Leberkäsjunkie (Franz Eberhofer, #7)
by Rita Falk, Christian Tramitz (Narrator)
I got to know author Rita Falk through the German movie adaptations of her series. I like those, so I picked up the audio of this one at my library. One big advantage of the original, German audiobook version is listening to the Bavarian dialect. I haven‘t read the books and don‘t know if speech is written in dialect as well, but I assume so. How this would translate into English, I don‘t know.
The narrator is a Bavarian actor who I know from other TV shows. He does a very good job and initially I even thought he was the one portraying the main character of this series.
Here is a link to the webpage of the author and her main protagonist (German only). No, German police cars do not usually look this old and quaint. Eberhofer is weird and drives an oldtimer… https://franz-eberhofer.de
What is it all about?
After Franz Eberhofer had to quit his job with the Munich police and was transferred to his home village of Niederkaltenkirchen in Lower Bavaria, he takes it easy with his duties as local law enforcement. His patrols always take him to the village pub for a beer or to his deaf grandmother’s kitchen table. But sometimes Franz also has to investigate rather gruesome deaths.
This is the 7th case. Difficult times for Eberhofer, Franz: his cholesterol levels are as high as his mood is low. Instead of food orgies with grandma, there is only healthy food on the plate. On top of that, his baby-mama stresses him out with out with extremely organized visits for Franz Junior. And as if that weren’t enough, Franz is now facing the most difficult case of his investigative career: a burnt corpse in a guest room at Mooshammer‘s, smeared with fire paste and mutilated beyond recognition. Everything indicates that the murderer comes from Niederkaltenkirchen… (rough translation of the German book blurb)
What is Leberkäs, you ask? Have a look at the book cover. It‘s a lunch meat from Southern Germany. It usually comes with a bun and mustard. Essential food item besides beer! Here‘s the Wiki for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leberkäse
The reviews for this 7th Eberhofer case are relatively bad. Can‘t say yay or nay, as I haven‘t read any of the others.
What did I think?
The movies are funnier. The story moves along really slowly. After two hours of audio not much sleuthing has happened.
The only black character is a walking clichée, which doesn‘t make this a winner and is embarrassing. Hard to say if the other characters are done well, as I already know them from the movies. They are little more than caricatures.
Another one and a half hours of audio and some change and still nothing much has happened.
In the meantime I have watched the movie adaptation on TV and that was not terribly exciting either. Or terribly funny. And now that I know the ending (have I mentioned that this isn‘t terribly exciting?), I have lost the last bit of interest in this too-cosy mystery.
Actually, not much of a mystery at all. The crime and it‘s resolution are little more than an afterthought.
DNF after not quite 4 hours of audio (~40%).
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