There was Svevos’ Zeno Cosini and the Dude in The Big Lebowski. And soon there will be Onno Viets!
What happens when someone like Onno Viets has a really good idea for the first time in his life?
Onno, in his mid fifties, is a welfare recipient, wears anti-skid socks, is the unbeaten king of the Hamburg-Eppendorf ping-pong circuit, doesn’t sweat on principle and has slight phobias. He also has the tax office breathing down his neck and his wife Edda’s birthday is coming up – when he is suddenly inspired by the television to become a private detective!
His harassed table tennis sports friends fear the worst – after many years of knowing him. Nevertheless, one of them provides Onno with his first case; the pop star Nick Dolan suspects his current flame of be-ing unfaithful – Onno should deliver photographic evidence of her and her lover. Onno is in luck as he soon catches a sighting of Dolan’s rival. However, the guy nicknamed ‘henchman’ is not only two metres tall and weighs 130 kilos, but he is also the incalculable, feared right hand of one of Hamburg’s red-light district oligarchs. Onno doesn’t manage to give up the case and has to follow the pair to Mallorca. The maelstrom of catastrophes accelerates at a tearing pace...
What happens when an author such as Frank Schulz combines his wild rampant imagination and his love of language with a suspense-packed thriller plot for the first time in his life? If the reader doesn’t manage to close the book in time, he’ll be pulled into a vortex of betrayal and ludicrous dialogues, high tension and unforgettable characters, slapstick and an inscrutable milieu study.
‘When the exceedingly eloquent Frank Schulz spouts a crime thriller you naturally expect the crime thriller of all crime thrillers – a bristling, spicy marvel of a book. It hits the mark.’ (Karen Duve)
‘Top notch book!’ (Wolfgang Herrndorf, author of “Tschick”)
