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Nightingale and Co by Charlotte Printz

3 Mins read
Nightingale & Co by Charlotte Printz front cover

Translated by Marina Sofia — A new historical cosy crime set in Cold War West Germany is a welcome start to the new year, particularly as this is a period and place more commonly seen through the darker lens of espionage fiction.

It’s 1961 and Hollywood director Billy Wilder is in Berlin to shoot his new movie One, Two, Three starring James Cagney and Horst Buchholz. It’s a comic satire about the East-West divide, capitalism versus Communism. Carla’s eccentric aunt Lulu wants a part in this big film but has a funny way of drawing attention to herself and this results in Carla dashing across the war damaged, occupied city to save her from the police. They’ve taken exception to her turning up on set with a rifle but by the time Carla arrives her aunt Lulu has charmed the crew and is holding court for her audience.

At the same time, we learn Carla survived a fatal car crash that killed her father and thus she inherited the Nightingale and Company Agency.

This is a tough town to do business in but things look up when well-heeled Frau Niki Niemöller wants Carla to search for an American soldier. Fortunately, she’s not just another woman looking for the father of her soon to be born child. She met Jack from Atlanta at the German American Folk Fair and it was love at first sight. Niki has scant details of the man and it all has to be hush hush as Niki has a reputation to protect. She works for a pharmaceutical firm selling the new birth control pill, which has caused a lot of controversy. Some see it as the end of civilisation so Niki wants her private life to stay that way.

Then Wallie turns up. A nightclub performer, also hoping to get noticed by one of the passing American celebrities in the audience at the Eden Club where she works. She has a chaotic relationship with a Scotsman but when the Berlin wWll goes up overnight she loses her flat in the East.

Wallie turns to Carla, claiming that they are half sisters, thus making her Carla’s unwelcome problem. Then Alma, one of the agency’s clients is accused of murdering her husband. Wallie suggests they partner up. Initially, Wallie’s methods are a little off the wall but this oddball pairing begins to bear fruit.

The book is a fun place. Superbly translated to convey the humour and jaunty tone of the original, it’s loaded with jokes and references that the modern reader will latch onto. Some are based around the cultural differences of the time but also poking gentle fun at what is a bleak situation, it’s when the human spirit is at its best.

Wilder’s movie sees the boss of Coca Cola Europe having trouble with his daughter who wants to marry a communist, and that juxtaposition infuses the novel’s narrative. It uses history lightly but with care and though it’s a romp the references to birth control, for instance, both ground it and give a certain punch to the story, avoiding the doom laden but making its points clearly. This undercurrent is enjoyably engaging.

Charlotte Printz has created a wonderful detective in Carla and a beautiful foil in her sister Wallie, who is sometimes a bull in a china shop but a lot of fun. The cast are credible eccentrics and a few real historical figures spice the pot. The novel opens as the Berlin Wall goes up; it’s a shock and that comes across, the newly divided streets, the colourful nightclubs and the contrast between East and West have an authentic feel.

For sheer joy and escapism, this read brought a smile to my face, it will do the same for you. I’d be very happy to read more of the series as the sisters of Nightingale & Co go through the 1960s.

Read our interview with Charlotte Printz about this, her first crime novel translated into English.

Corylus Books 
Print/Kindle
£3.95

CFL Rating: 5 Stars


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