The New Detective: A Willi Geismeier Thriller

Steiner’s enthralling fourth outing for Geismeier (after 2022’s The Inconvenient German) revisits the detective’s rookie days with the Munich police. In 1913, a 19-year-old Geismeier, fresh out of the Royal Bavarian Police Academy, is assigned to patrol with old-school cop Werner Heisse, a bully who extorts both pimps and legitimate businesses and isn’t afraid to get his knuckles bloody. The by-the-book Geismeier refuses to go along to get along, generating tensions with his crooked colleague. After Geismeier and Heisse are called to a courtyard where journalist Walther Metzger, an outspoken critic of government corruption, has been beaten to death, Geismeier finds a brass button from a police uniform in Metzger’s apartment. Stymied by Heisse in his efforts to investigate further, Geismeier passes the exam to attain the rank of detective so he can launch an independent probe. It’s shut down by his superiors, however. As WWI comes into view and Geismeier takes on cases including a hospital’s missing drugs and an insurance scam, he begins to suspect a link between all of these crimes—and a line back to Heisse. Steiner once again blends a page-turning plot with an evocative depiction of the period. This is another strong historical mystery from a master of the genre. Agent: John Silbersak, Bent Agency. (Dec.)