La fin de cette trilogie terriblement attachante et efficace est tout à fait au niveau. ( )

This is the final part of the author's murder mystery trilogy set in post-WWII Hamburg, featuring Chief Inspector Stave. Having been near fatally shot, Stave decides to leave the Homicide department and opts instead to work in Department S which aims to combat the black market that dominates economic activity in the city. While this makes sense in narrative terms, it risks making the plot less interesting for most readers as economic crimes come across as less dramatic. Nevertheless, in investigating some rediscovered objets d'art in the ruins of a bombed office block, a skeleton is also discovered. Stave considers this is not being properly investigated by his ex-colleagues in Homicide, and investigates himself. So far, so good, if a little cliched. But the eventual resolution of the crime struck me as rather bizarre and unlikely, while the economic crime exposed in Stave's new regular job is so petty, that the reader, along with the Chief Inspector, feels nothing but sympathy for pathetic (in the true sense of the word) offender. So, in sum, while Rademacher is a good writer, and the atmosphere of post-war Hamburg is evocatively described, I found this a slightly unsatisfying read in some ways. The novels ends with the drama of the economic renaisssance of the new Deutschmark being introduced in what was to become West Germany, while the Soviets begin to blockade Berlin. ( )