Praise for Hunkeler's Secret:
“Hansjörg Schneider’s Hunkeler’s Secret (Bitter Lemon, 2025, £9.99), the translation of a 2015 original, is the fourth of the series to appear in English. Basle-set again, Hunkeler is retired, hospitalised, and, as such, witnesses the apparent murder of the next-bed patient, Stephanie Fakhauser, an irritating one-time student radical who had become a banker in the prestigious but questionable Basel Volksbank. As with some Scandi-noir, this is an approach that probes dark roots in World War Two conduct. It is sparely-written, short, and first-rate.” ---The Critic
"I reckon Hunkeler’s Secret, the latest in the ‘Inspector Hunkeler’ series, is my favourite thus far. While in hospital recovering from an operation, Hunkeler finds himself sharing a room with Stephan Fankhauser, the gravely ill former head of the Basel Volksbank. One morning, Hunkeler wakes to the news that Fankhauser died in the night. But was it a natural death? Or did a groggy Hunkeler witness something untoward being done to his fellow patient in the wee small hours? After his discharge from hospital, the retired police inspector starts to investigate in his dogged, somewhat grumpy way. There’s also a new family relationship to explore, a wayward goat, and lots of good food. One aspect of the ‘Hunkeler’ series I particularly like is its geographical setting. There’s the Swiss city of Basel on the one hand, where Hunkeler spent his working life and has a flat, and rural Alsace on the other, where he owns a little house. You get a real sense of the proximity of Switzerland, France and Germany to one another, with characters continually criss-crossing borders and speaking Swiss-German, Alsatian (an Alemannic dialect) and French. I love that Astrid Freuler integrates nuggets of the original languages into her excellent English translation, which gives readers an enhanced sense of the multiculturalism of the area. The region also has a complex territorial history, which plays a role in the resolution of this knotty Hunkeler case.”__Mrs. Peabody Investigates
"This Swiss-set crime novel with a somewhat grumpy lead is a fascinating mix of knotty crime investigation, complicated family relationships, the glory of food, and love of place. " This is a series and a police inspector worth meeting. Peter Hunkeler has just retired, while in hospital, he wakes and witnesses an incident, yet come the morning, questions whether it was just a dream. Award-winning Swiss author Hansjorg Schneider lives in Basel, the sense of place is wonderful, and I always feel transported to this corner of Switzerland on the French and German border. Hunkeler’s Secret is the fourth novel to be translated into English. I’ve read each one, which began with The Basel Killings, and can most definitely recommend the series. Astrid Freuler again translates beautifully, you feel at home, yet feel the differences too. Hunkeler has grown on me with each outing; he doesn’t suffer fools, yet acts with compassion, his love of food and wine is legendary, as is his nose for the truth. I adore the somewhat quirky nature of these novels, while crime fiction, equal footing is given to the relationships within, and the location simply sings. Hunkeler’s Secret is another absorbing read from a series that is as rewarding as it is satisfying. “---Liz Robinson, LoveReading
"We’ve been reviewing Hansjörg Schneider’s entertaining stories about the frustrations of Peter Hunkeler, an ageing and cynical detective (now retired) of the police force of Basel, Switzerland, ever since The Basel Killings was translated into English in 2021. Basel is located so close to Germany and France that Hunkeler has a second home in Alsace, and the area is almost another character in the stories. Schneider beautifully evokes not just the local scenery, but the residents' mental images of themselves. Basel is not as sophisticated as Switzerland’s larger, wealthier financial hub, Zurich or as prominent worldwide as cosmopolitan Geneva. Basel is, as it happens, larger than the country’s capital, Bern, but cannot compete in national prominence. It carries on quietly at its own pace, investing in cultural institutions and taking pride in its pharmaceutical industry. Despite their geographic proximity, sharp differences in outlook (as well as old antagonisms) can be experienced in these three neighbouring countries. You get an amusing display of it when an investigation brings together police officials from all three, which Hunkeler is invited to attend. The meeting is run by his successor, Detective Madörin, who resents Hunkeler mightily. Alas, it’s a disaster, confirming the impression that Madörin, and possibly Basel itself, is yet again an also-ran. When he was a university student in the 1960s, Hunkeler took an interest, if not an active part, in left-wing politics, long since set aside. Yet today, when he’s hospitalised for exploratory surgery, he finds himself sharing a room with a voluble old man, Dr Stephan Fankhauser, whom Hunkeler recognises as Red Steff, one of the biggest troublemakers in the student movement. Now, however, the old firebrand is terminally ill. Fankhauser must have subsequently reformed, because he’s been serving as director of the Basel Volksbank – as Hunkeler says, bourgeois through and through. Whatever, the man won’t stop talking, and he’s driving Hunkeler crazy. Fortunately, the night nurse is generous with sleeping pills. One night, half asleep but perhaps not yet dreaming, he sees a different nurse come into their room and give Fankhauser an injection in his belly that he seems to fight. In the morning, he’s dead. As a retiree, Hunkeler has no standing to investigate, but his years of police work won’t let him set the episode aside. His patient girlfriend Hedwig takes him to his place in Alsace as soon as she can, and, as he’s recuperating, an unexpected guest turns up: his granddaughter Estelle, whom he’s never met. She can’t stand living at home now and believes Hunkeler will be a more supportive adult than her parents. Always on the phone, always up to something, she baffles Hunkeler. If books can be divided into two camps – the tortoise and the hare, with the hare dashing from one action scene and disaster to the next – this story is a tortoise. The book delves into the minutia of Hunkeler’s life, and it all becomes quite soothing while you’re waiting for something to happen. You read about the book he’s reading on World War I, and it reminds you that the fields of battle were not so far from this place where countries rub up against each other, borders are only political, and memories are long. In truth, a lot of Hunkeler’s meandering is unexpectedly significant, and while you may think he’s not doing much, he accomplishes quite a bit. Two other violent episodes occur that are, could be, maybe linked. A former Liberal party head is mugged outside his home and taken to the hospital, and another man is shot near the woods with his hunting gun. Hunkeler, who is informed of these investigations by a former colleague, thinks Madörin has the wrong end of the stick in each case. But, as a retired detective, what can he do? Plenty. It took a while to warm up to this story, as I found Fankhauser just as tedious as Hunkeler did, but once I got into it, the methodical recounting of his days and his way of working were most satisfying.”----CrimeFictionLover
“Author Hansjörg Schneider writes mysteries centered in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland, which occupies the tri-country border region with Germany and Switzerland. The protagonist in his fictional stories is Basel city detective Peter Hunkeler, now retired.With plenty of leisure time, Hunkeler is given to socializing in the three countries over coffee or wine, or perhaps an excellent dinner. He is unerringly polite, although when his thoughts are otherwise occupied, he comes off as brusque. Hunkeler also enjoys central European history and legends, tales of Charlemagne, William Tell, and how his hometown of Basel defied the central Swiss government in Bern and welcomed Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. He also appreciates the flora and fauna of his region.The book begins with him being hospitalized for minor surgery and sharing a room with Stephen Fankhauser, a talkative terminal cancer patient and reformed anarchist, whom he had known in their college years. Doped up after surgery, he thought he saw a woman in a head scarf injecting Fankhauser in his stomach, but thinking back on the vision, he thought it might have been a hallucination. When Hunkeler awakened the next morning, Fankhauser was dead and soon afterwards his body was cremated. No longer on the police force, Hunkeler couldn’t officially investigate nor could he consult because he was resented by his successor, a previous subordinate. So, in a relaxed manner, asking apparently innocent questions to establish Fankhauser’s background and the identity of the woman in a head scarf, Hunkeler nevertheless started to make inquiries. Being a good detective novel, the “whodunnit” and the “whydunnit” are not revealed until the book’s conclusion.” San Diego Jewish Book Review
