Customer Reviews

The Snowman

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Malta Police Inspector Cassar takes Mr. Blum in for questioning because the "tourist" has quite a record according to Interpol. Blum hides his tourist vacation of not finding a buyer for his illegally obtained collection of Danish pornography. Though his one month visa expires in three days, Cassar informs Blum to leave before the expiration for one hour past will lead to his becoming a guest of the island's civil prison Kordin.

Through an Aussie friend, Blum meets fellow illegal dealer Rossi, who likes his women more girly that adult. Blum offers his classic collection from the late 1960s for sale, but soon after attending a party on Rossi's boat, Blum ends up with a train station luggage ticket that leads him to five pounds of Peruvian cocaine inside the suitcase he picks up. However, instead of easily selling the flakes, Blum's luck remains bad as the German police, drug traffickers, and cocaine users want what he possesses gratis. If killing him is needed so be it.

THE SNOWMAN is an excellent wild crime thriller starring an unlikable hardboiled anti-heroic con artist who lands in one increasingly more difficult scenario after another. The police procedural story line is told mostly from the perspective of the pursued making for an intriguing upside down twist to they sub-genre. Fans will appreciate this terrific action-packed look at those beneath the German societal food chain by a talented deceased author who apparently observed much of his cast first hand as THE SNOWMAN feels in some ways autobiographic fiction.

Harriet Klausner

Jorg Fauser's The Snowman offers the reader an irresistible plot; a German lowlife named Blum finds himself marooned on the island of Malta while trying to unload a dated set of Danish girlie magazines. (One potential customer rejects them because they "have no artistic merit"). Though things are bleak for Blum, events lead him back to Germany where he discovers five pounds of cocaine hidden at the Munich rail station.

Of course, Blum immediately begins trying to sell the cocaine. The novel leads him through the gutters of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Among others, he meets Cora, a sensuous blonde who offers to help him sell the cocaine to one of her friends. All along the way, Blum worries that the mafiosi from whom he has stolen the cocaine will catch up to him.

Based on the plot, The Snowman seems as though it cannot miss. Sadly, while the book is good, it does not live up to its potential. Blum becomes increasingly paranoid as he tries to unload the drugs and the book runs in circles while describing his mental state. More seriously, Fauser did not know how to end the book and the ending is unbelievable and unsatisfying.

The Snowman is worth a look, but I had my hopes too high.

This was quite a strange book with an ending that leaves you surprised. I've never actually read about aloser so enthralled.