The Tyrolean crime thriller author Bernhard Aichner now has a veritable fan base. People like his entertaining plots, they appreciate his ability to drive the story forward without frills and his talent for wording in a relatable way. So it never gets boring when you hold an Aichner in your hands.
Almost exactly a year ago, the 50-year-old invented the character of “blood photographer” David Bronski. Bronski likes to photograph corpses and, although he has little talent for structuring his private life, he has a very good nose for “stories” for his employer, a Berlin newspaper. Bernhard Aichner piled the templates for his Bronski thrillers in the back of his own mind, after all the author himself rushed from accident to accident to provide up-to-date photos. The third Bronski thriller “Focal Width” is out today.
The photographer and his colleague and partner Svenja are on holiday in Tyrol when the dream of every journalist suddenly comes true: they come across an incredible story in a monastery that the world press will be reporting on in the next few days and weeks – and the duo has the most incredible news always exclusively. What happened: Brother Erich Corga made himself and the Marienstein Monastery world famous in one fell swoop. The priest was blind for 14 years after he was responsible for a car accident in which his parents died. Since then, his face has been badly disfigured.
After his brother and lover throws himself off the monastery roof and dies, Corga goes nuts. He tears a statue of Mary from the altar in the monastery church, falls to the ground with it and remains lying hand in hand with the figure of the saint. Then the miracle: Brother Erich can see again.
Bronski and Svenja gain Corga’s trust and write the story. The monk now even insists that the two journalists are always close to him from now on. Little by little, more miracles happen, and Corga also turns out to be a seer of impending doom. Bronski, his colleague and his daughter, who is also part of the family team of journalists, soon found the matter to be Spanish.
Bernhard Aichner is known for the fact that his thrillers dance on a knife’s edge in terms of plot – between ingenuity and unbelievability. In the case of “focal length”, Aichner doctored too much on the latter. On page 223, in an inner monologue, Bronski says of all the incredible happenings: “It was far-fetched insanity that kept us in suspense.” That sums it up very well.
Bernhard Aichner: “Bronski – focal length”; Verlag btb, 17.50 euros, 352 pages;
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Source: Nachrichten
