Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Floods hit Hamburg but it’s when the water recedes that the really grim truth is washed up
A Fear Of Dark Water (Jan Fabel 6)
What you need to know before your trail
The timing could not have been worse, or more apt depending on how you look at it. Floods hit the city of Hamburg just when a major environmental summit is about to start. When the flood waters recede, a headless torso washes up.
Initially, Jan Fabel of the Murder Commission fears it may be another victim of a serial rapist and murderer who stalks his victims through internet social network sites, then dumps their bodies in waterways around the city.
But the truth of the situation is far more complex and even more sinister. Whispers of a secretive environmental Doomsday cult called ‘Pharos’, the brainchild of a reclusive, crippled billionaire, Dominik Korn suddenly start to come to their attention.
And it’s not a welcoming world.
Travel Guide
Hamburg
The Speicherstadt in Hamburg – is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations. The Speicherstadt in Hamburg is the warehouse part of the city and it’s where we meet Meliha. “The buildings are vast, red brick, cathedrals of commerce”
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg – “The Elbphilharmonie would become the landmark to define Hamburg in the 21st Century and beyond…reminding everyone of the city’s maritime past”
A city’s Murder Department is never going to concentrate on the nicer sides of life and human nature but this case is particularly grim for not only does it draw a picture of light and dark shadows, but it delves into a frightening cyber world, where anyone can be anybody or anything they want.
In the streets of Hamburg, virtual or otherwise, the hunter becomes the hunted. Take the title too – the dark waters of a city which snake around the streets like a silent snake, devouring anything in its path and spitting out the spoils of death as it does the human body at the start of the book.
Even the start of the book is chilling:
Thalassophobia isa fear of large and deep bodies of dark water, such as seas or lakes, where the bottom cannot be seen. As a specific phobia it is not related to aquaphobia or other water phobias but is more akin to agoraphobic conditions
It is not a fear of water itself. It is a fear of the void: of what lies beneath the surface.
Streetview Maps
A) Hamburg - Warehouse district
C) Hamburg - crime scene
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: A Fear Of Dark Water (Jan Fabel 6)
Author/ Guide: Craig Russell Destination: Hamburg Departure Time: 2000s
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