The Strawberry Picker

The awful murder of a girl mirrors similar murders in another part of Germany. We have the tight group of friends, Jenna, Caro and Merle, who become involved in subsequent events as these impinge on their world, Jenna’s successful crime-writer mother, the thoughtful detective and the murderer himself (not so much of a mystery given the book’s title). It’s a good mix for a tense thriller, less concerned with action than with watching the movement of the characters around and in the web of danger created by the murderer. The murder investigation is largely unscientific and methodical (especially to those brought up on TV dramas like CSI) so that the girls seem to be doing more and being more successful than the police in their detection by simply talking to possible witnesses. It has the feel of a book drawing on characters from a series or developing into one – a pilot for a series maybe – because there are so many parts of relationships, and yet none are so central or made so interesting that we want to know too much more. There is a strong sympathy for people’s damaged lives and it becomes a great page turner in the final section as we watch the central character stumbling unaware into the murderer’s life.