Silver Pebbles

At the start of Swiss author Schneider’s subpar prequel to 2021’s The Basel Killings, smuggler Guy Kayat, who’s carrying diamonds worth a million Swiss francs, arrives on a train from Germany at the Basel station. A police team, headed by Det. Insp. Peter Hunkeler, is waiting for him on the platform. The police chase Kayat into a bathroom, where he flushes the diamonds down a toilet just before he’s apprehended. Hunkeler, who’s just a few years away from retirement, must now somehow retrieve the missing diamonds from the sewer and identify the people to whom the diamonds were supposed to be delivered. With leads tenuously connecting the shipment to a powerful businessman, the angst-ridden detective investigates in his unique way (“I think best when I’m asleep”), to his superior’s frustration. The author’s sublime use of stark atmospherics and bleak worldbuilding compensates only in part for the lack of overall tension, a stock world-weary detective, and a predictable conclusion. Readers will hope for a return to form next time. (Feb.)