Snow White Must Die (Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein) Hardcover – Import, 15 January 2013

Some secrets when unravelled bring about an avalanche of troubles that one cannot fathom.A decade ago Tobias Sartorius all of 20 was convicted and sentenced for the disappearance of 2 17-year-old girls. While in prison his family faced the brunt of the angry town and was ruined along with their business and livelihood. Their lives all go for a toss to the point of no return. One of the girls who disappeared is Tobias's girlfriend also nicknamed Snow White.However, Tobias returns to the sleepy village of Altenhain and has to face the demons of his past. there is a witch hunt involved and he is injured, and the father-son duo is subjected to name-calling in the tight-knit community. However one of the neighbours a young 17-year-old girl Amelie believes in Tobias's innocence. In her quest to satiate her curious mind, she begins to dig out the past and skeletons tumble from the closets figuratively and literally. Detective Inspector Pia Kirchhoff and DS Oliver von Bodenstein are in charge of finding the story behind the recovery of a human skeleton and monitoring the tense atmosphere in the tiny village.As the dots begin to connect the hostility of the villagers increases and the detectives realise there is a lot more than what meets the eye especially. The disappearance of Snow White and the other girl over a decade ago doesn't seem to be an open and shut case any more.Was Tobias falsely accused? What did the village gain with his conviction?Amelie disappears and the police are thrown into a race against time to solve the mystery. Can they close the case that began a decade ago?The story is a riveting read and the author has brilliantly brought together a number of sub plots to converge into a jaw dropping climax. This is a must-read for thriller lovers.

Great writing...This the first book i read by Nele Neuhaus...She has really got a great writing skill...With a lot of unexpected Twists .....i Love this book

Good book

This novel is set in the German village of Altenhain, just outside of Frankfurt. Tobi Sartorius returns me there following his release from prison where he was serving a sentence for the abduction and killing of two girls aged 17, one of whom was the `Snow White' of the title. The two girls were Stephanie, his girlfriend and Laura, his childhood sweetheart.Tobi was 20 when he was convicted of their murders although without any bodies or any witnesses he has always protested his innocence. His return is unwelcome to the villagers and when his mother is attacked and seriously injured, Detective Inspector Pia Kirchoff and Sergeant Oliver von Bodenstein arrive to investigate. The more that Pia discovers the more doubts she begins to have about Tobi's conviction 11 years ago. Then a new girl appears, Amelie, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the former `Snow White' and befriends Tobi. When she suddenly disappears it seems that Tobi may be in for another prison spell unless Pia and her team can find the clues to the past in order to unravel the mysteries of present day Altenhain.This is a pacey, good length novel and the main plot is fairly convincing. The characters are reasonably well drawn. However, there are way too many sub plots within subplots here which for me, by the end, bordered on the totally unbelievable. Unfortunately the fairly inane title of this book rather sets the scene for the finale. The author could probably have written several novels from this one with the amount of motives and jealousies flying about in its pages.This was quite an interesting book to begin with, but by the end I was wishing it to be over and had ceased to care what else Altenhain had to reveal!

This is a book with a dense plot - excellent.

La novela es realmente interesante y redonda. Tiene el atractivo del insight de un pequeño pueblo alemán con todos sus secretos, es un microcosmos de la sociedad, los personajes bien delineados, el desarrollo de la historia no es previsible, cada uno de los personajes va teniendo su dosis de protagonismo, los que parecen culpables al principio, van enseñando sus propias debilidades y miedos

.. . ... ..m... . .. ... .. . ,,, . ,, ,,,, . Mm , .... .,,, .. ...

I would like to read all of Neuhaus's books after reading "Snow White Must Die" which feels like a mile-a-minute ride down the autobahn. This is a tight, multi-layered, complex mystery with a cast of characters who are all in some way suspicious of one crime or another in the small German village of Altenhain, not far from Frankfurt.Eleven years ago two girls went missing from the village, but their bodies were never found. Tobias Sartorius was indicted for the crimes on circumstantial evidence and sent to prison for ten years. When the book begins, Tobias has served his time and is now out of prison and has returned to his parents' home. The entire village is close-mouthed about the disappearance of the two seventeen-year-old girls, and no one has any sympathy for Tobias or his aging father.The two lead investigative police detectives, Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein, are called to the scene of an accident where a woman was thrown from a pedestrian bridge onto a moving car below, but there is a witness to this crime. As it turns out, the woman is the mother of Tobias Sartorius, Rita Cramer, who is divorced from his father. Someone is out to get this family.When another girl from the village goes missing, the police know that it is related to those long ago crimes and the whole village has Tobias as the one and only suspect, but the police have a few other ideas in mind.In this closed-minded village where one family rules and everyone else is beholden to their generosity, anyone could be the perpetrator. Hard-working police work nearly around the clock to solve this crime and to find out who killed Snow White, called so because of her last name, Schneeberger, "schnee" meaning snow, and her friend, Laura, and to find their bodies. In addition, time starts to run short to find the other missing girl.This book is very hard to put down with new characters appearing and the private lives of the police detectives becoming as complicated as the mystery itself. Nele Neuhaus has written an excellent mystery that is airtight and with characters who are developed well over the course of the book, are flawed, but do their job despite what they face. They are very human, and a few of the ones on the police force do go against the rules, but do they get caught? There are so many questions in this book as well as twists and turns that all come together for a shocking ending.I'm looking forward to the next book of Neuhaus's that will be released later in the year. Highly recommended.

What a great read! This murder mystery certainly does not disappoint! Just when you think you've figured it out, I surprises you. The characters felt real - alive & well rounded. It wasn't gory or overly sexual. It was perfectly balanced for me. I really enjoyed it and could not put it down.