review
Snow White Must Die is the first book by Nele Neuhaus that has been published in the Netherlands. It is the fourth book in a series in which detectives Oliver von Bodenstein and Pia Kirchhoff play the lead roles. The book that preceded this, Diepe wonden, was not published in the Netherlands until later. A young man who was imprisoned for ten years for the murder of two girls returns to his native village. He is not welcomed there with open arms. But what really happened all this time ago?
Nele Neuhaus
The German writer Nele Neuhaus was born in 1967 in Münster, Westphalia. She spent her childhood in Paderborn and later in Frankfurt. Nele Neuhaus started writing at a young age. She wrote stories before she could actually write. By writing phonetically she managed to get her stories on paper. Whoever wanted to know what it said had to read it out loud. After school, Nele Neuhaus started working, but in her spare time she always continued to write. In 2004 she decided to self-publish her books. This was a great success and after some time she was approached by a publisher.
Snow White must die
Snow White must die is the fourth book starring Oliver von Bodenstein and Pia Kirchhoff. This book has already been published in the Netherlands Deep wounds, the third book in this series. The first book, Eine unbeliebte Frau appeared in Dutch in March 2016 and the translation of Mordsfreunde will follow in September 2016.
Tobias Sartorius returns to his native village of Altenhain after a ten-year prison sentence. Tobias is said to have murdered two of his friends, Stephanie Schneeberger and Laura Wagner. However, the bodies were never found. Upon returning home, he discovers that his parents have suffered greatly from past events. His father had to close his restaurant, De Gouden Haan, and he also had to sell their farm. His mother could not handle the pressure and moved elsewhere.
The same day that Tobias is released, a skeleton is found in an old tank. The next day, a woman is pushed off a pedestrian bridge. What is the connection between these events and the disappearance of the girls eleven years ago?
The young Amelie is fascinated by the events in the village. She has only recently lived in the village, in the house where one of the victims previously lived. She is hearing about the murders for the first time now. She befriends Thies, the son of Altenhain’s most important man, Terlinden. Thies is different from other people. He doesn’t talk much and is still living with his parents at the age of thirty. Amelie starts her own investigation into the events. She doesn’t believe Tobias was the culprit. This investigation puts Amelie in great danger. And what is Thies role in all of this?
Review
The story of Snow White must die is well put together. In the beginning it takes some getting used to the many characters and their mutual relationships. While reading you get to know the whole village of Altenhain. As usual in a small village, everyone knows each other and there are many mutual connections. There is a lot of gossip and that has unpleasant consequences.
The book clearly shows how far people can go, if they are convinced that they are right. Maybe sometimes they even go a little too far. The suffering of Tobias’s parents is well described. It is almost impossible not to feel sorry for them. The book is written in such a way that you soon start to believe in Tobias’ innocence, even if there is actually no evidence for it. The question is where Tobias gets the strength to keep fighting, even if he himself is not sure whether he did it or not.
The lives of Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are also further elaborated in this book. It is therefore recommended first Deep wounds and then read this book. It is even more fun to read the first two books first. Then you get more background information about a number of events from the past of Pia and Oliver. Now that these two are also available in Dutch, you can do this without having to master the German language. Incidentally Snow White must die easy to read without prior knowledge from previous books.
Conclusion
Snow White must die is an exciting book in which it remains unclear for a long time what exactly happened, eleven years ago. It is pleasant to read and once you have started with it, you don’t really want to put it away anymore. It does take a while before you can tell all the characters apart. The whole village seems to be interconnected.
Specifications
- Original title: Schneewittchen muss sterben
- Publisher: Querido’s Uitgeverij BV
- Release date: June 2010 (in Germany, Dutch version in October 2011)
- Number of pages: 400
- Available as: paperback, ebook
- ISBN (paperback): 9789021443249
- ISBN (ebook): 9789021441399