Foreign Rights Catal 2005

8
DETECTIVE FICTION
Andreas Franz
The Dungeon
500 pages, 3-426-62445-1
August 2004
A nerve-wracking psychological thriller
by one of Germany’s masters of the
genre
Well-respected car dealer Rolf Lura has
disappeared, suddenly and without a trace.
Detective Julia Durant takes on the
case, and her team soon fi nds clues that
point to foul play. The evidence looks bad
for Gabriele Lura, especially when it is
discovered that she had obviously been
having an affair for some time with Rolf’s
best friend Werner Becker.
The investigation is speeding along, and
then suddenly Werner Becker disappears
too. He is being held prisoner in a secret
hideaway by Rolf Lura, who had faked his
own disappearance. Lura, who had found
out about his wife’s infi delity some time
ago, has become a complete psychopath
who has only one goal: revenge. But an
unsuspecting Julia Durant is still looking
for two dead bodies. Meanwhile Lura
forces his former friend to accept a diabolical
deal: Werner will only be set free if he
agrees to kill Gabriele.
Andreas Franz’s motto is “keep the
reader in suspense, and yet give him food
for thought (but never lecture to him!).” His
previous novels for Knaur include Young –
Blonde – Dead, The Eighth Victim, Lethal
Dose, The Spider Syndicate, and
Cold Blood.
Andreas Franz
Murder in Instalments
416 pages, 3-426-62600-4
March 2005
Translation rights sold to Lithuania
Sparks fl y between a detective and a
DA as they try to solve two murders
Dr. Jürgen Kaufung is found stabbed at his
offi ce. He leaves behind a number of
grieving, beautiful women whom the successful
doctor did more for than just provide
medical care. All of them are shaken
by the death of Jürgen Kaufung, and none
of them seems capable of murder. But
then Detective Peter Brandt thinks he has
a clue that points to gallery owner Klaus
Wedel, Kaufung’s best friend. For district
attorney Elvira Klein, it quickly becomes
clear that the crime must have been committed
by a junkie who needed money to
support his habit. But then Klaus Wedel is
killed as well. Is there a connection between
the two murders?
The autopsy report reveals a startling bit
of information: Klaus Wedel was HIVpositive,
and now Brandt sees the case
differently. But Wedel’s widow Katharina,
whom Brandt suspects at fi rst, simply explains
that she had an open marriage and
that her husband naturally had a lot of
affairs.
Andreas Franz
Diabolical Promises
576 pages, 3-426-62831-7
August 2005
Julia Durant’s latest case, with a subject
straight out of today’s headlines
December, 2001: Two Serbian bus drivers
who were involved in a white slavery ring
are found dead in their apartment, killed
because one of them wanted out. Two
years later, Maria Volescu, a young Molavian
who is kept as a sex slave in a
Frankfurt mansion along with 15 other
Eastern European women, is able to escape.
She manages to contact the psychologist
Verena Michel, who contacts her
best friend a lawyer named Rita.
A journalist friend tells Rita his fi ndings
about white slavery and also about the
double murder of the two Serbians. Rita
confi des the fl ight of Maria to her colleague
Michael Knoblauch and asks him
for an advice. But what Rita doesn’t know:
Knoblauch is a customer of the prostitution
ring and suspects that the woman Rita is
protecting is his favorite prostitute. Shortly
thereafter Rita is strangled. A case for
Julia Durant!