Come on, sweet death (novel)

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Come on, sweet death (1998) is the third Brenner crime thriller by Wolf Haas . He is considered the most famous crime thriller in this series and, like this one, is characterized by his laconic wit. Come, Sweet Death won the German Thriller Prize 1999 and 2000 Josef Hader in the lead role filmed what may have contributed to its popularity.

action

This detective novel is about the fight between two rival rescue organizations - the cross rescuers and the rescue association - who try to ensure their survival with their criminal machinations.

The story begins with the murder of Leo Stenzl, head of the Vienna blood bank, and his girlfriend Irmi, a nurse and home nurse. The two are the victims of an art shot and at the same time killed while kissing. Witness of the event is Manfred Groß, a paramedic of the cross rescuers who is called "Bimbo" because of his appearance. He has a great preference for gold chains, which always adorn his thick neck and which would later become his undoing. Due to his self-confident demeanor, he succeeds in “getting around” Angelika Lanz, a 25-year-old, cheerful paramedic's daughter, in front of the assembled cross-rescue team. With this action he attracts the hatred of old Lanz.

As the struggle for each individual patient between the cross rescuers and the rescue association grew stronger, the junior, the chief of the cross rescuers, quotes Simon Brenner to himself. Brenner was in the service of the police for 20 years, later he was a detective and is now a paramedic with the crusaders. He is given the task of finding out whether the rescue association is listening to the radio traffic. To do this, he contacts a certain Oswald, a criminal and specialist in wiretapping systems.

Meanwhile, a second murder occurs, namely that of Manfred Groß, alias “Bimbo”. At first one believes in a coincidence, but the strangle marks on his neck - caused by his gold chain - confirm the murder. Old Lanz is immediately suspected and taken to the remand prison.

Brenner is also doing badly in the meantime, because his spies draw the displeasure of the rescue association boss and a certain Watzek (sponsor of the rescue association). He is beaten up and later taken prisoner with his colleague, little Berti. From this predicament, the two are finally freed by Angelika Lanz, who works as a waitress in the parlor of the rescue association.

In the meantime, Nicole, the secretary of the blood bank boss, has also made herself suspicious of having something to do with Irmi's death. The two women are believed to be rivals in favor of their boss. Irmi keeps sniffing around in the hospital offices. Her curiosity is also confirmed by a certain Ms. Rupprechter, for whom she works as a home health worker. Ms. Rupprechte is a patient of the hospital, a banker's widow and has an enormous life insurance policy. Ms. Rupprechte is always driven to the AKH for treatment by the cross rescuers.

Brenner finally learns from Angelika that Irmi was in a relationship with a colleague of her father's, a certain "Lungau" who was actually from Burgenland . Lungauer is a trained mechanic and while repairing an ambulance he was so badly injured by Bimbo that he has since been in a wheelchair as a care case. Brenner visits Lungauer in his apartment and he tells him how the rescue association and the cross rescuers can finance themselves. Both associations are dependent on donations and are often given by patients in their wills . After all, the saviors of the cross swindled their patients' signatures in their wills and ultimately the junior, together with the bimbo, forcibly caused the death of their patients in order to get the inheritance faster. They are always diabetic or dialysis patients who have been given sugar water on purpose. Lungauer discovered the bimbo and when it became too much for him and he wanted to go to the police, Bimbo tries to kill him. Irmi has now continued to research on her own and wanted to do justice to the Lungau. That also costs her life.

When it turns out that Lanz was in surgery at the time the blood bank chief and Irmi were murdered and the gun was found in Bimbo's locker room, things get rolling. Oswald finally helps Brenner get into the cross rescue computer and confirms that when many patients die, Bimbo and the junior were always the drivers.

When Brenner hears that Lungauer is about to be hospitalized with an epileptic seizure , he thinks badly and knows that he has to save Lungauer as a witness, otherwise he will be the next murder victim. Lungauer is transported in a broken ambulance and is supposed to be killed with the escaping exhaust gases. Brenner immediately pursued the ambulance, stopped it in a nasty accident, and when he got into the car to save the Lungauer, he almost suffocated himself. Dazed, he could still see that the junior was behind the wheel and now knew that even he himself is to be killed as an annoying witness. Oswald, who accompanied Brenner in the rescue, pulls Bimbo's weapon and saves the detective's life with a fatal shot at the junior.

So behind all the dark machinations, the junior chief of the cross rescuers always pulled the strings, he was responsible for all the murders, and all of this had to be done to ensure the survival of the cross rescuers.

title

The title and motivational song line Come, sweet cross comes from Bach's St. Matthew Passion . For a long time, Brenner remembered it not quite correctly, but at least as aptly as Come, sweet death (see Bach's well-known spiritual song Come, sweet death ) and leads the single not only back to an ex-flame of his youth, but also to Solution of the case.

characters

  • Simon Brenner is a former detective who worked in the police force for 19 years.
  • Manfred Groß is called "Bimbo" because of his appearance. He's a paramedic with the Savior on the Cross
  • Hansi Munz is also a paramedic, almost 30 and old-fashioned.
  • Leo Stenzl is head of the blood bank and brother of the rescue association chief.
  • Irmi is Leo Stenzl's friend, a nurse and home nurse.
  • Angelika Lanz was in a relationship with the rescue association chief for a short time. She is 25 years old and runs the household for her father.
  • Mr. Lanz is Angelika's father.
  • The junior is the head of the cross rescue center and has a distinctive mustache.
  • Oswald is a convicted criminal, 51 years old and a specialist in wiretapping systems.
  • Mr. Czerny is a paramedic, greedy for money and deals in medicines and insurance.
  • Little Berti is 1.92 m tall, skinny, wants to open a detective's office with Brenner.
  • Imbiss-Rosi has a snack on the premises of the AKH.
  • Lungauer is a mechanic and Irmi's ex-boyfriend.
  • Frau Rupprechte is a wealthy banker's widow.
  • Klara is Brenner's friend from school. It was she who brought him come, sweet death from Bach to his heart.

expenditure

  • Wolf Haas: Come on, sweet death. Novel; the third case for Brenner . Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-455-40003-8 (reprint of the Reinbek 1998 edition).

literature

  • Florian Singer: Literature and Film in the Field of Narrative Theories. Analysis options for film adaptations with special consideration of the narrative position and focalization using the example of Wolf Haas “Come sweet death” . Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8322-8659-0 .