cover image The Bone Man

The Bone Man

Wolf Haas, trans. from the German by Annie Janusch. Melville International Crime (Random, dist.), $14.95 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-1-61219-169-0

Soccer, Balkan conflict, and fried chicken are just three of the unlikely ingredients that go into Haas’s darkly comic second novel to be translated into English featuring Austrian PI Simon Brenner (after 2012’s Brenner and God). The Löschenkohl Grill, a popular eatery in the small town of Klöch, is shaken after human remains turn up among chicken bones in a bone grinder. Ex-cop Brenner arrives from Vienna ready to investigate, only to discover that the Grill’s manager, Angelika, who hired him, has disappeared. As Brenner deals instead with the owner, Angelika’s imposing father-in-law, Friedrich Löschenkohl, more people disappear, and mayhem erupts in the local soccer league. American mystery fans should enjoy Haas’s quirky, digressive storytelling style, though a sprawling plotline and the translation’s inevitable difficulty with conveying the original language’s flavor prevent this whodunit from being the ideal introduction to the rumpled, unassuming, and unforgettable Brenner. (Apr.)