Schemen & Haft

When a senior employee of an international raw materials company in Zurich is murdered with ricin, the media scent bioterrorism. Walter Bitterlin, head of the criminal department at the Zurich city police, assigns the young, inexperienced detective Stojan Marković to the case and pairs him with Bruno Jaun, the former assistant to retired police commander Thomas K. Hilvert. Hilvert is currently serving his sentence in Pöschwies prison after dramatically confessing to the murder of interim police commander Karl Leimbacher. The accidental death of an environmental activist quickly becomes the focus of interest as well. Is this a dark scheme to cover up environmental crimes? This is what the activist's life partner claims, stirring forbidden feelings in Stojan. Hilvert, from his prison cell, is actively involved in unraveling the case, much to the annoyance of his successor Bitterlin, who suspects that Hilvert's intervention is an attempt to escape custody and regain his former position. This gives Bitterlin reason to take another close look at the Leimbacher file. With "Schemes & Custody," Severin Schwendeners' trilogy about police commander Thomas K. Hilvert and his inconspicuous assistant Bruno Jaun continues. With his characteristic dissecting yet humorous perspective on human weaknesses and the pitfalls of bureaucratic jungles, the author navigates through the complexities of a long opaque murder case.