Polt muss weinen (Polt has to cry) Content

Alfred Komarek
Polt muss weinen (Polt has to cry)
Crime Novel
First published: 1998
ISBN 978-3-85218-275-9
192 pages, hardcover with protective cover
€ 19.90
Content
Police inspector Simon Polt performs his duties in a village of wine-farmers in Lower Austria. He is
one of them. Which makes it even more uncomfortable for him when Albert Hahn is found dead in
his wine cellar and the suspicion arises that he might have been murdered and not, as it first
appeared, died in an accident caused by fermenting gas. So Polt has to investigate; never mind
that he has been acquainted with practically every inhabitant of the village for years. One of them
could be the murderer, indeed one of them must be the murderer. Many of them had a reason for
murdering the beast, whose death is mourned by no-one...
Won the Glauser-Preis for Best German Detective Novel 1999
“Solidly constructed suspense is complemented by a highly revealing character study of the
naively devious village inhabitants”
(I. Strohner, Brigitte)
“Alfred Komarek employs a highly poetical precision and loving irony, and images that are simple
yet brim over with sensuousness; Simon Polt wins the female reader's heart right upon his first
appearance.”
(Irene Heisz, Tiroler Tageszeitung)
HAYMON Verlag – Rechte und Lizenzen – Anna Stock
Erlerstraße 10, 6020 Innsbruck
T: 0043 512 576300 21 F: 0043 512 576300 14 [email protected]
Alfred Komarek
Blumen für Polt (Flowers for Polt)
Crime Novel
First published: 2000
ISBN 978-3-85218-321-3
192 pages, hardcover with protective cover
€ 19.90
Content
In his second Polt novel Alfred Komarek deepens his intensive study of a rural world going
through a radical change, with all its inconsistencies and tensions. Two deaths give rise to
questions that cannot be answered all that easily. Polt carefully follows up the few leads and does
not falter even when his investigations provoke a quarrel with Karin Walter, the teacher he
adores.
“Komarek's second novel is again set in the bewitching atmosphere of a world located near the
border, where time seems to have come to a standstill. Even though Blumen für Polt, in addition
to thrilling and solidly constructed criminal case, also displays the sense of humour typical of
Komarek, this novel is nevertheless decidedly more laconic, barer, partly even more
irreconcilable. Like all good writers of crime fiction the Vienna-based author does not joke when
life is at stake.”
(Robert Hültner, Abendzeitung)
“Straight and without frills Komarek tells us of crooked ways, of the intolerance and latent
malevolence of nice people, of the fascistic tendencies and insane ideas of racial hygiene secretly
cherished by many an upright citizen, ideas by which also the murderer was guided. The author is
a master of the art of seemingly solving a case while reopening it from a completely different
angle behind the reader's back. And in passing, he sketches the panorama of a rural world that
seems bound for destruction, an idyll for which we fear, and which we fear at the same time.
Blumen für Polt by Alfred Komarek is a criminological wine harvest from the Weinviertel: dry yet
very drinkable...”
(Ulrich Klenner, Bayerischer Rundfunk B5)
HAYMON Verlag – Rechte und Lizenzen – Anna Stock
Erlerstraße 10, 6020 Innsbruck
T: 0043 512 576300 21 F: 0043 512 576300 14 [email protected]
Alfred Komarek
Himmel, Polt und Hölle (Heaven, Polt and Hell)
Crime Novel
First published: 2001
ISBN 978-3-85218-359-6
192 pages, hardcover with protective cover
€ 19.90
Content
A hot summer slows down even further the quiet life in the Wiesbach valley. The only time the
men wake up is when they get inside the cool presshouses and wine cellars. For several days
Heinz Hafner has been hanging around there, a renowned gourmet and wine critic from Vienna,
feared for his usually apposite cynicism. Firmian Halbwidl, a part-time wine-farmer who
participates in Hafner's tastings, is also the local sexton, and very proud of it. He promises Hafner
to persuade the priest to invite them; the highly praised culinary skills of the priest's cook should
satisfy the palate even of a discriminating gourmet. The lunch party is indeed arranged, but even
before the meal starts a scandalous occurrence takes place: Hafner and the cook know each
other from Vienna, and obviously their relationship was anything but harmonious...
“Komarek has published three Polt mysteries so far. Each one is better than the last.”
(Thomas Askan Vierich, Zitty No. 8)
“The loving portrait of a region and a kind of people the author apparently knows very well.
Reading one Polt mystery makes you long for the next.”
(Brigitte Kompatscher, Vorarlberger Nachrichten)
HAYMON Verlag – Rechte und Lizenzen – Anna Stock
Erlerstraße 10, 6020 Innsbruck
T: 0043 512 576300 21 F: 0043 512 576300 14 [email protected]
Alfred Komarek
Polterabend (Bachelor Party)
Crime Novel
First published: 2003
ISBN 978-3-85218-413-5
192 pages, hardcover with protective cover
€ 19.90
Content
A bitterly cold night under a full moon in the Wiesbach valley. Several men meet at four o'clock in
the morning to gather grapes for icewine. They make a gruesome discovery: The wine flowing
from the old winepress is mingled with blood. The victim is a happy-go-lucky young man, who
made a living on odd jobs.
What happened late at night at the remote presshouse of the wine-farmer Karl Fürnkranz? As Polt
investigates the environment of the victim, he is forced to admit to himself that Karl Fürnkranz,
whom he holds in high esteem, is also a suspect. But he also follows up another lead that takes
him to the demimonde beyond the Czech border, where he has a confusing and distressing
encounter. When Polt learns of a nightmarish bachelor party at the presshouse he finds himself
almost completely at a loss...
Also in his fourth Polt novel best-selling author Alfred Komarek sticks to his concept of using the
medium of a detective story to create a loving and yet mercilessly revealing portrait of a winefarmers' village and its inhabitants. Yet again he adds new facets to the picture of an endangered
and not at all idyllic locality. One of the topics he addresses in this novel is the situation of villages
alongside the recently "opened" border to the Czech Republic and the problems arising in this
context.
“...Austria's answer to Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti...”
(Blick ins Land)
HAYMON Verlag – Rechte und Lizenzen – Anna Stock
Erlerstraße 10, 6020 Innsbruck
T: 0043 512 576300 21 F: 0043 512 576300 14 [email protected]
Alfred Komarek
Polt.
Crime Novel
First published: 2009
ISBN 978-3-85218-604-7
168 pages, hardcover with protective cover
€ 19.90
Content
After the mysterious discovery of a corpse the truth must come to light very quickly – that’s what
Polt, retired policeman by choice, owes to all: himself, his friends and the people of the
Wiesbachtal.
For Simon Polt much has changed: He walks new paths in job, and the future with his longtimegirlfriend Karin Walter is suddenly shed new light. Polt has barely any contact to the police team
that now guards the small villages of the Wiesbachtal – only Norbert Sailer, a policeman totally
after Polt’s fancy, is still part of his life.
But the body of a stranger tumbles Simon Polt’s quiet and easy life: Nobody wants to have known
the dead man, but some seem to know more than they want to confess to the police …
In front of the familiar backdrop of the “Weinviertler Kellergassen”, Alfred Komarek unfolds a
criminal novel full of suspense, psychological finesse and subtle humor – a brilliant performance
by Simon Polt.
“In his last novel Komarek once again pulls out all the stops. He characterizes lovely peculiar
villagers, who finally stick together like glue. This novel is thrilling and filled with humor. Polt-fans
will totally get their money’s worth.”
(Tiroler Tageszeitung, Alexandra Plank)
HAYMON Verlag – Rechte und Lizenzen – Anna Stock
Erlerstraße 10, 6020 Innsbruck
T: 0043 512 576300 21 F: 0043 512 576300 14 [email protected]
The Author
Alfred Komarek was born in Bad Aussee in 1945,
and lives in Vienna today. He wrote travelling
sketches, essays and stories but also radio and
TV plays (ORF, BR, HR). Numerous publications;
among them some volumes of landscapes, also
about the Salzkammergut, the Ausseerland, the
Weinviertel, the Oetztal and Venice; children’s
books and four crime thrillers with Inspector
Simon Polt, which were filmed. Many prizes, e.
g. the Glauser Prize for the best crime thriller in
1998, and the Romy for the best script in 2002
(together with Julian Pölser). Haymon’s latest
publications: “Die Villen der Frau Hürsch”
(novel, 2004), “Die Schattenuhr” (novel, 2005),
“Narrenwinter“ (novel, 2006), “Spätlese” (texts
from four decades, 2007), “Doppelblick” (novel,
2008), Polt. (2009), Zwölf mal Polt (2011), Polt.
Die Klassiker (2012), Semmering (2012).
HAYMON Verlag – Rechte und Lizenzen – Anna Stock
Erlerstraße 10, 6020 Innsbruck
T: 0043 512 576300 21 F: 0043 512 576300 14 [email protected]