On Boxing Day I was killing time in the Cologne (Köln) airport, waiting for Helen and my flight to Egypt for our much-awaited trip. So I thought I'd check out the airport bookstore, on the off chance they might have had some German crime writers in English translation (I already had a copy of Bernard Schlink's SELF'S MURDER in my backpack, though I'd got that in NZ).
Unfortunately the Köln airport was lacking in English-language crime fiction - but I did notice (not atypical for Germany I would imagine) that it had a large selection of German-language translations of US and UK crime fiction. Perusing the piles to see who was popular over there, I noticed a pleasing sight - quite a few copies of Paul Cleave's latest thriller, DIE TOTEN SCHWEIGEN NICHT (CEMETERY LAKE in English-language countries) were displayed in a prominent position, in amongst some Stephen King and Dean Koontz etc (see photo).
So, given the relatively poor showing by New Zealand airport bookstores (which only have a copy or two of one or two Kiwi crime fiction titles each) thusfar in my ongoing series of bookstore reviews, it seems that at the moment German airport bookstores actually support Kiwi crime fiction better than Kiwi ones!
Thoughts and comments welcome.
Was it cheap?
ReplyDeleteNo, just kidding; though I might be able to get through it in German (my diploma says I can read that language), I would hardly enjoy it as much as an English copy.