"The hour of the hyenas" - burning cars and riots in the Berlin neighborhood by Johannes Groschupf
Created: 11/30/2022, 6:00 p.m
By: Sven Trautwein
Berlin is dark.
Berlin is dirty.
Berlin has too many cars.
In "The Hour of the Hyenas" they burn almost every day.
A vigilante is on the hunt.
My book tip.
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As I write these lines, my gaze keeps slipping out of the office window here in Berlin Kreuzberg.
Because the action of "The Hour of the Hyenas" takes place right around the corner: Kreuzberg, nightlife and party district.
Older semesters may know the hit “Kreuzberg nights are long”.
This also applies to the fire investigator Romina or the journalist Jette, who try to find the fire devil and spend many hours and nights banging their heads around.
Johannes Groschupf "The hour of the hyenas": About the book
Johannes Groschupf “The Hour of the Hyenas” © Surhkamp
"The Hour of the Hyenas": What the blurb reveals
In the capital, more and more luxury cars have been burning at night for months.
Drivers in Berlin feel left alone and go on "citizen patrols" in their neighborhood together, while the state security police smell left-wing rubbish.
The young policewoman Romina Winter has just been transferred to the fire department for disciplinary reasons and patrols the city at night.
Suhrkamp
Who has been indiscriminately setting fire to cars in the neighborhood at night for some time now?
Are they left-wing radicals, as it sounds more and more often on social networks?
A vigilante group was quickly formed in Kreuzberg, which not only patrolled but also wanted to use all their might to protect their belongings.
Fire investigator Romina manages to convince her boss to look for the possible suspect herself on site.
Much to the resistance from their own ranks.
Her fight for justice and equality begins just behind her office door.
Johannes Groschupf wrote many stories in his years as a travel journalist.
You can tell the craft that he lets play out in "The Hour of the Hyenas", almost like in a movie.
The characters and background story are well thought out, give a different perspective on the investigative work of the police and also offer the author the opportunity to dish out one or two digs at Berlin politics.
This is how entertainment works, similar to his previously released thriller “Berlin Heat”.
Johannes Groschupf - author of "Berlin Heat" and "Berlin Prepper" © Christoph Hardt / Imago
In the first third of the book, the name of the arsonist who gets sexually aroused by the burning cars is revealed.
But this unmasking does not dampen the tension in the thriller.
But on the contrary.
It helps to make the figures even more vivid, even more authentically tangible.
dive into her.
Wondering if he can be caught.
What the fire devil doesn't know: the first fire almost killed someone who saw it.
A race on several levels begins.
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Johannes Groschupf "The hour of the hyenas": My conclusion
A fast, up-to-date and fast-paced thriller.
If you like a film-ready plot, great characters, convincing dialogue and political digs, you've come to the right place.
This is top entertainment to the last page.
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Johannes Groschupf "The Hour of the Hyenas"
2022 Suhrkamp, ISBN-13 978-3-518-47300-9
Price: paperback €16, e-book €13.99, 265 pages (varies in format)
Order here!
Johannes Groschupf
Johannes Groschupf, born in Braunschweig in 1963, grew up in Lüneburg.
Studied German, American and journalism at the Freie Universität in Berlin.
Many years as a freelance travel journalist for
Die Zeit
,
FAZ
,
FR
and others.
on road.
1994 helicopter crash in the Sahara.
In 1998, this experience resulted in the radio feature “
Der Crash”
which received the Robert Geisendörfer Prize the following year.
Then literary work, especially in the field of youth books and articles for the
daily mirror
and
Berliner Zeitung
.
Recently published:
"Berlin Prepper"
(advertising link), a thriller (2019), for which he received the German Crime Prize (1st place) and the Political Crime Prize of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Württemberg 2020, as well as
"Berlin Heat" -
click here for the review, for which he was awarded the German Crime Prize (2nd place).
