A Deadly Run-Off – Max Rippe

My book review of “A deadly run-off” written by Max Rippe

In my view…

This book is a sequel in the series of detective Maik Hof. This book can be read as a sequel and as a standalone. Maik Hof is a detective living in Delft and he is just settled into his new home – explained in the previous sequel. Then, something personal happens that changes Maik Hof’s life for a while in an unexpected way. Maik receives a call about his dad, a person he has not seen nor heard from for decades. Maik is his last by law relative and therefore is asked to take care of the situation. He finds it a bit boring as a – what must be done must be done situation. He gets triggered and is getting eager to know more about his father’s life. This is all caused by an unsuspected discovery.

The book reads as a really good case story. And it is a nice twist in the series that this sequel is more personal about the detective himself and his history. This should not come forward this broad in every sequel of course because than the series tendency will be more towards the psychological genre than the crime / detective genre. What I like about the story and plot of this sequel too is the history part. With this book you can imagine how life would have been or could be maybe a couple of decades ago in time when Germany was divided into east and west and the after WWII life in events and arrangements.

The book reads in a nice average quick pace. Now and then it pauses a bit so you can grab a drink before reading on, and now and then it quickens. This is a nice alternation for reading a book. I have read it in a couple of days during the evening and you can pick it up and lay it down when the speed of the story changes a little bit. I did not want to lay it down for a while because the story keeps you busy…it lets you think about what you know and can imagine about the history that happens in the book. This makes you eager to read on quickly. It only took me a couple of evenings because I was a bit tired of my year of study and wanted to read it with my full fit and relaxed attention. That was mostly at the end of the day.

If you have read – or not yet – the previous two sequels of this series, this is definitely the one you would never skip! This book reminds me as well of ‘Numero Zero – Umberto Eco‘ . A bit of conspiracy in history, current events of today or another time than the WWII, the effect in normal lives and certain situations. Clever and dared written with action, investigation, conspiracy and a bit of normal life. Love it!

Writing style / spelling

It was very pleasant to find no spelling or writing errors and the words to make sentences longer or shorter for the pace of the story are carefully chosen. Now and then there are some details and some references to details that are not mentioned a second time – luckily for my taste. That, let’s you think of the whole story. A small kind of interaction method.

Main characters

Beside detective Maik Hof and his team, explained in the previous sequel review ‘The Accomplice – Max Rippe‘, are several new characters. International now even. There are quite a lot of names and if I mention them together with their functions I would give some spoilers away. Therefore I just mention the names and you can use this as a general name-overview of the book beside the main characters.

The names are: Rosemarie Hausmann / Constance van Leiden / Janine Koning / Paul Hof / Ewald Hof / Karin Schipper / J.S. Schultz / Dietz / Caroline Buitendijk / Johan Munsters  / Erika Waldner / Hans Slieker / DI. Müller / DI. Obermann / Jacek / Nico van Zinnen  and Miranda.

I hope you like the book too. It is worth to read it! I am not telling about the story too much– never do in my book reviews – you have to read the book yourself and make your own opinion. 

This book is announced, and mentioned to me, by the author and the publisher and I chose to read it because I like and have reviewed the previous book too.  Really nice sequel is this one.

There is a clear difference between when someone mentions or advices something that can catch my interest to blog about – no guarantee for a blog post. And when someone asks me to review something – guarantee for a blog post. More info about this policy can be found in my ‘Blog Policy‘.

Clever and dared written with action, investigation, conspiracy and a bit of normal life. Love it!

Greetings by Sophie

Book Facts:

Title:  A Deadly Run-Off [EN] / Een dodelijke afloop [NL]
Author: Max Rippe
Genre: crime / detective / thriller
ISBN: 9789461550293
NUR: 330 – Spannende boeken algemeen / Thrillers general
Publisher: Het Schrijversportaal
Year 1st edition & read edition: 2017
Year read: 2017
Original title & language: Een dodelijke afloop [NL]
Read language: Dutch
Pages: 191
Places: Delft / Haarlem
Rating: 5 / 5 stars