Tod und Teufel

Everybody knows the Cologne cathedral, right? Using the construction phase of this icon as a backdrop of a crime story, in which the architect is murdered, is aseptic bestseller-design, right? Right! But it is not cheap literature, it is suspense, it is intelligent and it is actually not about the crime. It illustrates a turning point in Cologne’s history and in the mediaeval era in general. The old established class – the patricians – wants to keep control and wealth, but the guilds knock on the door to get into the game as equal players.
The ingredients: a vagabond, who saw the killing of the architect whilst stealing apples – from now on on the run, and a ruthless and very intelligent murderer, who needs to find the eye-witness and kills one second-tier witness after the other. Suspense until the last page. As a side effect you learn about the life in medieval Cologne. Not bad for a thriller.