Der Kreis

MARTIN MAURER
DER KREIS/
THE CIRCLE. A NICK MARZEK CASE

A Crime Novel, ca. 350 pages, Spring 2022

“Gripping, highly atmospheric”
Thomas Przybilka, KRIMI-TIPP on The Warriors

A vivid and thrilling portrait of 80s Munich

Based on true events


Nick Marzek and Graziella Altieri – the crime world’s unlikely duo investigates its 2nd case
Summer 1984. It’s been four months since Nick and Graziella put a stop to the antics of the LUDWIG group. Now they’re back in Munich, hoping to finally learn the identi-ties of the group’s backers, who are still at large. But Nick’s supervisor throws a spanner in the works and makes it clear that the case is no longer under investiga-tion. Still, neither of them has ever had much respect for the rules...
Then another case emerges: two women are found shot dead in Perlacher Forest. The women are identified as Maria Ursa and her 18-year-old daughter Dinka. There’s no sign of husband, and father, Stjepan. Could he have shot the two wom-en? Is the whole thing just a domestic tragedy? Marzek and Altieri get a closer look at the matter when they visit the exiled Croatian community to which the murdered women belonged. Stjepan Ursa was a member of the banned Brotherhood of Croa-tian Revolutionaries, a terror group of nationalists and fascists who consider them-selves freedom fighters against Tito and the communist regime. Similar murders of exiled Croatians had occurred in Munich a year before – has the Ursa family been executed by the Yugoslavian secret service?
The further Nick and Graziella delve into the two cases, the deeper they find them-selves immersed in a network of lies and intrigue. And soon they no longer know who to trust...