Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I found this book ok. Trying to read it as a standalone was probably a problem having not read the first 2 books.

I found it all a little bit slow moving after a good start and just found myself often immersed into something of a history lesson..

It definitely is a good book, with an intriguing protagonist and from what I’ve read the earlier books are quite different but do need to be read.

So an interesting, intelligent and literary crime thriller, I think I just need to start at the beginning and that would increase the enjoyment of this book.

A very enjoyable and atmoshperic book, my first time experiencing the author and I found it very enjoyable, the story was great, although the third in the series. I do plan to read the earlier books and purchase a copy of this one to read again, likely some backstory missed coming in at the third book.

On a foggy Saturday afternoon an armed man appears in the garden of the Niemann family in Freiburg, Germany and sets off a series of events which unexpectedly alter their lives.

The Dance of Death is the third in Oliver Bottini’s Black Forest Investigations series, and follows on from Zen and the Art of Murder, which we have reviewed. Although it can be described as a crime novel, the book goes deep into the issue of immigration and the plight of refugees.

This is an extract from the review on the Crime Fiction Lover website. Please read the rest of my review on this layered, tense crime novel there. I enjoyed it's different spin on the traditional crime novel immensely and look forward to reading the rest of the Louise Boni series.

And so to the third of Oliver Bottini’s Black Forest Investigation series, The Dance of Death, which sees stalwart investigator Louise Boni, drawn into a case of retribution precipitated by the turbulent history of the Balkan states…

Whilst confessing to the fact that I did find the first of the series, Zen and the Art of Murder a tad ponderous for my tastes, and having read and enjoyed the second A Summer of Murder, I have come to appreciate the more meandering and slow moving pace of Bottini’s writing. Veering very much more towards literary fiction than crime thriller per se, I found myself adjusting to the pace and style of it the further into the book I read. This more measured feel to Bottini’s prose does rather dilute the feeling of this being a crime thriller, but interestingly does give a platform for the author to really get beneath the skin of his characters, and to thoroughly interrogate the actions of the main antagonist, Antun Loncar, threatening retribution on one man’s family for the perceived sins of the past. We become as intimately involved with the motivations and history of this perpetrator as the police investigation team, and as his turbulent, unsettled and ultimately tragic story is slowly revealed, Bottini poses some interesting questions as to the balance between justice, revenge and compassion. As a reader it is good to feel conflicted about a character, where the boundaries of black and white merge into a mysterious grey, and this was an incredibly interesting facet of the book as a whole.

Talking of conflicted, police investigator Louise Boni, is a mass of contradictions, being a quixotic, emotionally challenged and a sometimes slightly unfathomable protagonist. I still can’t quite decide if I like her or not, as her compassion and clear-sightedness, is so often blurred by her own self absorption, with a messy and unsettled private life, and her recovery as an alcoholic. At times, more often in her professional life, she shows a huge clarity of thought and sense of action, underscored by compassion and determination, but all too often in her private life be it due to drink or relationships there’s an overarching feeling of indecision and naval gazing that makes you want to grab her by the shoulders, and give her a good shake. She proves to be a consistently complicated character, sometimes overwhelmed by her own feelings of guilt in relation to events of the past, and I still don’t know quite what to make of her.

The Dance of Death is not an easy read as there is a huge weight of historical factual detail, that although entirely necessary to the plot, does slow the pace of the book considerably, but it is difficult to see how this information could be imparted to the reader in any other way, tracing the history of war and resettlement between the Balkan states and Germany post Second World War. Although at times somewhat dense, and a little overwhelming, I did find the historical aspect fascinating, looking at the history of conflict and resettlement in the Balkans, from a new and interesting angle- special mention to translator Jamie Bulloch for the singular challenge this presented. Overall, I actually enjoyed the final part of the book more, as Boni physically retraces Loncar’s past, and takes her own journey through the Balkans, and although it did feel rather truncated in comparison to what had proceeded it, this section of the book had a real vividness and verve as Boni encounters the strange environs of Loncar’s home state. This is also quite possibly a journey for Boni that will take her life in an entirely new direction, so will be interested to see where Bottini takes her, and us, as readers…

I struggled with this book. This appears to be tricky to read as a stand alone - there is significant back story and at one point I wasn't sure what they were on about. But it got better as I got further into the book. It would help to read the other stories in the series first

Translated from the German, this is the 3rd in the Black Forest Investigation series by Oliver Bottini featuring 44 year old Chief Inspector Louise Boni of the Freiburg Serious Crime Squad (Kripo). This addition is markedly different from the other two that preceded it, there is less of an offbeat feel to this one, and it interconnects the present with a tragic and harrowing European past. It provides the reader with little known aspects of the volatility of European history, the movements of Germans through time to other parts of Europe and Russia, fascism, WW2, the desperate trauma and civil war accompanying the break up of the old Yugoslavia, the flood of refugees seeking safety and sanctuary in Germany in the 1990s, followed by the politically driven policy of repatriation and some of the horrors that follow. It all begins when a homeless man appears at the home of the Niemann family in Merzhausen. The strange man reappears later that night, armed with a gun, claiming this is his home, with an ultimatum for them to leave, reciting Psalm 9, verse 9 'The Lord will also be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble'.

Louise has finally managed to give up the drinking, feeling a sense of calmness, although she is to be tested to her limits when her alcoholic friend, a pastor whose life has fallen apart comes to stay in her apartment where the building is undergoing extensive building works. As Louise and the Freiburg police finds themselves under intense pressure trying to work out who this man is, where he comes from, and why he chose the Niemanns. The homeless man is no ordinary man, he is an old warrior, with the capacity to engage in asymmetric warfare, which in itself speaks volumes, and which allows him to elude the police with ease. Louise can feel that sometimes the answers lay in human pain and trauma, as they begin to untangle complex threads that lead to a tragic history of Germans in Yugoslavia, unspeakable acts in Valpovo in 1945, a man caught in so many wars and the inhuman repatriation policy that is to break him irrevocably. The Niemann family were already breaking apart internally, the heavy pressures they are under make the fractures accentuate the ever increasing fragility amongst them.

This is a novel of what comprises identity and the notions of what is a homeland and where it is that one belongs. All these concepts are tested amongst the horrors and nightmares of European history, wars, and shifts in allegiance of powerful European powers through time, decisions which reflect badly on them, and which they are less than willing to own up to, and the tide of political opinion that stigmatise refugees, even when they have a past history that may identify them as German. This is a brilliant read, a product of impressive research, of the tragic actions that ensue when a man is broken by all that has happened to him in his lifetime and ends up in a place where he loses his humanity amidst all the inhumanity that has infested Germany and Europe, past and present. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.