Snow White Must Die

By: Nele Neuhaus

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

On a rainy November day, police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: a woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation leads Pia and Oliver to a small village, and the home of the victim, Rita Cramer.

On a September evening eleven years earlier, two seventeen-year-old girls vanished from the village without a trace. In a trial based only on circumstantial evidence, twenty-year-old Tobias Sartorius, Rita Cramer's son, was sentenced to ten years in prison. Bodenstein and Kirchhoff discover that Tobias, after serving his sentence, has now returned to his home town. Did the attack on his mother have something to do with his return? In the village, Pia and Oliver encounter a wall of silence. When another young girl disappears, the events of the past seem to be repeating themselves in a disastrous manner. The investigation turns into a race against time, because for the villagers it is soon clear who the perpetrator is - and this time they are determined to take matters into their own hands.

©2010 Nele Neuhaus (P)2012 AudioGO, Ltd.

good story - difficult to follow

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have to admit that as an American who doesn't speak German the names were hard to follow. If the narrator had not tried so hard to use an accent with the names it might have been easier. The story was honestly very good and I did enjoy it, The narrator was really not bad at all - I just started to get annoyed at the name pronounciations. I would recommend this book.

By the end I just didn't care

Was very interesting and held my attention for about three quarters of the way through. As it approach the end it just felt like it was never going to wrap up. By the last chapter I didn't care.

SEDUCED BY THE TITLE

I'll admit that I was really pulled in by the title and a couple of 5 star reviews. I thought "they loved it--I probably will too." But, no, try as I wanted - I barely liked it.

Maybe the problem was the translation, as this is by a German author. Or maybe the narrator, who I found to be very weak overall. I want to give an honest and fair review, so here goes:

The main character, Tobias, is framed for murder and imprisoned for 10 years. Upon his release, he returns to his home town, where almost everyone hates him, and the townsfolk have kind of taken out their anger at his family. Tobias is determined to stay put and help rebuild his life-- but someone isn't happy about it.

The big question is--who framed him and who is trying to get him to leave? There are so many suspects and so many developing story lines, that nothing ever really takes hold. The author throws new twists and turns into each and every sub-plot - it makes it impossible to really care about any of the characters- even the one's who were murdered.

I like to try and figure out "who done it" as I read along in a mystery novel. This one, however, doesn't give the reader any real information to try and develop an answer. Toward the end, new information is brought up which the reader never could have guessed at--so I felt like it was unfair. If you have ever read a mystery where there is suspect 1,2, and 3 all along, and then at the end it is solved with suspect 4--you know what I mean.

The book did have a storyline with a lot of potential--I just felt the author missed an opportunity to make it a real thriller.

A Good Read!!!

Initially I was skeptical about listening to this book based on the reviews some listeners wrote. But alas! they are wrong! I truly enjoyed the book. It had enough suspense to keep you hooked. The plot was witty and when you thought you had figured out the guilty parties wham! you are wrong and the twist and turns continue. Overall a good listen

Good Suspense Story but Not for the Usual Reasons

It is easy to understand why this German suspense novel is an international hit. It is a page turner (or whatever the audio equivalent is called). It has a bit of everything - sex and violence and sort-of necrophilia. But the titillation is all pretty mild - nothing gratuitous or shocking as that of the many other recent Nordic sensations which explains why others regret that it can't be compared with Stieg Larssen's novels.

The narrator has a flat American accent but renders the occasional German (mostly names) with precision. It works most of the time but sometimes when the plot hits one of its many convoluted twists he sounds a bit naive (as if he is relating a fairy tale?). The story isn't much of a fairy tale but the author does owe some debt to other works of German literature for the theme of small town narrow-mindedness and conformism.

What makes Snow White Must Die worth the long listen is in the human relationships of the central characters - the accused - Tobias, his father, the wild teenager Amelie, and the honorable but very human detective partners, Pia and Oliver. Each of these is an attractive, sympathetic character, and I will happily come back to visit with the police officers.

P.S. It is too bad that American readers have met Pia and Oliver in book four of the series. Perhaps the publisher will give us the earlier ones in order so that we can catch up.

Okay story, weird narration

The story was a bit overdone, but worth the ride. The narrator was just weird. His voice and inflection would be far better suited to reading children's books. He had no feel for the material, and read all the dialogue with a sort of wide-eyed sincerity that seriously detracted from the book itself.

The writing was adequate, characters were stick figures, and at least one bad guy was someone I'd hardly noticed. Few surprises, but not a terrible effort. If I every try another by this author, I'll read it rather than listening.

not sure what to make of this one

I admit that I am not all the way through this one, but I have some strong thoughts on it already. The narrator is fine, even excellent. Nothing really to comment on there. The writing is pretty good and almost sells the story, but I do not think it quite does, and the story seems absurd on many levels. Maybe not enough to discourage me from listening to another one in the series when translated.

As others have commented, the story seems endless with a fantastic number of subplots some of which go nowhere. Our detective protagonists do seem extremely ineffectual at actually solving anything. I would hope that earlier books in the series would add interest and depth to them. There are few, if any, attractive characters in the book, and the entire village seems evil, which is not credible. Too much coincidence, although some of it might be well-disguised. Too many things generally unbelieveable. Hope this is not a spoiler, but the official and public reaction to someone pitching a human being off an overpass onto a busy "super highway" to the expected results seems vastly understated. Lots of violence that seems to go relatively unreacted to.

Maybe all of rural Germany is like that. I doubt it. Actually, anything official German seems amazingly ineffectual at doing anything.

Characters evil and relatively good alike do not seem all that credible.

All of that said, it seems kind of hard to put down. One still wants to know what happens.

I love the Scandanavian detective books. Somehow the characters in them seem very credible and deep. I thought this would be more like those. Instead, I guess this one remind me more of the Tana French books. Not bad, but not really credible, and kind of unsatisfying.

So complicated but great

This is one of the best books I've listened to in a long while. It is also the only book I purchased the paper edition so I could keep track of characters easier. I actually took notes. There are twists and turns and surprises. I don't think I ever would have guessed the ending which makes it all the more intense. Great book. Loved it. Highly recommended.

Wow! Great story from beginning to end!

I really enjoyed the character development. Many unforeseen twists. I was so disappointed to be nearing the end, that I looked up more books by the author and already ordered the next book. Can't wait to get started on it.

Entertaining, but too long

Any additional comments?

this book was way too long. every time I thought the story was wrapped up and over--it just jumped on to more. It could have been way shorter and more entertaining.