Resurrection

Originally published in Germany in 1996, Haas's first in his Insp. Simon Brenner series uses a sardonic omniscient third-person narrative voice to stand out from other darkly comic mysteries. The setting is Zell, the capital of Pinzgau, "a tiny speck" in the middle of Europe, whose economy is sustained by skiing. Brenner has quit the police after almost 20 years, and taken up as a PI. An insurance company gives him what appears to be a tragic accident to investigate: an Americans couple, rich octogenarian factory owners, froze to death on a ski lift owned by their son-in-law, Vergolder Antretter. As Antretter, who controls half of Zell, is the only surviving relative, the circumstances of the deaths appear suspicious. From the outset, Haas makes clear that the investigation will be a long haul, with the narrator stating that Brenner solves the case after working on it for nine months. But the time passes quickly en route to a solution that's been fairly clued. (Feb.)