Translated by Marina Sofia
I am delighted to be leading off Corylus Books‘ latest blog tour for their first German novel in translation, and Marina Sofia’s first published translation from that language too, (full disclosure, Marina and I have never met but have been blog friends for years).
It is 1961 and we’re in Berlin. As the novel opens, Carla Koslowsky receives a frantic phone call from her aunt Lulu, a sometime actress, who, as she often does, has created a situation. This time it is at the movie set for the latest Billy Wilder film, location the Brandenburg Gate. Can Carla get there, extricate Lulu, and back to the office in time to meet her new potential client. It’ll be pushing it, and she desperately needs new business. Thanks to the movie set’s rather handsome security guard, Bruno – a good acquaintance to make – Carla manages it, getting back with just five minutes to spare.
Carla single-handedly runs the Nightingale detective agency. It’s been hard work since her father died in the car crash that she survived. Her client arrives, a Frau Niemöller.
‘I’m looking for a man,’ said Frau Niemöller earnestly.[…]
‘It happened at the German-American Folk Fair…’
Oh no, not another such story! Carla did her best to conceal her disappointment. A GI had got her pregnant? They had had to search for so many missing fathers, and the US Army was not very helpful, despite the contacts Father had cultivated.
But this time Carla is wrong. For Ingrid ‘Niki’ Niemöller, it was a case of love at first sight, then lost. She’d not told the GI her proper name, as in certain circumstances she was ashamed of her job – as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company selling the new-fangled birth control pill. All her client knows is that he was called Jack, was from Atlanta, dark-blond with grey-blue eyes in his mid-thirties, and everyone else called him ‘Bobbs’. It’s not a lot to go on, but Carla promises her best. And thus, the first of the two cases that will make up this novel is set in motion.
A second potential client arrives. Carla knows Alma Hoffbrück through some charitable work they do together. She’s imagining a standard divorce investigation for Alma, but when her acquaintance arrives, there is little she can do to help, other than to put Alma in touch with a lawyer. Yes, she wants a divorce and custody of her two children. She doesn’t think her husband is cheating on her, but he does beat her and force himself upon her, not easy grounds to prosecute in those times. Alma is upset.
‘I can’t sit and do nothing. Never! I’ll free myself from the evil in my life, no matter what it might cost me!’
We transfer our attention to a new character: Wallie is a barmaid at the busy and lively Eden bar with topless hostesses. She finds herself in a predicament one night – the wall has gone up and she can’t get home back to the East side of the city, she doesn’t want to get stuck in a refugee camp, but there is one place she can try.
Wallie had been to Grolmanstrasse before, two years ago. She’d been curious to see how her father lived when he wasn’t with them. Then, when both her parents died, she’d wanted to become acquainted with her half-sister. But both times she’d just stood there and couldn’t move.
A brave move that, just turning up at your half-sister’s office, when she knew nothing about you. Luckily, Wallie could say that Achim sent her, a friend of her late father’s that Carla would know, to get through the door. It’s fair to say that Carla and Wallie are complete opposites. Surprised to find that her beloved father had had a second family on the other side of the city, Carla is initially distrustful of Wallie (short for Waltraud), thinking her a likely con-artist. But she knows things about their father, she has pictures of them. Carla is upset and naturally jealous of these revelations. Wallie has nothing to lose but to make herself helpful, effectively suggesting setting a honeytrap for Alexander Hoffbrück.
But too late – for Alexander is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the Hoffbrück villa’s grand hallway! Alma is charged, telling Carla and Wallie to stay out of it. The sisters know that Alma is protecting someone, they can’t let it go and they’re discovering they can work well together, at least some of the time. And their second case takes over the narrative as it is now a murder investigation, becoming ever more complicated as evidence is uncovered bit by bit.
There will be recurring appearances by Lulu and Bruno, but two further major supporting characters enliven the pages. There is Carla’s mother, who having lost her leg some years before, is depressed, bitter and twisted and has decided to become virtually housebound. Carla dreads going home, but having Wallie there, introduced as a cousin from Lulu’s side – god forbid her mother should learn the truth! – seems to put a little spring back in her step. Then there is ten-year-old Katrin in plaits, from across the way, who yearns to be Sherlock Holmes. Carla indulges her and gives her observation tasks to hone her skills – something that will become useful – in return for the odd ice-cream. Katrin is delightful and so eager to learn and please Carla, who has a resemblance to Audrey Hepburn – yes, that’s why there’s an Audrey lookalike on the cover! Katrin dotes on their coded signals and little tasks.
This novel is billed as the first in a series of cosy investigations for Nightingale & Co. While the Hoffbrück murder case isn’t exactly cosy, the rest of the narrative is character-driven and good fun. As in many mysteries, having two cases to crack, one major, one minor, gives useful changes of pace and scenery. The comical interludes with Lulu, Wallie’s impulsive fun-loving behaviour and Katrin’s eagle-eyed cub detective add much colour. Add in a hint of potential romance between Carla and Bruno, and the hunt for the GI missing in action, so to speak, the only things to bring the fun down are the murder itself, and the rather sad situation of Carla’s depressed mother.
There is plenty of room for development for all of them though. The Berlin Wall itself, apart from being a device that brings Wallie to the West, didn’t play as much a part as I might have anticipated, although radio snippets from news bulletins populate the airwaves wherever the characters go. I expect that in the next book in the series when it arrives, we might find out more about how normal Berliners lived with the Wall once it became concrete. I very much enjoyed it and can’t wait for the sequel.
Source: Review copy – Thank you! Corylus Books, flapped paperback original, 347 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s or Amazon UK via my affiliate links.

I really enjoyed this too! I hope they do translate more in the series.
Absolutely – such good characters.
What a combo, an unexpectedly intriguing start to a series, translated by Marina Sofia and lauded by your good self! Maybe I need to bite the bullet and buy this rather than solely relying on my TBR pile . . .
It was great fun. Corylus (and Marina Sofia) would be delighted if you did purchase it!
I’m delighted to read your review of this book as I’d seen a link to it, was intrigued because of Marina’s connection, and hoped to learn more. Now I have and I definitely think I should get hold of a copy. It sounds fun!
This sounds very interesting and what a lovely big blog tour, too!