Dampfnudelblues

Franz Eberhofer resigned to quitting Münich PD back to his native village Niederkaltenkirchen near Landshut as a sanction, living inconspicuously on the family farm, drinking at the pub with local hick mates like butcher Simmerl and heating-cleaner Flötzinger. Granny cooks great for Franz and his Beatles-fanatical deadbeat Vater, left by Franz's mother years before; for brother Leopold and his Thai mail-order wife and their baby Uschi, who only quiets down for Franz; and Franz's steady, wedding-eager girl Susi. Shortly after troublesome reverend and hated school principal Höpfl complains about a death-threat graffiti on his house, he's atypically absent; Police Chief Moratschek rules his decapitation on the rail-track suicide. Franz doubts that, wriggles out of babysitting the soccer team's African 'star,' and starts an informal murder investigation. Then his former Munich partner Rudi Birkenberger--who got Franz suspended, was duly fired and now turned PI--arrives and won't be turned away from meddling as if he were still on the force. While they snoop, another corpse turns up: junkie Marcel, son of recently-returned Bruno, who left town after knocking up Angie 20 years before. Marcel and Höpfl had contact in his cellar dungeon.—KGF Vissers