review
A debut thriller from a celebrated writer of young adult fiction, this story full of mystery and suspense is built around the increasingly popular phenomenon of geocaching.
The novel begins with the discovery of a woman’s corpse in a field of cows. A strange combination of letters and numbers has been tattooed on the soles of her feet. Detective inspector Beatrice Kaspary from the local murder squad quickly identifies the digits as map coordinates. These lead to a series of gruesome discoveries as she and her colleague Wenninger embark on a bloody trail – a modern-day scavenger hunt using GPS navigation devices to locate hidden caches. The ‘owner’ of these unofficial, unpublished geocaches is a highly calculating and elusive fiend who leaves his victims’ body-parts sealed in plastic bags, complete with riddles that culminate in a five-stage plot. Kaspary herself becomes an unwilling pawn in the perpetrator’s game of cat and mouse as she risks all to uncover the motives behind the murderer’s actions, and only narrowly escapes meeting her own macabre end as he turns the tables on her.
Be warned – this is definitely not a book for the faint-hearted.
about the author
Ursula Poznanski was born in Vienna in 1968, and worked as an editor at a publishing house focusing on medicine. After the tremendous success of her young adult novel Erebos, she now dedicates much of her time to writing fiction. She lives with her family in Vienna. Five is her first thriller for adults.
Previous works include:
Saeculum (2011); Erebos (2010)
rights information
Rowohlt Verlag GmbH
Tel: +49 40 7272 257
Email: carolin.mungard@rowohlt.de
Contact: Carolin Mungard
www.rowohlt.de/foreign
Rowohlt Verlag was founded in 1908 by Ernst Rowohlt. This publishing house with its various divisions is part of the Holtzbrinck group. Rowohlt publishes literary fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. Authors include Wolfgang Borchert, Joachim Fest, Elfriede Jelinek, Daniel Kehlmann, Imre Kertész, Klaus and Erika Mann, Robert Musil, Peter Schneider, Martin Walser and many others.
translation assistance
This book is outside of the five year window for guaranteed assistance with English language translation. We suggest approaching the relevant funding body for an informal conversation on the possibility of support. Please refer to to our recommendations page for books that can be funded.
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All recommendations from Spring 2012