Hunkeler’s Secret by Hansjörg Schneider, translation by Astrid Freuler; London, England: Bitter Lemon Press; (c) 2025; ISBN 9781916-725126; 190 pages; $16.95. Publication date: April 29, 2025.
SAN DIEGO — Author Hansjörg Schneider writes mysteries centered in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland, which occupies the tri-country border region with Germany and Switzerland. The protagonist in his fictional stories is Basel city detective Peter Hunkeler, now retired.
With plenty of leisure time, Hunkeler is given to socializing in the three countries over coffee or wine, or perhaps an excellent dinner. He is unerringly polite, although when his thoughts are otherwise occupied, he comes off as brusque. Hunkeler also enjoys central European history and legends, tales of Charlemagne, William Tell, and how his hometown of Basel defied the central Swiss government in Bern and welcomed Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. He also appreciates the flora and fauna of his region.
The book begins with him being hospitalized for minor surgery and sharing a room with Stephen Fankhauser, a talkative terminal cancer patient and reformed anarchist, whom he had known in their college years. Doped up after surgery, he thought he saw a woman in a head scarf injecting Fankhauser in his stomach, but thinking back on the vision, he thought it might have been a hallucination. When Hunkeler awakened the next morning, Fankhauser was dead and soon afterwards his body was cremated.
No longer on the police force, Hunkeler couldn’t officially investigate nor could he consult because he was resented by his successor, a previous subordinate. So, in a relaxed manner, asking apparently innocent questions to establish Fankhauser’s background and the identity of the woman in a head scarf, Hunkeler nevertheless started to make inquiries. Being a good detective novel, the “whodunnit” and the “whydunnit” are not revealed until the book’s conclusion.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.