“Rehragout-Rendezvous” premiere: why this Eberhofer thriller is different

Writer Rita Falk (58, “Hannes”), actor Christian Tramitz (66, speaker of the successful Eberhofer crime audio books) and presenter Florian Wagner (46) presented on Wednesday evening (June 22nd) as part of the crime festival in Munich’s atmospheric Circus Krone building the eleventh Eberhofer thriller “Rehragout-Rendezvous” (2021).

Although the book has been on the market since September 2021, this publication, like so many other things, was lost in the waves of the pandemic. In addition to the entertaining reading passages, the three promised the enthusiastic audience “many background stories” about the book – and they kept their word. spot on news was there.

A heavy blow of fate overshadows the work on the book

Right at the beginning it was about the heavy blow of fate that overshadowed Rita Falk’s work on the crime thriller, regardless of lockdowns and the like. “I had eight chapters finished – that’s about a third – when my husband and I were diagnosed with cancer. Then he died after a very short time and I couldn’t write for a while,” the writer recalls the paralyzing phase following the death of her husband, former police officer Robert Falk, who succumbed to his illness in July 2020 at the age of 60. What’s more, she even got “total self-doubt” when she leafed through her old books. “I thought: This is all rubbish.”

In the end, her “best friend” helped her – who was present that evening, but did not want to be named. This eventually became so stubborn and moved in with the mourners. “I’ll settle in with you now until you’ve written another chapter,” is the girlfriend’s plan. Said and done. “On the first morning she really locked me in the office and said: ‘I won’t let you out until you’ve written something,'” Falk continues. She then played solitaire on the computer. But at some point in the afternoon she thought: “That doesn’t make any sense. I’ll never get rid of her if I don’t write something… And so at some point I got back into the text and wrote the remaining 16 chapters. ” For this, the girlfriend received a big round of applause from the touched premiere audience.

When Florian Wagner asked what it was like to write a (crime) comedy of all things during this emotionally very stressful time, Rita Falk replies: “I think that ‘Rehragout’ has different tones altogether.” The book is “a bit out of the Eberhofer series”, but this was also evident in the previous book with the death of the dog Ludwig. “I’m in the process of reorganizing and reinventing myself a bit right now,” says the author. And thus indicates for the first time this evening a possible end to the cult series around the Niederkaltenkirchen village police officer, his family, friends and private detective Rudi Birkenberger. Of course, Eberhofer should remain funny, that’s quite clear. “Especially in these times he has to be even funnier than usual. But life isn’t always just funny. And my aim is to bring that into it a bit.”

That’s what “Rendezvous Rendezvous” is about

Christian Tramitz’ readings that evening nevertheless provided insights into the many funny passages of the book, the plot of which the dtv publishing house summarizes as follows: “Zefix! What got into the Eberhofer women? Grandma decides after what feels like 2000 cakes and more more roast pork, bread dumplings and cabbage, to get rid of household chores − and to chill from now on. Christmas of all days! And since Susi has been pursuing her career as deputy mayor, having sex with her in the chic new building feels like having to Franz they get him for free with the dining room furniture. To make matters worse, the stick biller Lenz is also missing. Franz should kindly place a missing person report, Mooshammer Liesl fears the worst. Only: there is no corpse in sight far and wide the Eberhofer faced an almost impossible task…”

Incidentally, this time the title of the book does not come from the author herself, but from the Buengo actor in the crime films, Castro Dokyi Affum (born 1988). He “gave” him to her, as Rita Falk reveals at the event. And thanked the actor, who was also present, for this good idea.

What’s next for the Eberhofer thrillers?

The fans have to be strong now, because during the course of the event the successful author emphasized several times that an end could be in sight. “Of course I still feel very comfortable in Niederkaltenkirchen, but I don’t know if I can stand hanging around there until I retire. At some point I’ll need another plot, another staff – with these thoughts I’m playing a bit right now,” says Rita Falk. She is currently working on the next Eberhofer thriller – “and that’s fun again” – but she also experiences a lot and meets many bizarre people about whom she could also imagine writing something.

She later says, “I don’t want to ride it to death.” At the same time, she also admits that the thought of saying goodbye is not easy. “It’s hard for me to say goodbye, but I also know that it can’t go on forever.” It is foreseeable that the story will be told at some point. You are already having a hard time finding new motives for murder or murder weapons. “At the moment I’m writing my twelfth crime novel and I thought to myself: the dozen is full, that might be a good conclusion…” – but she hasn’t revealed anything about the content of the possibly final Eberhofer crime novel.

August 4th is the premiere of the eighth book adaptation “Guglhupfgeschwader” (Book 2019) with Sebastian Bezzel (50), Simon Schwarz (51), Lisa Maria Potthoff (43) and all the other fan favorites. “They shot the pigsty to pieces – the furniture, the walls, the ceiling. I was horrified when I saw that. Franz Eberhofer’s sanctuary fell victim to the Guglhupf squadron – I can’t even remember writing that down “, Rita Falk tells about her last visit to the set and thus gives a little foretaste of what the cinema audience can expect.