The Frankfurt Kabuff

After a difficult winter, Beatrice Deft is on vacation in Frankfurt during European Autumn, staying at the Hessischer Hof enjoying the quiet of cosmopolitan Germany. When violence breaks out at the stands of far-right publishers across the road at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Beatrice tells herself it isn’t her problem. But now police patrol the aisles with guns and batons, and queues form at security bag checks, and an old family friend begs for her help. There she meets Caspian, the very hot policeman with a baton, and finds herself wondering, What is the secret of the Kabuff?

©2019, 2023 Blaire Squiscoll (P)2026 Rachel Noorda

Clunky

This was a love letter to progressive book writers in Germany first and a thriller second. There’s a teensy sex scene at the end for a romance that was even more lackluster than the thriller.

Given that the main character is a woman, the male narrator didn’t make much sense. The narration production was also poor, with the sounds of smacking, hitting the mic, and the failure to re-record for the several times that the narrator trips over words.