The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel

208 Pages
Publisher: Quercus Books (US), Quercus
Release Date: June 3, 2014

Fiction, Murder Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

The story begins with an unknown person is milking the cows and taking care of the farm. The story is written as memories of people that remember the crime along with their ages. At the beginning of the book and in several places, there are Christian prayers.

The book was translated from German to English. The author did an excellent job recreating the feel of the area and the people who lived there. Several reviewers compare this book to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and I agree. The isolated setting and the grisly murders.

Quite a good mystery told in the most part by police interviews and what people remembered seeing or hearing. The victims were not found for about a week. The murders took place in Germany and the story does read like a true crime mystery.

Such a brutal murder of an entire family. I was guessing and trying to pick up clues all the way through the pages. Well written.
Many thanks to Quercus Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This author accomplishes no easy task. Taking a fresh and unconventional approach to weaving together the threads that explain what happened, she succeeds in keeping us enthralled, and eager to follow where she leads us. Although I found the story a bit bleak, it was well written.

The concept is great, having the reader as the detective, but it was too challenging for me. My memory isn't that good. I read it on a Kindle, perhaps a paper copy would have been better as I could have marked it up and bookmarked clues more easily.

I AM SO EMBARRASSED ... JUST NOW FINDING THIS ONE ON MY KINDLE/AMAZON. WAS NEVER READ SO NO REVIEW COMING AT THIS LATE DATE. MY SINCERE APOLOGIES.

I received this book from Netgalley to review.

In a unique form of storytelling, the author presents the case of an entire family murdered on a farm in Germany just after WWII. The story is revealed by interviews with the many people of the small village of Tannod. Little by little, we get to know the Danner family who lived on the farm and and what kind of people they were in life. The domineering father, the sad and religious mother, the confused and sad daughter, and her two children of questionable parentage. Unfortunately not much detail is brought out about the full detail of each character so you feel like some of the store is missing. The story enfolds but the author leaves you to imagine what the outcome will be in the end.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this publication.