Tatjana Kruse

I chose "Dig out grandpa" mostly on a whim: the title coupled with the cover image of a pair of wellies and rubber gloves made me hope for a hilarious treat. Plus Amazon "recommended" it for fans of the Pippa Bolle series.

Our hero is the eternally clumsy Alfred (Alfie) Gänswein, who finds out that his estranged uncle Matze has died and left him an inheritance. Being a creature of comfort, Alfie has little intention of going all the way to Seefeld (in Austria) from Germany, to see his show more inheritance, but a series of unfortunate events end up making it seem like the perfect place to escape... Well, that is until Alfie realizes that his uncle had actually left him a guesthouse inhabited by retired contract killers.

It is entirely possible that my expectations were somewhat higher than normal, or maybe I just needed a break from reading... Suffice to say, that I was utterly bored by it all. Ironically enough, when I told my mom about it (fully intending for it to be a lengthy complaint), things didn't seem quite so bad.

For example:

Alfie is an incredibly shy 30-year-old man, who'd rather spend 3 hours trying to figure out the workings of the ticket vending machine, instead of just asking someone for help. As a result, he misses 2 suitable trains. Then, after finally, realizing that he needs to board a train to Munich, he gets on the wrong one, and has to come back to square one again.

After crossing the border into Austria, he decides to "manfully" brave sitting on the side of the train overlooking a beautiful but steep valley, despite the terrible height sickness this is causing him. As a result, his fellow passengers quickly leave, for fear of being vomited on.

Alfie's poor memory for names is also a permanent source of humor. He keeps associating the inhabitants of the guest house with famous actors/VIPs, like: Jeff Bridges, Mireille Mathieu, Maggie Smith, Hugh Hefner, etc. to the point that he is confused when they are being referred to by their real names. Said characters also get confused of course, when Alfie refers to them them by their "VIP names".

Putting it that way, it probably makes you wonder why exactly I didn't like the book. I LOVE comedies, and live for humorous one-liners. Nevertheless, once the humorous quips are taken away, the actual story line gets back into "meh" territory. And the ending: completely predictable and incredibly cliched. Fine, I get it Matze had over 20 children, but do BOTH bad guys had to turn out to be his children... not to mention Alfie too?!.

Surprisingly, there was also quite a bit of a language barrier here. I didn't exactly notice it immediately, because on the whole the plot was easy to follow and my German had improved significantly over the last few months. Quite possibly I was struck by a sudden brain fart... but having to reread several phrases multiple times, made for a rather frustrating experience.

I've initially given it a rating of 3 stars, since the comic relief is actually good. But in the end, I settled on 2.49/5 stars, so just shy of something I'd round up to 3. It's by no means a bad book, and for anyone wanting a short funny beach read, it's a great option. show less

I have mixed feelings about this cozy mystery. On the one hand, it has some funny scenes and statements that make me laugh. On the other hand, the plot is rather 'thin' and it was always predictable, what comes next. That's why the tension did not last.
Mozart's 'Abduction from the Seraglio' was to be played at the Salzburg Festival. But in the end it did not happen because the tenors were killed in a row and no substitutes could be made. The soprano counted for a long time to the suspects, show more as she already knew in advance how the next victim was murdered and she happened to be always on site. "First beheaded, then hanged, then spit on hot sticks, then burned, then bound and dipped, finally hurt." show less

Von Mord, Totschlag und weiblicher Paranoia