Gewinner des Crime Cologne Award 2024
STEPHAN SCHMIDT
Die Spiele / The Games
A Crime Novel
ca. 416 pages
Spring 2024
English sample available
CRIME COLOGNE AWARD 2024
The first political thriller under plain name from one of Germany’s most renowned contemporary authors and established authorities on Asia - Stephan Thome
A gripping novel that leads far into the distance and at the same time deep into German history: highly suspenseful, gripping and factual
“It quickly becomes clear that this is not just about a murder, possibly not just about the corrupt Olympic committee, but about the
individual and the system”
Sebsatian Wellendorf, WDR5 SCALA
“This is no ordinary crime novel. Stephan Schmidt has succeeded in weaving disturbing geopolitical developments so tangibly into a twisty
and exciting story, while remaining close to the people in their system that determines the radius.”
Meike Dannenberg, BÜCHERMARK
Let The Games Begin!
September 2021: the International Olympic Committee is sitting in Shanghai to decide which city will be awarded the Summer Games ’32. Shortly before the deciding vote, the Mozambican IOC functionary Charles Murandi is found dead in his hotel room. It soon transpires he has been poisoned. Footage from a security camera attests that German journalist Thomas Gärtner was the last person to visit the dead man’s room, taking unidentified documents with him as he left. When grilled by Inspector Frank Luo, Gärtner admits that he knew Murandi well, but he doesn’t seem keen to remember anything else. The Chinese police happen upon further inconsistencies and the German Consulate attempts to gain access to the arrested journalist, and as the Chancellor learns of the murder on board her flight to Shanghai and a second journalist scents a big story in the offing, no one suspects where the key to solving the case might lie: several decades before, when a Mozambican worker was cheated of his future in the GDR, and a six-year-old girl lost her father.
Die Spiele / The Games
A Crime Novel
ca. 416 pages
Spring 2024
English sample available
CRIME COLOGNE AWARD 2024
The first political thriller under plain name from one of Germany’s most renowned contemporary authors and established authorities on Asia - Stephan Thome
A gripping novel that leads far into the distance and at the same time deep into German history: highly suspenseful, gripping and factual
“It quickly becomes clear that this is not just about a murder, possibly not just about the corrupt Olympic committee, but about the
individual and the system”
Sebsatian Wellendorf, WDR5 SCALA
“This is no ordinary crime novel. Stephan Schmidt has succeeded in weaving disturbing geopolitical developments so tangibly into a twisty
and exciting story, while remaining close to the people in their system that determines the radius.”
Meike Dannenberg, BÜCHERMARK
Let The Games Begin!
September 2021: the International Olympic Committee is sitting in Shanghai to decide which city will be awarded the Summer Games ’32. Shortly before the deciding vote, the Mozambican IOC functionary Charles Murandi is found dead in his hotel room. It soon transpires he has been poisoned. Footage from a security camera attests that German journalist Thomas Gärtner was the last person to visit the dead man’s room, taking unidentified documents with him as he left. When grilled by Inspector Frank Luo, Gärtner admits that he knew Murandi well, but he doesn’t seem keen to remember anything else. The Chinese police happen upon further inconsistencies and the German Consulate attempts to gain access to the arrested journalist, and as the Chancellor learns of the murder on board her flight to Shanghai and a second journalist scents a big story in the offing, no one suspects where the key to solving the case might lie: several decades before, when a Mozambican worker was cheated of his future in the GDR, and a six-year-old girl lost her father.
Rights inquiries
Stephan Schmidt
Stephan Schmidt was born in Biedenkopf, Hesse, in 1972 and studied philosophy, theology, and sinology, which led him to spend a year in China,...
Stephan Schmidt was born in Biedenkopf, Hesse, in 1972 and studied philosophy, theology, and sinology, which led him to spend a year in China, Taiwan, and Japan respectively, as a student. After completing a doctorate in philosophy, he spent a longer period working at various research institutions in Taipei, where he wrote his acclaimed debut novel Grenzgang, published in 2009 under the name Stephan Thome, which won the aspekte literature prize for debut of the year, appeared on the SPIEGEL...