The bone man

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The Bone Man is a detective novel by the Austrian author Wolf Haas from 1997. It is the second of eight “Brenner crime stories” about the title character, the private detective Simon Brenner. The book was made into a film in 2008. The film of the same name had its world premiere at the 59th Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) on February 9, 2009.

content

In the small town of Klöch in Styria there is a huge fried chicken station. The company is managed by Mrs. Löschenkohl. Her husband, Paul Löschenkohl, is rarely in the company. Every day there are thousands of chicken bones that are ground with the old bone meal machine. But this old machine is too slow, so there is always a mountain of bones in front of it.

One day, human bones are found during a food police investigation. The police investigated the case, but came to no conclusion. A few weeks later, Mrs. Löschenkohl hired the private detective Simon Brenner. But this is gone when the burner arrives there.

Brenner observed the cup game between Klöch and Oberwart . The Klöcher win thanks to the performance of their goalkeeper Milovanovic, a Yugoslav who operates the bone meal machine in the chicken station. The next day, the kit manager at FC Klöch found Ortovic's head in a ball sack, the rest of the body was gone. To find out more about Milovanovic and Ortovic, who hate each other deeply, Brenner takes part in a pensioner bus ride organized by the FC Klöch coach. While driving, he tells him that Ortovic's girlfriend, Helene Jurasic, is a prostitute. On the day of this bus trip, Milovanovic disappears without a trace. Brenner goes to a brothel to question the artist Palfinger because a good friend of Palfinger's, Horvath, has disappeared and is believed to be dead. Most of Horvath's pictures belong to the bankrupt rubber producer Marko. Immediately after Horvath's disappearance, Marko organized their sale.

The next day, Brenner visits the sister of the missing woman Löschenkohl, but finds nothing and drives on to Marko's sale. But even there he doesn't learn anything new. The following day he gets Helene Jurasic's address to pay her a visit. Helene lives in the most expensive area of ​​Vienna, on the Red Mountain . There, Brenner meets Paul Löschenkohl. After long discussions, he takes him to Klöch. While driving, Brenner learns that Milovanovic is Helene's brother and that he had something against his sister's relationships. During the night, Brenner is woken up by loud cries of pleasure from the next room. He peers through a hole in the wall. There he sees the artist Horvath, who was believed dead. He had dressed up as a waitress and worked in the roast chicken station.

The next day, Brenner decides to confront Marko. But Marko cannot be found. In the afternoon he meets Horvath dressed normally. He tells Brenner that Marko persuaded him to hide here so he doesn't have to file for bankruptcy. He also tells that he had given himself away by buying drugs from Jacky, who recognized him by his order. Jacky immediately went to Marko and blackmailed him into exposing everything. In the evening, Brenner goes back to Vienna to see Helene Jurasic. There he also meets Milovanovic. Together, the two tell him that they know the bones belong to a mercenary recruiter who was looking for people in the chicken station. They tell how old Löschenkohl simply slipped the money to Helene, how she then sent her friend Ortovic to Löschenkohl in order to receive hush money for things with Helene. But Milovanovic, pretending to be Ortovic, called the Löschenkohl and said that he wanted hush money for the Baumann (mercenary recruiter). Then Ortovic's head appeared in the ball sack.

Brenner immediately drives back to the roast chicken station. There he finds the bodies of Ortovic, Baumann, Marko and Mrs. Löschenkohl in the cold room. The old quenching cabbage surprises Brenner in the refrigerator with a butcher's hoe. Brenner can evade, but loses the little finger of his left hand. Then Paul Löschenkohl comes into the refrigerator and Brenner and he overpowers the killer. But instead of calling an ambulance, Brenner orders the car to go to Marko's house. There they kick in the door and find the starved Jacky behind it.

Then Brenner passed out from the loss of blood on his finger and only woke up next to Jacky in the hospital. He tells Brenner that old Löschenkohl confessed to all four murders: the mercenary recruiter, Marko, Mrs. Löschenkohl and Ortovic.

characters

  • Simon Brenner is the private investigator.
  • Friedrich Löschenkohl is the founder of the fried chicken station and stepfather of Paul Löschenkohl.
  • Paul Löschenkohl is old Löschenkohl's stepson.
  • Angelika Löschenkohl is Paul Löschenkohl's wife.
  • Goran Milovanovic is an ex-professional footballer who operates the bone meal machine in the fried chicken station. He is also the brother of Helene Jurasic. Milovanovic is the goalkeeper of FC Klöch.
  • Helene Jurasic is a prostitute whose main freelancer is Löschenkohl senior. She is Ortovic's friend and Milovanovic's sister.
  • Ortovic is Helene Jurasic's friend and a football striker in a neighboring town.
  • Ferdl is the coach of FC Klöch, who also works as a bus driver on trips for pensioners.
  • Palfinger is an artist.
  • Gottfried Horvath is an artist who is good friends with Palfinger. He worked for a year, disguised as a waitress, in the fried chicken station.
  • Nikolaus Marko is a rubber producer who was once rich and who spent a large part of his fortune on the works of Horvath.
  • Kaspar Krennek is a former colleague of Brenner's work in the police.
  • Winkler is also a former colleague of Brenner's work.
  • Jacky Trummer is a drug dealer who spends most of his time in the fried chicken station at the bar.
  • Ms. Trummer is the toilet attendant at the fried chicken station and the mother of Jacky Trummer.
  • The shoe seller is Angelika Löschenkohl's sister.

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Such a restaurant in the same place served the author as a model, see: PALZ - Special - The Bone Man . Retrieved from gasthof-palz.at on September 21, 2015