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Black Ice
“A natural storyteller who, just like Patricia Highsmith, is interested in teasing out the catastrophes that result from the banal coincidences of daily life.”— Weltwoche When Erika, an attractive local heiress, falls to her death near her lakeside villa, the police conclude it was a tragic accident. Scholten, a longtime employee of Erika’s, isn’t so sure. He knows a thing or two about the state of her marriage and suspects an almost perfect crime. Scholten’s maverick investigation into the odd, inexplicable details of the death scene soon buys him a ticket for a most dangerous ride. This beautifully crafted thriller, set in a European world of small-town hypocrisy, was a bestseller made into the film Glatteis . In 2009 Hans Werner Kettenbach won the Glauser award (Germany's most prestigious crime writing prize) for lifetime literary achievement.
334 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 2, 2008
When Scholten's boss Erika Wallman is found dead, he is certain she was murdered; what's more, he's sure he knows who did it. But his suspect has a perfect alibi, so Scholten tries to figure out how the murder was committed. In a way, the book is more of a "how"-dun-it than a "who"-dun-it. There are also some twists I never expected.
I found this book quite interesting; it is a fairly psychological mystery, and quite engrossing. It took me a bit to get into the writing style, but once I did, I liked it. The author incorporates details of everyday life into his writing in a realistic way.
Unfortunately, Scholten is not exactly likable (neither are the other characters, for that matter) which made it hard to really root for him. Partway through the book, though, I began to wonder if that was perhaps the author's point....
I was also a little confused about why he was so determined to find Erika's killer. I didn't really understand what the relationship between the two of them was, so I wasn't clear on his motivation.
The ending seemed a bit abrupt, and left me feeling like some things hadn't been resolved yet. Also, parts get a bit gloomy. If I could, I'd probably give this one 3.5 stars, but overall, I found it interesting and gripping.
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I discovered this in the boxes of books we got from the library sale; it looks interesting, if unusual....we'll see!
I found this book quite interesting; it is a fairly psychological mystery, and quite engrossing. It took me a bit to get into the writing style, but once I did, I liked it. The author incorporates details of everyday life into his writing in a realistic way.
Unfortunately, Scholten is not exactly likable (neither are the other characters, for that matter) which made it hard to really root for him. Partway through the book, though, I began to wonder if that was perhaps the author's point....
I was also a little confused about why he was so determined to find Erika's killer. I didn't really understand what the relationship between the two of them was, so I wasn't clear on his motivation.
The ending seemed a bit abrupt, and left me feeling like some things hadn't been resolved yet. Also, parts get a bit gloomy. If I could, I'd probably give this one 3.5 stars, but overall, I found it interesting and gripping.
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I discovered this in the boxes of books we got from the library sale; it looks interesting, if unusual....we'll see!
October 15, 2020
3.5 rounded up to 4.
A bit dated but really enjoyable.
A bit dated but really enjoyable.
January 21, 2011
BLACK ICE is the first of German author Hans Werner Kettenbach's novels to be translated into English, and it's taken me from it's original publication date of 2005 to read it. Which is good in one way as there appears to have been more books since then. Which are now on my immediate buy list and I know that is probably going to sound very strange, as this isn't a particularly straightforward book.
Scholten, the long-time employee of Erica Wallman, isn't a pleasant man. He's probably one of the most unpleasant characters I've encountered in crime fiction for quite a while. And the book is told from his perspective so a lot of time is spent in the head of an unpleasant person. Whilst his redeeming feature seems to be that he is the only person who doesn't believe that Erica's death was accidental and he is prepared to do what it takes to prove that, his overall demeanour makes you wonder if anybody would ever care what he thought. But other people's opinions don't really matter to Scholten and he's absolutely obsessed with solving how Erica's husband killed his wife. It's quite a puzzle too as it appears that she has simply slipped into the lake near her holiday villa - her husband nowhere nearby, the victim totally on her own at the time. Yet Scholten painstakingly builds up a picture in his mind, and finds the pieces that he believes show that there was nothing accidental about the fall at all.
The tone that the book uses is very much set by Scholten's own voice. Grumpy, self-opinionated, self-obsessed, unhappily married to a disapproving wife, dour and surly, the book proceeds in a low-key, dour styling as a result. Having said that, there are some funny moments, as is there fragility and profound touches of melancholy. These are people for whom life, as they made it, hasn't lived up to expectations. But there's a single-minded purposefulness to everything that Scholten does that's claustrophobic, so personal to Scholten that the reader is left in a very uncomfortable position. There's no clear "hero" to barrack for. Just this unpleasant man who, aside from how much you dislike him, may, over and above everything else, just may have a point.
And then this man, this "hero", the one person that believes totally in justice for Erica Wallman gets distracted from the path of exposing the truth and ties himself up in a knot of catastrophic proportions. And the reader is left. Unable to decide whether a seriously unpleasant man has got exactly what he deserved. Or a woman's fate has been unjustly served because her hero turns out to be no hero at all. Either way - it's an extremely clever ending, full of meaning and immensely satisfying. But a warning, it's not neatly tied up in a bow and delivered up on a plate. Thankfully.
Scholten, the long-time employee of Erica Wallman, isn't a pleasant man. He's probably one of the most unpleasant characters I've encountered in crime fiction for quite a while. And the book is told from his perspective so a lot of time is spent in the head of an unpleasant person. Whilst his redeeming feature seems to be that he is the only person who doesn't believe that Erica's death was accidental and he is prepared to do what it takes to prove that, his overall demeanour makes you wonder if anybody would ever care what he thought. But other people's opinions don't really matter to Scholten and he's absolutely obsessed with solving how Erica's husband killed his wife. It's quite a puzzle too as it appears that she has simply slipped into the lake near her holiday villa - her husband nowhere nearby, the victim totally on her own at the time. Yet Scholten painstakingly builds up a picture in his mind, and finds the pieces that he believes show that there was nothing accidental about the fall at all.
The tone that the book uses is very much set by Scholten's own voice. Grumpy, self-opinionated, self-obsessed, unhappily married to a disapproving wife, dour and surly, the book proceeds in a low-key, dour styling as a result. Having said that, there are some funny moments, as is there fragility and profound touches of melancholy. These are people for whom life, as they made it, hasn't lived up to expectations. But there's a single-minded purposefulness to everything that Scholten does that's claustrophobic, so personal to Scholten that the reader is left in a very uncomfortable position. There's no clear "hero" to barrack for. Just this unpleasant man who, aside from how much you dislike him, may, over and above everything else, just may have a point.
And then this man, this "hero", the one person that believes totally in justice for Erica Wallman gets distracted from the path of exposing the truth and ties himself up in a knot of catastrophic proportions. And the reader is left. Unable to decide whether a seriously unpleasant man has got exactly what he deserved. Or a woman's fate has been unjustly served because her hero turns out to be no hero at all. Either way - it's an extremely clever ending, full of meaning and immensely satisfying. But a warning, it's not neatly tied up in a bow and delivered up on a plate. Thankfully.
October 16, 2014
When his boss Erika Wallmann falls to her death off a cliffside flight of stairs and her husband takes over the family firm, only Jupp Scholten refuses to believe it was an accident: he thinks it was murder. No saint himself, he sets out to show how Wallmann could have done it . . . and succeeds. At the same time, Scholten realizes that the cops will never accept his circumstantial evidence and that there's a chance he could incriminate Wallmann while simultaneously getting rid of his own ghastly, whining, hypochondriacal wife Hilde.
Of course, in the end it all goes to pot.
I tried very hard to like this novel. The cover quote suggests comparisons with Simenon and Highsmith; Simenon should sue (well, okay, there's that) but I can actually see the parallel with Highsmith's work: Scholten is the kind of repellent protagonist she often favored. The trouble is that Highsmith did this sort of thing so superbly, elegantly well, and made us (almost) start to identify with those obnoxious central figures (think Ripley), while Kettenbach has produced a novel of great clumsiness with a protagonist who just stays repellent; it reaches its nadir when we have to plow through a seemingly interminable rustic scene full of absolutely hilarious farts and pantswetting. There are some good moments: the murder method is genuinely clever and the novel's final 20-30 pages do suddenly build up some suspense, but I came away from this with an overall feeling of weariness and dreariness.
The fact that the publisher spells both "Erika" and "Wallmann" wrong in the cover blurb doesn't inspire confidence.
Of course, in the end it all goes to pot.
I tried very hard to like this novel. The cover quote suggests comparisons with Simenon and Highsmith; Simenon should sue (well, okay, there's that) but I can actually see the parallel with Highsmith's work: Scholten is the kind of repellent protagonist she often favored. The trouble is that Highsmith did this sort of thing so superbly, elegantly well, and made us (almost) start to identify with those obnoxious central figures (think Ripley), while Kettenbach has produced a novel of great clumsiness with a protagonist who just stays repellent; it reaches its nadir when we have to plow through a seemingly interminable rustic scene full of absolutely hilarious farts and pantswetting. There are some good moments: the murder method is genuinely clever and the novel's final 20-30 pages do suddenly build up some suspense, but I came away from this with an overall feeling of weariness and dreariness.
The fact that the publisher spells both "Erika" and "Wallmann" wrong in the cover blurb doesn't inspire confidence.
June 19, 2016
Black Ice is a somewhat curious read, centring on the suspicious death of Erica Wallman and its investigation by one of her employees, Scholten. There are three principal characters in the story, each of whom are not easy to like. Scholten is a bitter, sarcastic, scheming, lazy misogynist, who is always finding ways to steal time and visit brothels. His wife, Hilde, is a straight-laced, nagging, hypochondriac who feels she’s married beneath herself. Scholten’s new boss, Wallman, is a caustic bully. The tale is told from Scholten’s perspective and traces his attempt to discover what really happened when Erica tumbled to her death. At the heart of the tale is an ingenious solution, but the telling is a relatively slow paced affair as Scholten struggles to make progress with his investigation and dithers about how to use the circumstantial evidence he discovers. The resolution is quite sudden and open ended. At the time the ending annoyed me, but after a few days reflection I think it suited the piece. Usually a story has a character to root for and a neat denouement, but Black Ice has neither. In that sense, it’s a brave piece of writing, but not one that I found particularly enjoyable.
September 17, 2015
Kettenbach's noir protagonist is a surly, self-obsessed loser married to a nagging wife who knows him all too well. When the only admirable person in his life is found dead at her summer home he is convinced her husband (his new boss) has murdered her. When his determination to uncover the method of her 'murder' crosses paths with his antipathy towards his wife, screws start to come loose. Throughout, the reader is trapped inside this lunatic's head, following every twist in his obsessive determination to outwit both is boss and his wife. Hold on tight as he oversteps the mark!
September 29, 2009
It is written as the musings of a man considering a crime he thought someone committed. Funny in spots and also a bit sad and depressing.
The part that riled me is that it doesn't have a clear ending so was left hanging wondering what in the world happened.
The part that riled me is that it doesn't have a clear ending so was left hanging wondering what in the world happened.
December 16, 2007
German noir tale with a protagonist who is a drunkard and a lout, but it was an engrossing read.
July 25, 2015
A well-developing story: a man finds out how his boss has killed his wife - and does the same with his own wife.
August 5, 2016
The thing is, the second I started reading this book I went 'Nope'. It didnt pull me or intrigue me in any way
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews