Crime Fiction in German: Der Krimi ed. by Katharina Hall (review)

The last decade in particular has witnessed significant English-language scholarship on German-language crime and detective fiction. These contributions notwithstanding, a comprehensive history of German-language crime and detective fiction (colloquially referred to by the umbrella term Krimi) had yet to be written. Katharina Hall's 2016 edited volume Crime Fiction in German: Der Krimi, which appears in the "European Crime Fictions" series, addresses this lacuna by offering "a comprehensive overview of German-language crime fiction from its origins in the early nineteenth century to the post-reunification Germany of the new millennium" (1).

An introductory chapter precedes essays written by five additional contributors and Hall. The first thematic chapter chronicles the evolution of the Krimi in the 19^th-century German-speaking world, the following two focus on Austria and Switzerland in particular. The second half of the volume focuses on subgenres that emerged after 1945, with forays into the Afrika-Krimi, the Frauenkrimi, historical crime fiction, and the Fernsehkrimi. Each of the seven chapters after the introduction concludes with a short excerpt of a representative text. Generous supplementary materials serve as bookends and include a map of the German-speaking area, a timeline of significant events (political and literary), and an annotated bibliography of relevant primary and secondary sources.

Evident throughout the volume is an attentive editorial hand: the essays are conscientiously researched and engagingly written. Hall's introduction serves as an effective entrée into the volume, navigating the generic discourse and laying out key terms and tensions. The introduction additionally offers précises of the subsequent chapters, bridging content gaps between them and linking the most salient themes of the volume to existing scholarship.

Next, Mary Tannert provides an overview of early crime and detective fiction in German with the goal of documenting two complementary forces: social context that favors "causality and the exercise of inquiry and ratiocination," and the emergence of narratives conducive to detection (33). Tannert explains how the criminal-justice system in German states developed during the 19^th century and, drawing on landmark crime narratives, shows how investigative models and notions of criminality likewise evolved. The resulting impression is that a more nuanced engagement with social class, criminality, and justice existed in late 19^th-century German-language crime literature than frequently assumed.

The next two chapters focus on the development of the Krimi in Austria and Switzerland, respectively. In the former, Marieke Krajenbrink identifies distinctive characteristics of the Austrian Krimi such as "a marked sensibility for language," the Viennese inclination toward satire, and an "intense engagement with Austrian society" (51–52). Krajenbrink then considers influences to the genre since the 1960s: writers such as Peter Handke and Gerhard Roth, whose provocative deployment—and deconstruction—of generic elements in anti-crime novels would inspire later writers in the genre proper. The balance of Krajenbrink's chapter focuses on contemporary Austrian crime fiction, profiling established authors who incorporate distinctive features of this country's Krimis while continuing the tradition of generic deconstruction.

While Krajenbrink's contribution focused primarily on crime fiction of the last fifty years, Martin Rosenstock's essay on the Swiss Krimi underscores a longer engagement with crime and detective fiction in that country. Consistent with most treatments of the Swiss situation, Friedrich Glauser and Friedrich Dürrenmatt enjoy pride of place here, but Rosenstock follows the lead of more recent scholarship that extends the trajectory of the genre both forward and back. Glauser and Dürrenmatt are now linked to early influences such as the 18^th-century author François Gayot de Pitaval and Swiss author Carl Albert Loosli (1877–1959). Portraits of two contemporary Swiss authors who serve as standard-bearers of the Swiss legacy round out Rosen-stock's analysis.

The volume's shift to a thematic approach is inaugurated by a chapter on the Afrika-Krimi. Here, Julia Augart provides a detailed typology of approximately 100 works that...