The Snapper - A Dead Man Returns

Franz Marquardt is drunk when he falls to his death in a disused mine not far from Dortmund, and at first all the indications are that he simply committed suicide. It looks like an open and shut case. But Chief Inspector Paul Schrader of the Dortmund Homicide Division, otherwise known as "The Snapper", has never let first appearances fool him. He gets the feeling that the ex-miner was the victim of murder. And when he talks to Poll, a former guard at the mine, he discovers that exactly 15 years ago Marquardt was in a serious accident at the mine. He survived, but now he has met his end at precisely the same spot. In the accident all those years ago, caused by escaping gas below the surface, two other miners were killed. Shortly afterwards the mine was closed.

While his colleagues continue to believe it was an accident or suicide, Schrader mounts and investigation - with the disapproval of his new boss, Bernd Zimmer, who would rather see Schrader put out to grass after all his years of service. Anyway, the "mine case" seems far less urgent than the corruption scandal at present rocking the city, which involves huge bribes paid by private contractors to state officials. Zimmer needs every officer he has to continue this investigation, so he has no hesitation in transferring Schrader's long-time assistant Andy Schelling to lend a hand.

Meanwhile Schrader continues to make inquiries into the mysterious death at the mine, even though the causes would appear to lie in the distant past. With the support of the young Chief Inspector Claudia Lost he establishes that the three miners who survived the explosion all those years ago suddenly came into a lot of cash. Franz Marquardt opened a lottery outlet, Volker Konz now has a successful gourmet restaurant, and Peter Speichert earns a tidy sum these days as a building contractor. The case threatens to become more complicated when Peter Speichert is found murdered in his villa. When Schrader talks to Tinka Speichert, the dead man's daughter, a new lead links this death with Volker Konz. Gradually Schrader discovers the links between the two murders, but not until an unknown body is found on Konz's construction site does the Snapper take a big step closer to solving the case at last...