Translation by Marina Sofia. Published by Corylus Books.
Charlotte Printz is the pseudonym of a successful former TV editor with a penchant for writing gripping historical novels and screenplays. She is one of the founders of the Munich Writing Academy.
Marina Sofia is a translator, reviewer, writer and blogger who grew up trilingual in Romanian, German and English. This is her first translation of a German crime novel to be published by Corylus Books.
As always, many thanks to the folks at Corylus Books for the opportunity to review this charming and unusual mystery.
"Nightingale & Co" is the first in a historical crime series featuring two women who run a detective agency in Berlin in the early 1960's, just before and during the building of the wall between West and East Berlin. To help set the scene, here's an overview from the Berlin Wall Foundation:
Berlin, August 1961: After inheriting the Nightingale & Co. detective agency from her father, Carla Koslowsky is running the business solo to support herself and her mother, Ida. Ida has demeaned Carla her entire life and particularly blames Carla for the loss of her leg to sepsis some years ago. They have a deeply strained relationship, which contributes to Carla's solitude and insecurities.
Carla is fortunate to have a more loving relative in her aunt Lulu, one of my favorite characters in the book. Excitable, attention-loving, and always theatrical, Lulu is game for anything. Not only do her local contacts and acting skills come in very handy, she's also very supportive of Carla's detective work. This is important since Carla is most likely the only woman running a detective agency in Berlin in the early 60's.
The book begins as Carla receives a typically frantic call from Lulu, who has auditioned for a part in Billy Wilder's new movie, "One, Two, Three", shooting in Berlin. She was not cast and in keeping with her volatile nature, snuck onto the set brandishing an air rifle. Lulu begs Carla to hurry and prevent her from being arrested. “Of all the adventurous exploits that her aunt Lulu had been up to since the death of Carla’s father, this sounded like the craziest one by a long margin.” Carla drops everything and rushes to her aunt's rescue and by chance, meets Wilder himself, as well as a handsome security guard, Bruno Eisenberg.
However, what Carla really needs is cash and a few deep-pocketed clients. She soon gets her wish. Frau Ingrid Niemöller engages her to find an American GI she met only once, at a German-American folk fair. According to Ingrid, it was love at first sight. Ingrid can only tell Carla that the GI's first name is Jack, his mates called him "Bobbs" and he claimed to be from Atlanta, Georgia. Not much to go on, but Ingrid has money and Carla has bills to pay. She takes the case knowing that given the number of American GIs who returned home leaving women behind, finding Jack will not be easy.
While Carla is waiting for Niemöller to arrive, she gets a desperate call from Alma Hochbrück, who she knows from their work with the Berlin Fledglings Orphanage. Alma wants to engage Nightingale & Co.'s services, but is so nervous that Carla wonders if she will even show up at all. When Alma does arrive, she presents Carla with a very tricky case. She wants a divorce from her abusive husband Alexander and custody of their children Mathilda and Gregor. However, Alexander is a professor of architecture at the Technical University with connections to powerful people:
A wife seeking divorce in 1960's Berlin has very few options open to her, even if she is the victim of repeated domestic violence. Carla feels sorry for Alma and agrees to help Alma escape Alexander, although secretly she thinks that it's a hopeless case. To add to Carla's uneasiness, her instincts tell her that there is something not quite right about Alma's story.
On her way out of the building, Alma bumps into Wallie, another one of Printz' highly appealing and idiosyncratic female characters. (Wallie was introduced in a previous chapter as a bartender in a risqué nightclub called "Eden".) She has fled her apartment, half of which is now behind the Wall, which was not unusual for the time. When apartment buildings ended up being part of the Wall, people could simply enter one of these buildings, walk out a back door or window and enter West Berlin. These routes were eventually bricked over.
When Carla leaves the office and sees Wallie, she assumes that Wallie is coming to her with a case. Instead, Wallie knocks Carla's world off its axis:
Finding that her father not only had an affair, but had a child with his lover comes as a great shock to Carla. She is reluctant to believe Wallie's story, and calls her a "shameless liar". Her father would never cheat on his family! On the other hand Carla's mother, for some bewildering reason, hits it off with Wallie from the moment they meet (Carla introduces Wallie as her "cousin"). This does not endear Wallie to Carla, who vows to prove that Wallie is an imposter while simultaneously working on two tough cases. Even so, she agrees to let Wallie stay in the office temporarily since she has nowhere else to go.
Wallie has a varied background and has useful contacts in high and low places all over Berlin. She's been a hairdresser, a singer, a waitress, and we already know that she is "Nelly", a bartender at a nightclub called Eden. Although Carla and Wallie start off as adversaries, one of the delights of the book is watching them bond as Wallie boldly and with rule-breaking abandon inserts herself into the agency's work.
Wallie suggests that key to Ingrid's GI mystery is Ingrid's memory of the soldier's nickname, "Bobbs". She may be proved right when Carla gets help from an unexpected quarter; ten-year-old Katrin and her rambunctious brothers, who live in the same building as Carla. They saw Bruno (the security guard who helped Lulu on the movie set) riding a motorbike and they want Carla to ask him if he would give them a ride on the "bobber". Katrin tells Carla that a bobber is a stripped-down racing bike. Carlo connects this to the nickname "Bobbs" and deduces that Ingrid's elusive GI could be a motorbike enthusiast.
Lulu helps the case along by telling Carla that one of her friends, Trudi, was a chip seller at the German-American Folk Fair where Ingrid met the GI she's looking for. Carla finds out that Trudi took several photographs at the fair and Carla decides to show them to Ingrid on the off chance that she will recognize her lost soldier.
But what about Alma and her marital situation? Alma returns to see Carla after another severe beating by her husband. To Carla's horror, Wallie crashes the meeting and confidently assures Alma that Nightingale can help her with her divorce. In Wallie's opinion every man, even a distinguished professor, has a secret vice, and Wallie knows that she is just the woman to uncover it. Carla is horrified when she finds out about Wallie's plan; to say her methods are unorthodox would be an understatement.
The story kicks into high gear when Alexander is found dead, and Alma is arrested for his murder. Can Nightingale & Co. clear Alma's name and get her out of jail? Will Carla and Wallie track down the elusive "Bobbs" and reunite him and Ingrid? And what lengths will the impulsive Wallie and Lulu go to in order to help Carla? Eventually, between Carla, Lulu, Wallie, Katrin, Bruno and their friends and contacts, it feels like all of West Berlin is working with Nightingale and Co. to solve both cases.
This fascinating and engaging mystery is set in a singular time and place during one of the greatest upheavals of the post-war period. Printz' characters are memorable (although not always likeable) and distinctive. Nightingale & Co. affords an intimate look at the people in Berlin whose lives were turned upside-down by the building of the Wall. Printz' decision to set a female-run detective agency during this period elevates "Nightingale & Co." from a cozy mystery to an incisive commentary on the role of women in 1960's Berlin and the importance of social communities.
I don't want to reveal too much more about the plot but it's safe to say that the Nightingale & Co. agency will never be the same. I look forward to reading about Carla, Wallie, Lulu and the rest of the gang in the next book in the series, "Im Netz der Lügen" ("The Web of Lies").
I would be remiss if I did not single out Marina Sofia's translation. Sofia skillfully captures the book's dry wit, unforgettable events, and larger-than-life personalities. I've read other translations by her, and have never detected any awkwardness or stilted phrasing.
Please buy/order "Nightingale & Co." from your local independent bookstore, or go to bookshop.org and order there! Bookshop.org also carries ebooks.
For audiobooks, go to libro.fm.
