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

At first nothing seems to link fifteen-year-old Eddie, a bit of a loner who finds solace swimming in the dangerous waters of the Rhine, and Nadine, a rich but bored student from Freiburg. Except for the fact that both disappear without trace, within days of each other. When Eddie's body is found, suspicion first falls upon his brutal and uncooperative father. But when Nadine's own father raises the alarm, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Bonì of the Freiburg police instinctively feels that the cases are connected.

An abandoned barn near the river soon becomes the focus of the investigation, beginning a trail that will lead Bonì and her team across the Rhine to Colmar, confronting them with the grim secrets of outwardly respectable citizens. Sometimes it takes very little to unleash the monster in man.
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How would two fifteen year old boys, victims themselves of domestic abuse, react if they discovered a naked, beaten, semi-conscious girl in an old barn? Concern mixed with prurience; lust mixed with uncertainty; fear mixed with desire? Eddie and Dennis go to the latter’s home and watch a football match, after which Eddie, clearly in the second category, decides to go back to the barn to take advantage of the situation, while Dennis, category three, stays at home nursing his cowardice. But the girl has disappeared and instead two men, one of whom claims to be a Kripo (German CID) officer – this story is set around Freiberg – catch him and attempt to discover what he knows of her whereabouts.
Chief Inspector Louise Boni is given the task of talking to a worried father whose daughter, Nadine Rhomueller, has been missing for two days, since the previous Saturday. This would not usually be a cause for police investigation at such an early stage, but Herr Rhomueller is a high profile business man with extensive connections on both the German and French sides of the river. At about the same time a report comes in about a boy, Eddie Holzer, who has been missing in the same area since Sunday. Louise thinks the coincidence is significant. She has history as a trouble making individual, apt to go off on her own, dismissive of her superiors and with a tendency to bring grief or death to those who get involved in her investigations (this is the fourth book in Bottini’s Black Forest series). She is persistently troubled by flashbacks to those earlier events, which interfere with her current task.
The investigation proceeds on two fronts, trying to find the boy and the girl and trying to identify the three men who appear to have been involved. It is therefore a fairly standard police procedural except it is set in Germany and has a more than usually troubled, maverick police officer. The quality of the plotting and the writing is high and helps to maintain interest when Boni is being more than usually introspective. This was, of course, originally written in German and credit should also be given to Jamie Bulloch for the translation, which is pleasingly high quality British English.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Night Hunters, the fourth novel in the Black Forest Investigation series featuring Detective Louise Boní, set in around the town of Freiburg in 2005.

A teenager, Eddie Holzer, has disappeared from the village of Grezhausen and Louise feels that, somehow, it is linked to her other missing person case, student Nadine Rohmueller. When Eddie’s body is found the hunt for Nadine ramps up and leads them across the Rhine to the French town of Colmar.

I thoroughly enjoyed Night Hunters which has an interesting take on the police procedural genre. It seems more grounded in the reality and, ultimately the banality, of murder than most novels. There is nothing overly clever about the killer and there appears to be no hidden motive, so solid police work gets the job done. And yet, it is absolutely fascinating.

The plot held my interest throughout with its mixture of police work, intuition and action scenes. I like the relentless drive to catch the murderer and I like that after a few introductory scenes it is told entirely from Louise’s point of view. The reader can follow events with her and interpret what she learns, all the while knowing little about the perpetrator. I thought the showdown with the perpetrator was great - so banal and yet so dangerous. It’s definitely food for thought.

I read the first novel in the series and wasn’t overly impressed so skipped the second and third and that was a mistake as this one is full of references to past events that I had no reference for. And, as the novel is full of ellipsis and inference, I felt a bit lost at times. I can, however, recognise that this is the way the mind works and, no matter how frustrating, can only praise the author for his accurate portrayal of it. In the first novel I read Louise Boní was an alcoholic and the novel was preoccupied with it. Now she’s sober and can think more clearly about her cases, her life is another matter. It is her insights and intuition that drive the plot.

Night Hunters is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is the 4th in the German translated crime series featuring DCI Louise Boni, half French and half German, of the Freiburg police, set close to the French border in a picturesque location, between the Black Forest and the Vosges, with its beautiful villages and towns, where ugliness and dark undercurrents run beneath the seemingly peaceful beauty. A lonely outsider, 15 year old Eddie, lives in the small hamlet of Grezhausen in Breisach, he hates his abusive father. He and his only friend, Dennis, fatefully choose not to phone the police after making a disturbing discovery in a barn. Boni is looking into Freiberg student, Nadine, reported missing by her desperately concerned father, she is from a wealthy and influential family, but Boni is not worried until a report comes in of a boy who went missing the day after Nadine's disappearance.

Boni does not believe in coincidences, she thinks the two events are connected as search parties look for the missing Eddie. In this story of kidnapping, rape, and brutal murders, Boni's hunch that the 2 cases are connected proves to be all too correct. Boni is harbouring ideas that at long last her life is turning around for the better, she is living in a new apartment, has a new car, and a hopeful relationship with Ben Liebermann, a man who is unable to secure a position in German law enforcement, so is working as a night security guard. However, the nightmare that unfolds in her investigation is to have her questioning this. She works the case with the now returned Thomas Illic, back from sick leave, he was off for 18 months after being traumatised, but will he be able to cope? Boni's team are joined by numerous other police officers, including from Organised Crime as they hunt for a ruthless and elusive killer.

Louise Boni is a flawed character, an inspired creation from Bottini, she goes her own way, frustrating her bosses, including Rolf Bermann, Head of Section 11, especially when it becomes clear she is not telling the truth to them. This is a tough case that takes its toll on Boni as she makes the right deductions after talking to the elderly Josepha Ettinger, the kind of deductions that are to send shock waves within the police force. This is a riveting and engaging addition to what is a favourite Euro-crime series, Boni is hunting a dangerous killer that makes her feel extremely afraid, fears that she is forced to confront in the terrifying finale. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.