I Am Your Judge

Starred review from November 16, 2015
German author Neuhaus combines an intense hunt for a serial killer with characters that readers will care about in her superior fourth mystery to be published in the U.S. featuring German detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein, of the Hofheim criminal police (after 2014’s Bad Wolf). Pia’s plans for a getaway with her new husband are thwarted when a murderer shoots elderly Ingeborg Rohleder with a high-powered rifle while the woman is walking her dog. Later, the sniper shoots 64-year-old Margarethe Rudolf in her kitchen in front of her granddaughter. The working theory that these are random shootings comes under question when the killer sends an obituary for the first victim to the police. Signed “the Judge,” the note states that Ingeborg “had to die” because her daughter denied someone assistance and was thus an “accessory to negligent manslaughter.” Sections told from the killer’s vantage point ratchet up the suspense as he narrows in on his next target. Neuhaus does a superb job of portraying the search for a link between the dead women, and her willingness to let her characters make mistakes gives the plot even more plausibility.

Starred review from January 1, 2016
This fourth entry in Neuhaus' German police-procedural series featuring Detective Pia Kirchhoff and her partner, Oliver von Bodenstein, is a tightly written novel of suspense. Kirchhoff is recently married and packing for her honeymoon when she gets a call about a murder. Bodenstein can't get there right away, so Kirchhoff fills in. An elderly woman out walking her dog was gunned down in cold blood. Kirchhoff can't help but become intrigued when she cannot find any reason for this woman to be killed. The victim was well liked in the community, as was the next victim, another elderly woman who is shot through her kitchen window while cooking with her granddaughter. The police force is severely shorthanded and it's easy to see that Kirchhoff married the right man; he completely understands when she cancels their honeymoon to work on the case. A high-level profiler is brought in, but he rubs everyone the wrong way, offering an occasional break in the tension. All the characters are well developed and refreshingly imperfect, adding real depth to what could have been just another serial-killer story. Fans of Scandinavian thrillers should take a side trip to Germany to check out this series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)