#RivetingReviews: Max Easterman reviews HUNKELER’S SECRET by Hansjörg Schneider

The saying goes that “old soldiers never die – they merely fade away” and the same might well be said about old policemen: a sleuth will always be a sleuth, even if only from the comfort of an armchair. In the last Inspector Hunkeler novel, The Murder of Anton Livius, he asserted: I am who I am. And I don’t intend to change. But change has been forced on him and he is now retired – and, as the story begins, lying in a hospital bed, sedated and recovering from an operation. The next bed is occupied by a man whom Hunkeler gradually realises is an old acquaintance from his days as a left-wing student. Back in 1968, Stephan Fankhauser was ‘Red Steff’: … one of the biggest troublemakers of the student movement … [he] had hair down to his shoulders … But he too has changed over the years and risen to the eminence of Director of the Baseler Volksbank. He regales an increasingly bored and tetchy Hunkeler with the story of his life, a life likely soon to be cut short, as he has terminal cancer. His demise, however, comes rather more quickly than expected: one night, a still half-sedated Hunkeler sees Fankhauser protesting as a nurse inserts a hypodermic needle into his stomach. Hunkeler drifts back off to sleep but when he wakes next morning, it’s to be told Fankhauser has died. He worries: was he dreaming about the injection? Why did something seem out of place with the nurse? There’s no post-mortem and a quick cremation seems to conclude the matter. Hunkeler remains unconvinced, however, and he wants to know what Fankhauser died of. The sleuth is awakened, much to the displeasure of his former colleagues, one of whom, Madörin, who’s in charge of the case, issues a clear warning to keep his fingers out of it.

Hunkeler’s suspicions are only further aroused when the politician who delivered the dead man’s eulogy is attacked and seriously injured on his way home after the wake; the local Prosecutor suggests Hunkeler, whose local knowledge might be a plus for the investigation, should be “consulted” about these events – which inevitably enrages Madörin even further. The scene is set for a game of cat-and-mouse between Hunkeler and his former colleagues, testing loyalties to the limit. And as in previous Hunkeler novels, the inevitable rivalries and turf-disputes arising from Basel’s position astride three national police authorities – Swiss, French, German, within any one of which the possible perpetrators of the events in this book could be operating – leave Hunkeler once again working on the fringes of what’s acceptable for a man of the law. His trail is strewn with eggshells.

Hunkeler’s Secret has no dense, devious and complex plot line with red herrings galore: instead, Hansjörg Schneider sets his story against the backdrop of the psychology of the Swiss state, its relations with other countries – and the fact that certain key events in its recent history have been either conveniently forgotten or deliberately covered up. Memories of those events, some dating back more than sixty years, provoke and inflame passions and hatreds today: in Livius, the plot turns on a village in Alsace; in the present case, relations with Germany are in the frame.

From the start, some of Switzerland’s time-honoured beliefs in itself are called into question: Hunkeler reflects that when he was young … the Swiss had been proud of their country. People spoke of the free Swiss citizen … people were proud of the banks, where the money of innocent people who faced persecution was held in safety … the freedom fighter Willliam Tell was in every Swiss citizen. But today you almost had to be ashamed of being Swiss … banks were having to pay gigantic fines … bankers were made to confess their guilt in American courts. And the old Switzerland, the confederation of citizens who made all the great decisions together, is now a distant dream. Hunkeler begins to realise the events he is investigating now can only be understood in the context of what happened way back when. His intuition, his local knowledge, his fascination with the darker recesses of his country’s past – these are the qualities which make this book such an interesting and thrilling read.

Reviewed by Max Easterman

HUNKELER’S SECRET

Written by Hansjörg Schneider

Translated from the German by Astrid Freuler

Published by Bitter Lemon Press (2025)

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Max Easterman spent thirty-five years as a BBC broadcaster. He was a lecturer in journalism for seventeen years at Huddersfield University and is today a translator, media trainer with Sounds Right, jazz musician and reviewer.

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