Publisher's Weekly Review
Early in this grim psychological thriller from German author Hausmann (Dear Child), Berlin legal assistant Nadja Kulka is visited at her office by former coworker Laura van Hoven. The distraught Laura is looking for her lawyer husband, Gero. Since Gero isn't due back until evening, a lonely Nadja drives Laura home. In the van Hovens' living room lies Laura's lover, Aron Brucksätt, whom Laura killed during an argument. Nadja doesn't want Laura's four-year-old daughter to grow up motherless, so instead of calling the police, she agrees to transport Aron to a Spreewald cabin, where she and Laura will rendezvous to dig his grave. Upon arriving, Nadja finds not Laura, but an irate Gero--and the situation only deteriorates. Hausmann intercuts Nadja's present-day narration with letters recounting her traumatic childhood and scenes detailing a 2014 murder and the resulting trial. Though the mystery of how these story lines intersect provides tension and propulsion, the soapy, convoluted denouement fails to satisfy. Two-dimensional characters further disappoint. Fans will hope for better next time. (Oct.)
Kirkus Review
In present-day Germany, a woman burdened with the darkest of secrets from her brutal childhood becomes an unwitting participant in a fatal game of murder and deceit. "You become normal by doing normal things," Nadja Kulka's therapist tells her, and for the most part the technique has worked. Nadja has a good job in the office of one of Berlin's most successful lawyers and a secure if barren personal life. "I'm the woman who sits at the open window of her kitchen when she sees that her neighbour has friends over again on a Saturday night," she explains. Social gatherings cause Nadja acute anxiety, and when the novel opens, she is in the grip of a panic attack that causes her to faint at a gas station and then to flee back onto the motorway, fearing that onlookers may have called the police. But why? And why is she wearing a blond wig? In this feverish, relentlessly tense novel, the answers to those and many other questions lie tangentially in Nadja's past--to which the narrative cyclically returns--but more immediately in a sudden act of violence into which she is cruelly drawn. As dastardly events unfold, we are kept on edge not only by the author's initially skillful evocation of Nadja's troubled consciousness, but also by the novel's restless shuttling between past and present. The eventual cinching together of near and distant events is clumsily handled, however, and the denouement utterly overwrought. A parallel plot involves the yearnings of a young woman who longs to escape her hometown backwater, embarks on an affair with a married visitor to her family's inn, and pays a terrible price for her longings. Rather than enriching the novel, however, this drama, though potentially engrossing, seems more like a distraction. A superficially gripping but psychologically unconvincing thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The fallout from two separate murders converges upon Berlin defense attorney Gero van Hoven, who has barely wiped his hands of an infamous client accused of strangling his young mistress before he's confronted with another killing that's far too close to home. Nadja, Gero's assistant, hides a traumatic past; as a teenager, she was convicted of murdering her neglectful mother. In self-imposed exile from her younger brother, Nadja lives a life of lonely purgatory until she's presented with the opportunity to help Gero's wife, Laura, who is trying to cover up a crime of passion. Laura and Nadja's plan seems well-constructed until Gero suddenly gets involved, mercilessly bent on exacting his own idea of justice. Hausmann highlights the darkest sides of desire here, twisting Gero, Nadja, and Laura together in desperation and callousness until the final moments turn toward redemption. Fine story crafting and impressive character depth combine to produce chilling, realistic complexity; recommend this one to readers who favor Karin Fossum's tense psychological thrillers.
Library Journal Review
Hausmann's (Dear Child) German psychological thriller features lonely, friendless Nadja Kulka, who suffers from debilitating panic attacks and flashbacks. She was once accused of a dreadful act that she cannot fully remember; now, having finally completed her prison sentence, she gets the chance to make a fresh start working in a prestigious Berlin law office. Vulnerable Nadja likes her new boss Gero and his wife Laura, who becomes her only friend. When a distraught Laura, who's terrified of her husband, begs Nadja to come to her home and dispose of a dead body, a complex web of death and subterfuge entraps them. Past and present collide as Nadja's life now hangs in the balance. Only one thing is for sure: she has always known just what people are capable of. Anonymous letters to a therapist allude to a troubled childhood, which adds layers to this clever and disturbing story. VERDICT Hausmann's ominous psychological suspense tale masterfully uses restraint, inserting a continual flow of small but significant clues to create tension and a heavy tone. The multidimensional characters will keep readers questioning what they know. For fans of Fiona Barton and Gillian Flynn.--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL
