Tourism (Books)

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27 ratings

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2 star		27%
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Malcolm R

The writing is all

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2018

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More of a study of a barely functioning alcoholic than a police procedural but the latter is what this really is and a fascinating one it is. The story is told obliquely without forensic detail just the impressions of Chief Inspector Louise Boni investigating the killing of a colleague and the effect it has on her. She is already damaged by a dysfunctional upbringing, her brother’s death, a divorce and the outcome of a kidnapping which resulted in her killing the perpetrator, all this has caused her drinking but not affected her ability to investigate - unofficially of course. The case is a bit routine and a bit OTT but it does not matter. The short story at the end tells you no more than the preceding book but it is OK.

2 people found this helpful

Eric James

complex

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2018

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A difficult book to get into. I was constantly wanting to go back, in order to reorientate myself

One person found this helpful

Huggermugger

It was ok

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2020

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It was ok

Mr. D. L. Rees

A TORMENTED MIND RATHER DISTRACTS

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2017

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

A splendidly evocative start. Silently trudging miles through snow, a battered Japanese monk is source of unease amongst the people he passes - he perhaps an omen of troubles ahead. Mystified police investigate. Perhaps a Buddhist monastery can provide the answer to so much that puzzles....

Highly intrigued, I settled for a good read, but sadly found it hard to adjust to what follows. Much of the novel is a psychological study of its main character, Chief Inspector Louise Boni. She seemingly is on the edge of a nervous breakdown - mind in disarray ever since she shot a killer dead. Troubled dreams. Hallucinations. Much drinking is her way of trying to cope. Understandably colleagues are increasingly concerned about the loose cannon in their midst.

Enjoyment depends on how much the reader can sympathize with her plight. Many instead may simply lose patience, wish she would opt for therapy, and stop the rather unconvincing go-it-alone tactics (especially in the Black Forest at night).

If only I could have felt more involved! Then those final revelations would have been truly heart-rending.

Most unusually the book contains a bonus. A short story tells of that killing which so traumatized Boni. It may be an idea to read that first - all the better to understand what ever since she has been going through.

Hopefully Zen will help Boni find inner peace, rendering sequels more palatable for readers rather disappointed this time round.

3 people found this helpful

Sam Woodward

Not bad but I won't be reading the sequel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 January 2018

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I must admit that I don’t normally read police thrillers like this one but like many others, I enjoyed the film adaptations of the Millennium trilogy & The Killing TV series. However it was more the Zen aspect which drew me in, as I’m a meditator who’s been toying with starting a blog on the subject where most entries would start with ‘zen and the art of…’, so I was vaguely amused by the title.

The author plays with the usual cliché of the troubled police officer by having her encounter Zen monks - thus demonstrating how far from grace she’s fallen, so to speak. Conversely the Buddhists were also viewed with suspicion by the police due to how particularly foreign & implacable they seemed in the snowy, small German town setting. Unfortunately this mostly happened in small hints & wasn’t developed as well as it could have been. It was an effective vehicle for teaching readers about her character but her character was pretty clichéd - the usual hard-drinking cop with a dark past, at odds with her colleagues, etc, etc, who investigates a case on leave, just because that’s what usually happens in these things.

While I enjoyed it overall, it didn’t keep me hooked throughout. If they release any more from this series, I can’t see myself buying them because it was the story which drew me in & I can’t see enough which is original or interesting about the main character to make me wonder what happens to her next. It was okay, though.

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