Hunkeler’s Secret

Hunkeler, now a retired inspector of the Basel police force, is hospitalized following an operation. He’s sharing a room with cancer patient Stephan Fankhauser, an old acquaintance and former head of Basel Volksbank. One night, a groggy Hunkeler witnesses something that makes him question his senses: a young nurse is administering an injection to his friend. When he is told the next day that Fankhauser has died, Hunkeler grows suspicious. The body is quickly cremated with no autopsy performed, leaving Hunkeler determined to get to the bottom of the matter. His unorthodox investigation uncovers truths that will threaten Switzerland’s carefully curated reputation of neutrality during WWII.

Author Hansjörg Schneider (born 1938) lives in Basel and began his professional career as a journalist and essayist. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed plays and of the bestselling Hunkeler crime series, now with ten titles published. ＂The Basel Killings＂ was awarded The Friedrich Glauser Prize, Germany’s most prestigious crime fiction prize.

Translator Astrid Freuler lives in Lidney, Gloucestershire. She is a young translator from German and has published translations of non-fiction and fiction, including the crime thriller A Shadow Falls by Andreas Pflüger. She also translated The Murder of Anton Livius by Hansjörg Schneider.