Abreast Schwarztonnensand, by Zöe Beck

 "Abreast Schwarztonnensand," by Zöe Beck, in Hamburg Noir, edited by Jan Karsten, Akashic Press, 2025.

Boy, I hope I spelled that title right.  The publisher sent me a free copy of this book.

This is the third story by Beck to make my list, although calling it a story may be inaccurate. It is written as a film script, dialog with occasional description. If the movie is ever made I assume it will begin with the very dramatic scene that we only hear about.

Kai-Uwe is a billionaire and the owner of a Hamburg family business. He has been cruising on the Elbe River in his yacht and has run over a man in a sailboat.  The story consists of  the man and his cronies discussing ways to avoid all responsibility, legal and financial, for the accident.

So this is political, even polemic, fiction, but it is very good. We watch the characters coldly manipulating the system without a thought of right and wrong and we think, yeah, this is probably how it works.

It is not a funny story, but there are flashes of grim, acerbic wit.  Here is Kai-Uwe's lawyer strategizing about his client's actions:

He was observing the prescribed speed for yachts along this stretch of the Elbe. Find out how fast that is.

A clever and compelling piece of writing.

Dora, by Zöe Beck

"Dora," by Zöe Beck, in Berlin Noir, edited by Thomas  Wörtche, Akashic Press, 2019.

Big typo corrected.  Apologies.

This is the second appearance here by Beck.

Take a look at her.  Even if it's hard.
You won't want to look at her because she stinks and is filthy from head to toe.  You think you know what you'll see but take a look anyway.

That's how the story starts.  It seems like a bit of sociological fiction, an analysis of a mentally ill homeless person.  But there's a lot more going on here.

The narrator is Dora's brother.  He explains in detail how his sister's life has slowly derailed and  the damage it has done to the whole family.

And then, well, things happen.  Linda Landrigan, editor of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, once said, as I recall, that she likes stories that turn out to be something different than they appear.  I suppose that is almost but not identical to a twist ending.  Read "Dora" for an excellent example.

Out There, by Zoe Beck

"Out There," by Zoe Beck, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 2012.

Among the other changes that e-mail has wrought in the world is an improvement in epistolary fiction.  It is possible to exchange letters a lot faster than when DIego de San Pedro wrote the first epistolary novel in the fifteenth century.

And that's what German author Zoe Beck presents with, a story written entirely in e-mails.  Most of them are written by Gil Peters, who is a successful author despite having agoraphobia so fierce that she hasn't left her apartment in eight years.  But that's okay, she has adjusted to it, and with her computer and her shrink on tap she is doing fine.

Then her doctor goes on vacation just when an unacceptable change happens to her home.  Things start to go rapidly out of hand...

The only thing I love better than a twist ending is multiple twists, and Beck provides them.  I thought I knew where the story was going.  Then I thought I saw the new direction.  Nope.  No wonder it won the Glauser prize.