The sweetness of life

More about the book

It is Christmas in the alpine town of Furth am See and a six-year-old girl is playing a game of Parcheesi with her grandfather. The doorbell rings, and the old man gets up to answer, but never returns. When the young girl finally goes to see what has happened, she finds him lying by the barn, his skull broken; his face a red pulp against the white snow. From that time on, she does not speak a single word. Raffael Horn, the psychiatrist engaged to treat the silent child, is drawn into solving the crime along with Detective Superintendent Ludwig Kovacs. In search for answers to the murder, their parallel researches sweep through Furth, revealing a deeply troubling psychological profile of the tiny snowbound town.