Brenner and God - Tapa blanda

"Brenner and God is one of the cleverest--and most thoroughly enjoyable--mysteries that I've read in a long time. Wolf Haas is the real deal, and his arrival on the American book scene is long overdue."
--Carl Hiaasen, NY Times bestselling author of Skinny Dip

"Simon Brenner, the hero of Wolf Haas' marvelous series of crime thrillers, is a wildly likable and original character--a delightful and unexpected hero to show up in this noble and enduring genre. That Brenner struggles his way--always humanistically, often humorously--through Haas' acutely suspenseful narratives without the aid of a firearm, armed only with his smarts and sometimes fallible intuition, is a monumental plus."
--Jonathan Demme, Oscar-winning director of The Silence of the Lambs

"A must for crime fiction lovers with a sense of humor: In Simon Brenner, Wolf Haas has created a protagonist so real and believable that I sometimes wanted to tap him on the shoulder and point him in the right direction!"--Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin

"Drolly told by an unidentified yet surprisingly reliable narrator, Brenner and God is very funny, leavened throughout with a finely honed sense of the absurd."
--Lisa Brackmann, author of Rock Paper Tiger and Getaway

"Haas brings a wry sense of humor to this familiar story line with his detached, conversational style. American readers will look forward to seeing more of Simon Brenner."
--Publishers Weekly

"Brenner and God is a humdinger ... a sockdollager of an action yarn, revealed via the smart-ass, self-effacing narrative voice that's a sort of trademark of author Wolf Haas." --The Austin Chronicle

"Wolf Haas presents us with one of the most thoroughly likable characters I've come across in a very long while ... the book is a meticulously plotted, dark, and often very funny ride." --The Millions

"[A] superb translation of one of Austria's finest crime novels. This is the first of the Brenner novels in English. We can only hope for more, "[Brenner] has been brilliantly brought to life by Mister Hass' subtle yet masterful prose, with just the right balance of dark humor." --New York Journal of Books

Publisher Melville House is to be commended for translating the Brenner series into English, and bringing it to a wider audience. Mister Hass may not yet be a household name, this side of the Atlantic, but all that is about to change, thanks to Simon Brenner."--Globe and Mail

"A gleaming gem of a novel" --Crimespree Magazine

"Thanks to Simon Brenner, the Austrian Wolf Haas is one of the German-speaking world's premier crime writers, beloved by critics and readers alike." --Der Spiegel

"This is great art, great fun."--Germany Radio

"Wolf Haas writes the funniest and cleverest mysteries."--Die Welt

"I liked the way Haas set up the narration of this story (and I LOVED Brenner)...quite funny, very well done. I will definitely be wanting to pick up the next Melville House Brenner release The Bone Man." --Crime Segment

Introducing one of Europe's most widely popular detective series

Wanting out of high-stress detective work, Simon Brenner takes a calming job as a chauffeur, shuttling a two-year-old girl back and forth in a soothing ride along the Autobahn between her father, a construction tycoon in Munich, and her mother, an abortion doctor in Vienna.

Except then one day he stops at a gas station to buy the little girl a chocolate bar and comes back to find she’s been kidnapped . . . and suddenly he’s out of a job, thoroughly stressed out, and a detective again.

With no shortage of leads—both the father’s latest development and the mother’s clinic are under siege by protestors—Brenner makes his way through a powerful cast of characters and a growing pile of bodies to solve the crime in the only way he knows how: By being in precisely the right place at the worst possible time.

Told with sharp-edged wit, suspense that’s even sharper, and one of the most quirky, hilarious, and compelling narrative voices ever.