German mystery stories for learners

What happens in the German mysteries?

At A1 the puzzle is usually inside the building. In Wohnung 47, a student's new flat is suspiciously cheap, and his key turns out to fit a door that nobody has drawn on the plans:

Higher up, the secrets are decades old: a lighthouse keeper on Kap Arkona who vanished in 1987, a woman missing from Amrum for twenty years who turns up in the background of a holiday photo, a grandmother's sewing box of fabric scraps that match old neighbourhood thefts. The German moves with the plot, from the present tense into the Präteritum and Plusquamperfekt that every account of what really happened needs.

How do mysteries help with German questions?

A mystery is one question after another, and German questions are all about word order. A yes-or-no question starts with the verb: Kennst du diese Frau? (Do you know this woman?), the new pharmacist asks in Die Apothekerin von Amrum. A question with wer, was or warum puts that word first and the verb second: Wer schreibt so einen Brief? (Who writes a letter like that?), from Die Briefe der Frau Hoffmann.

The harder pattern comes when a question is tucked inside a statement. Then the verb drops to the end, as it would after dass:

Once you notice it, the pattern is everywhere in these stories: Lena weiß nicht, was sie sagen soll (Lena doesn't know what to say), in the A2 flatshare story, or er wusste nicht, was er ihr sagen sollte in Die Kunstwächterin. Words such as plötzlich (suddenly), seltsam and merkwürdig (strange) come round just as often, which is how they stick.

Which German mystery should I read first?

• A1: Die WG in der Bergmannstraße, with an urgent rent letter and a stranger behind the living-room door, or Die Briefe der Frau Hoffmann, in which unsigned letters in cream envelopes start arriving for Margarete.
• A2: Zwischen den Zeilen, about notes hidden in books at a Hamburg second-hand bookshop, or Das Geheimnis von Zimmer 7, a guesthouse room booked by the same name every month and never slept in.
• B1: Der Wächter vom Kap Arkona, or Der Nachtzug nach Wien, with a pocket watch gone from a locked cupboard.
• B2: Der Briefwechsel von Lindenau, in which a bundle of old love letters sells for far too much to an anonymous bidder, or Die Flickschachtel, a box of fabric scraps hidden behind a loose tile.

New to German? Start with the A1 German stories for beginners. Like your mysteries with a theft at the centre? See the cosy German crime stories, or browse every German series.