Customer Reviews

Murder Farm

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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One has to wonder why this book (published 2006 under the title "Tannöd") became such a huge success, despite its shortness (barely novella size), its disappointing (fictional) resolution to the (historical) murder case, and its black-and-white characterization of the rural populace of Southern Germany.

"Murder Farm" initially was a small press publication. It was widely recommended by the German mystery scene as an unusual and original book. Only when it won the German Mystery Award did it attract the attention of the literary establishment that heralded it as "the great new German mystery". But mystery-wise, it's rather a disappointment. Genre readers in Germany were intrigued but never considered "Murder Farm" an outstanding book. As one critic phrased it, "It's thin, and I don't mean the number of pages."

For whatever reason, this book has been classified as "crime fiction", or in German, a "Krimi". In fact, it won the 2007 German "Krimi" prize. Technically, it is crime fiction, in that the story involves the brutal murder of a family on an isolated farm in post-WWII Bavaria. However, it is not typical detective fiction; rather, it is an insightful portrait of a remote, rural community in southern Germany in the 1950s. I must admit that I read the book in its original German, not the English translation. It is a very short book ... only 125 pages, even shorter if you don't count the pages of interspersed prayers taken from a 1922 book "for the Christian woman", which plays tangentially into the story. I found it a fascinating and memorable book. It's written as a series of short 2-4 page chapters narrated by various characters. Some characters appear only once, others appear throughout the book, in their own and their neighbors' narratives. Many of the chapters are written as though they are transcripts of interviews taken as part of the murder investigation. The result provides insightful and often complex portraits of people, as reflected in their minds and those around them. It provides a remarkable, and not totally flattering, glimpse into an isolated, rural community in post-WWII Bavaria. Obviously I can't really judge its accuracy, but I grew up in a small rural town in Wisconsin and it rang true to me. Highly recommended.

I thought there would be some twist in the story; some suspense. There was none.

It's a short novel which can be read very fast. The tension builds up as you read.