SPLINTERED JUSTICE

In Hays’ mystery novel, a woman who died 15 years ago after a fall from the cathedral tower in Bern’s Old City may not have leapt, but been pushed.

In the fourth book in the Linder and Donatelli Mystery series, a teenage boy races from the Bern cathedral after intentionally causing a glassworker to fall from a scaffold.  As the teen shakes the scaffold, he yells, “Murderer, I hope you bust your head open.” The glassworker, Denis Kellenberger, is seriously injured. Denis grew up in a tiny apartment in the cathedral, where his grandparents served as tower guards. When he was 10, his friend Zora and her little brother Goran lived nearby. Supposedly, one night, Zora’s mother Katica Horvat entered the cathedral through the tower door, climbed the staircase, jumped from the tower, and died. The church sexton says Denis was to blame for her death because he left the tower door unlocked. In the hospital after his fall, Denis realizes the teen who shook the scaffold trying to kill him was Goran. Investigator Renzo Donatelli and Detective Giuliana Linder work the attempted murder case and question whether Katica truly committed suicide. The pair discovers nobody remembers much about the investigation, which “vanished” from police radar quickly. A B-story involves a potential mercy killing, but perhaps the book’s biggest buzz emanates from the heat between Renzo and Giuliana. Married Giuliana openly ogles the “preposterously beautiful,” almost-divorced Renzo as a man who “looked too mischievous to be an angel and not arrogant enough to be a model.” The author has lived in Switzerland for decades, so readers can expect vivid portraits of its locales. The narrative contains disturbing sexual violence, but also humor and rich descriptions, such as those referring to Guiliana’s husband’s “white-on-white” dinner: “White plates filled with cauliflower, rice, and chicken served with white wine.” The hardships of refugees—in this case, from Yugoslavia—provide added relevancy.

Exciting enough to be a page-turner, but can also be enjoyed slowly, like a delicious Swiss chocolate.