With "Abgefüllt" (Bottled), the Rhine-Hessian winemaker and author Andreas Wagner has presented his second crime novel. In it, Nieder-Olm village policeman Paul Kendzierski investigates on his own in the case of an unknown dead man he finds near a main road. Nobody seems to miss him - but soon it becomes dangerous for Kendzierski.
An unknown dead body lies in the nettles off the main road. An accident? A crime? Such a case would be a boring routine matter for investigators in big cities like Munich, Berlin or Frankfurt. But the crime scene is in Essenheim, in the middle of the vast Rhine-Hessian province. No murders happen here, and no dead bodies are normally found in the fields here either. An anonymous caller puts local policeman Paul Kendzierski on the trail. His mission that day is to keep order at the Nieder-Olm street festival. But he finds the half-decomposed corpse - and begins to investigate. Soon things get rather complicated and uncomfortable for Kendzierski, who suspects a vague lead among the neighbouring winegrowers.
With "Abgefüllt" (Bottled), winemaker and author Andreas Wagner has delivered his second wine thriller, in which the local policeman investigates again and in the process gets on the trail of some rather rotten business dealings of some winemakers. At first, no one misses the dead man, but after some turbulent events it is clear: he was an oddball, someone who stuttered and talked to himself. A loner. But he had inherited building land and vineyards. Who inherited them after his death remains as unclear as the traces of burglary in the old, neglected farmhouse. What did the stutterer know, what were the burglars looking for? Soon it becomes clear: the man was run over - but by whom? The arrogance of the big city in the person of Commissioner Gerd Wolf from the state capital Mainz interferes with his investigation. He takes charge of the investigation, is rather complacent and reels off his investigation programme. The local police officer, on the other hand, supported by his colleague Klara, gets completely involved in the network of relationships of the winegrowers' families, in the old stories that are told here in a low voice over Silvaner. Soon there is a second death. The big-city detective remains clueless, and Paul Kendzierski finds himself in danger. But after undercover investigations on his own, he gets onto the scent of a nasty wine scandal and thus unravels why the stutterer had to die.
Wagner tells this somewhat transparent story straightforwardly, without flourishes and at a taut pace. But his local colour occasionally gets in the way of the plot's progress. Street corners, intersections, traffic signs are all in the same place as they are today. But so much attention to detail is occasionally tiring if you are not from there and so follow the policeman at every turn as he reads. Wine, especially Silvaner, also plays an important role, and Wagner - a full-time vintner - demonstrates a lot of expertise. There is a lot of explaining and describing, which also does not always benefit the plot. It is not so easy to find the balance between wine and crime fiction, between local colour and the backdrop for evil, between psychological levels and the description of winegrowing activities in the rather young genre of wine crime fiction. Those who come from Nieder-Olm, Essenheim and the surrounding area will have a lot of fun with the smallest details. Wagner will find his loyal fans there; it is not without reason that "Abgefüllt", like his first book "Herbstblut", was published by the Rhine-Hessian regional publisher "Leinpfad". For those who don't have the vastness of the Rhine-Hessian hill country and its inhabitants in front of their eyes, "Abgefüllt" is nevertheless quite an exciting wine thriller that reads easily, but lacks a little depth.
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Andreas Wagner: "Abgefüllt", 235 pages, paperback, Leinpfad-Verlag, September 2008, ISBN-10: 3937782737,10,90