Review includes spoilers for book 1!

The protagonists and amateur sleuths of these novels are Viktoria Berg, the daughter of a wealthy family who, despite her father's wishes, works as a teacher, and Christian Hinrichs, a journalist. The novel is set in 1913 and the two meet again on the island of Norderney where they spend the summer season - as they did last year, when they fell in love but had to separate because as a teacher, Viktoria is not allowed to marry. She did not want to give up her occupation and broke up with Christian who was not sympathetic to her wish for independence. Of course, now that they inevitably run into each other on the small island, the flames are rekindled, and once again, they find themselves trying to solve a case together.

A cavalry captain is found dead in the dunes during a horse race. In addition, a child goes missing from the seaside hospital where Viktoria visits one of her pupils. It seems that the two incidents are linked, and because all the real policemen are needed elsewhere to guard the celebrations of Emperor Wilhelm II's Silver Jubilee, Christian is promoted to being a supporting policeman.

I enjoyed this novel much more than the first one because the case was so exciting. The atmosphere of the jubilee celebrations on Norderney as well as the holiday season on the island are described so well and this made me escape this grey and dreary February weather. The love story is shallow and especially Viktoria's actions made me shake my head from time to time, but all the other characters seemed very real to me and the story kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. ( )

Man stellt keine hohen Ansprüche an Urlaubslektüre dieser Art. Umso angenehmer ist die Überraschung, wenn sie sich als ordentlich geschrieben und spannend erweist und keine von den Vermutungen, die man zum Fall anstellt, eintrifft. Da kann man auch über den einen oder anderen kleinen Lapsus (Cricket statt Crocket, Hohenfrieder statt Hohenfriedberger Marsch) hinwegsehen. ( )