The moment of truth

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The Moment of Truth (Lime's billede) is a novel by the Danish writer Leif Davidsen , published in 1988 and translated into German in 2001 .

content

Peter Lime is a successful press photographer who turns into a wealthy paparazzo thanks to a nude photo of Jackie Kennedy . Together with his childhood friends Oscar and Gloria he runs a very successful photo company. Despite his new fortune, he insists on “taking” more photos of the celebrities themselves.

He succeeds in taking a snapshot of a conservative Spanish minister who is "delighting" an Italian television beauty naked on the beach. But his bodyguards discover and pursue him. Since he has a black belt in karate , the bodyguards are unable to steal his camera. But the Spanish judiciary because of the ETA the opportunity to people for 72 hours in -Terrorismus laws in this novel solitary confinement to assume that it can not consult a lawyer. Thanks to the relations of the minister, Peter is arrested. When he realizes that the Spanish government could make life difficult for him in the future, he is initially ready to hand over the negatives and photos.

When he is about to be released, the blackest day of his life begins. He was always a nomad - a lone wolf - until he met his wife Amelia. He fell in love and started a family. His wife and little daughter, Maria Luisa, were his life. While he was in prison, his apartment fell in flames; The wife and daughter and 13 other people perished in the flames. It turned out that this was supposed to cover up his wife's murder. The Spanish police suspected the ETA.

Peter has good connections to this Basque organization through his friend Tomas . Tomas puts him in contact with the ETA - and he is credibly assured that this terrorist movement has nothing to do with this act. Shortly afterwards, Peter tells his girlfriend Gloria that he has made a secret backup of more important pictures, his so-called diary case. A few days later, Peter is attacked by three thugs in his holiday home. Thanks to his friend and neighbor Arregui, Tomas' father, he can be freed. However, the thugs had given him - a dry alcoholic - whiskey beforehand. Peter starts drinking again. Thanks to his connections to the ETA, he learns that these thugs do not belong to the ETA or the IRA , but that they are free mercenaries . Shortly before Peter was arrested, i.e. before he lost his family, a Danish secret police officer had contacted him. She has one of his older photos with Peter and his former girlfriend Lola (alias Laila) with an RAF terrorist named Wolfgang (alias Ernst). This policewoman named Clara Hoffmann asks for more pictures. But these pictures and negatives were destroyed in the arson attack. Peter's friend Oscar suspects a connection with the murder, the fire and the supposedly Irish thugs.

Peter sifts through his secret case, finds more material and takes it to Clara in Denmark . He gives her important information that the Danish secret service needs to revamp its tarnished image in the press. Clara and Peter become a couple. When they are naked on the beach, Peter cannot sleep with her - he still feels connected to his wife. Peter leaves Clara in a hurry. His friends Gloria and Oscar suggest that this may be a plot by the Danish secret service. Peter agrees with this theory, goes to the Danish press and provides them with detailed information. A scandal breaks out, Clara loses her post and is transferred to the fraud department. Peter's father-in-law Don Alfonso dies, Peter sells his share in the company and makes a good life on his father-in-law's estate, he forgets his plans for revenge.

Then Clara answers. As agreed before Peter's escape, she made an appointment to inspect the files with the Gauck authorities . Peter and Clara fly to Berlin and start a relationship. Peter (alias “Leica”) looks at his Stasi files, which he knows were created by his friend Oscar. His friend was a Stasi informant with the code name Karl Heinrich Müller. When he looks at his friend's files, which have mostly been destroyed by the Stasi, he becomes aware of the connections. He determined Oscar's former Stasi superior and beats out of this that Oscar and Lola are married and both were top spies in the GDR . When Peter leaves, Oskar is warned by the former Stasi soldier. With little money he goes to see Lola in Moscow. When Gloria learns the truth from Peter, she - now a successful lawyer - turns the money on Oscar. Oscar has no more financial means than he carries with him.

Peter makes contact with a former Russian elite soldier through another paparazzo named Derek. He tracks down Oscar and brings him to Oscar and Lola. But these are well guarded in a villa. Peter's Russian helper switches off the bodyguards on a walk - Peter can contact Oscar. But Oscar goes after Peter with a golf club - a scuffle ensues in which Oscar brutally knocks Lola down. Lola's bodyguard kills Peter's helper, Shuganov, but Peter kills him with a karate blow.

During the showdown , Oscar escapes on a frozen stream and breaks into the ice. Peter can't help him anymore, Oscar dies. But first he answers Peter's question about the “why”. The death of Amelia and Maria-Luisa was just an "accident" for Oscar. His Irish mercenaries were only supposed to burn the photo archives, but when Amelia struggled, she was killed. The Irish started the fire on their own initiative. Peter's Russian helper portrays the incident in such a way that Oscar is the culprit: allegedly he first killed Lola and then her bodyguards. Peter flies back to Madrid and shortly afterwards (after a period of time) Clara from wintry Denmark follows him.

people

  • Peter Lime, paparazzo
  • Amelia, his wife
  • Maria Lusia, his daughter
  • Clara Hoffmann, a Danish police officer
  • Laila Petrowa "Lola", a former friend of Peter
  • Wolfgang / Ernst, a former RAF terrorist who is pictured together with Lola in an older photo of Peter
  • Oscar, Peter's best friend, a Stasi agent named Karl Heinrich Müller, who is responsible for the murder of Peter's family, Lola's husband
  • Don Alfonzo, Peter's father-in-law
  • Arregui, a Spanish shepherd and a neighbor of Peter
  • Tomas, Arregui's son and former ETA leader
  • Derek, a paparazzo
  • Sergej Shuganov, a former Russian elite soldier who supports Peter in Russia for money
  • Suzuki, Peter's karate teacher

criticism

As soon as you have the first pages of the novel behind you, you are not inclined to put the book down again. It is written elegantly and fluently; In addition, it fulfills all the requirements of a brisk summer crime novel.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Kühne in Marler Zeitung , July 11, 2007