Review: The Basel Killings by Hansjorg Schneider

Synopsis: It is the end of October, the city of Basel is grey and wet. It could be December. It is just after midnight when Police Inspector Peter Hunkeler, on his way home and slightly worse for wear, spots old man Hardy sitting on a bench under a street light. He wants to smoke a cigarette with him, but the usually very loquacious Hardy is silent―his throat a gaping wound. Turns out he was first strangled, then his left earlobe slit, his diamond stud stolen. The media and the police come quickly to the same conclusion: Hardy’s murder was the work of a gang of Albanian drug smugglers. 

But for Hunkeler that seems too obvious. Hardy’s murder has much in common with the case of Barbara Amsler, a prostitute also found killed, with an ear slit and pearl stud missing. He follows his own intuition and the trail leads him deep into an edgy world of bars, bordellos and strip clubs, but also into the corrupt core of some of Basel’s political and industrial elite. More ominously, he will soon discover the consequences of certain events in recent Swiss history that those in power would prefer to keep far from the public eye.

The Basel Killings is the first (to be translated and published though fifth) in the Inspector Hunkeler series, set in Basel, Switzerland. This was my first real foray into the darker side of Swiss crime fiction - though definitely not my last. However, as I was unfamiliar with the city of Basel and other various locales, a town map would have been a great addition - but that's just me.

Mass murder or serial killings (ie: three or more excluding the perpetrator) are rare in Switzerland, and according to modern day studies, the violence is usually premeditated and ends with the suicide of the aggressor.  One of the conclusions from a study by the Psychiatric Service of Canton Basel Country found that these types of murders were “often they were motivated in their crime by a personal affront.”

Hunkeler is a member of the Kriminalpolizei or criminal investigation agency, of the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. The 26 cantonal police agencies and numerous municipal police agencies are not subordinate to federal authorities. Their commanding officers report to the head of the respective cantonal or municipal department of police, who is a member of the cantonal or municipal governing council.

Hunkeler is - we are told - old, divorced, alcoholic, out of shape and out of touch. With his girlfriend is away in Paris, he wanders the dark streets late at night. He is due for retirement and is barely tolerated by his more political savvy colleagues who know how to play the game. And this is why Hunkeler is at odds with the higher echelons of the police force, for he has the gall to mix with the lower class, rural, and foreign elements of the city.  

And this book tackles the problems of how the wider community views and treats these undesirables, especially when it comes to a willingness in solving (or turning a blind eye to) crime in these areas. Not only that, like all good detectives that a forged from a different mould, Hunkeler has his own methods - somewhat antiquated - that get results, much to the chargrin of his colleagues.

The Basel Killings is a great read, especially for those that like their protagonists flawed and plausible, slightly eccentric, and their surrounds as gloomy and depressive as the crimes being investigated.

read more:
Mass murder and consecutive suicide in Switzerland: A comparative analysis. Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, A. Ilic, & A. Frei, (2019).

Wikipedia: Crime in Switzerland