The Content Reader

I cannot believe it, but we have entered the second half of the year. Time for a round-up of my reading for the first half of 2019. I have read 54 books, of which I am rather proud. Of those, 20 books come from my TBR shelves. I aimed for 48 books, so have to hurry up a little bit. I really liked most of the books I read, but here are some highlights that stick out. Two thrilling books by Nele Neuhaus, Snow White Must Die and Big Bad Wolf .  Her books are so well written and the story lines so exciting, with twists and turns. They also go deep into the characters, whether it is the police women/men, the culprit or all the people surrounding the story. Thrilling until the very end. The Third Man  by Graham Greene is a classic. I have seen the film many times, but not read the book. Greene wrote it as a script for the film, and it has then been turned into a book. I actually listened to it. It was wonderfully narrated by Martin Jarvis. The very dark and brooding atmos...

I was happy to find another book by Nele Neuhaus in our residence library. Still fresh in mind is my first read by her; Snow White Must Die (Schneewittchen muss sterben) , which was an excellent read. This is another "non-put-downable" book. Had to read into the night to finish it, after having read almost the whole day. Yes, it is such a book. The story is built up the same way as the previous one. At the beginning we meet a man who was convicted as a pedofile and is now out from prison, fighting with his life. We meet once again the police officers; Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein and their colleagues. The story starts when the body of a young girl, badly mistreated, is found in the river. Nobody seems to know who she is and the clues are none. Then a popular TV hostess is found beaten almost to death and looked into the trunk of her car. She is working on a new series of child abuse documentaries, where the culprits can be found at the highest level of soci...

Nele Neuhaus is a German writer and new to me. I found the book (original title: Schneewittchen muss sterben) while using my Christmas gift card.  I was intrigued by the story on the back cover, and when I found the front cover with a snowy landscape, I knew I had to take this one. I needed a snowy motive for the Calendar of Crime 2019 challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block . The criteria for January was themes connected to this month or the season. A snowy landscape was therefore perfect. And what a hit this crime novel was. I have to admit that I started the book in the afternoon, could not put it down and finished it at 3 a.m.! Yep. One of those 'unputdownable' crime stories, where you just need to know 'whodunnit'. Tobias is coming out of prison after a ten years sentence for killing two teenage girls. The bodies were never found, so the verdict was based on circumstantial evidence only. Coming back to the small village where he grew up and where ...