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The Bone Man

A Novel

Translated by Annie Janusch

Part of Melville International Crime

Tastes like … a new Simon Brenner mystery

At a wildly popular chicken shack in the Austrian countryside, where snooty Viennese gourmands go to indulge their secret passion for fried chicken, a gruesome discovery is made in the pile of chicken bones waiting to be fed into the basement grinder: human bones.

But when private eye Simon Brenner shows up to investigate, the manager of the restaurant, who hired him, has disappeared … while the owner of the place urges him to stay on and eat chicken.

Brenner likes chicken, so he stays, but as he waits for the manager, he discovers that the bucolic countryside is full of suspicious types: prostitutes, war profiteers, unsavory art dealers, Slavic soccer champs with dubious pasts — and at least one rather grisly murderer. And the more Brenner looks into things, the more it dawns on him that there’s a cleaver somewhere with his name on it.

WOLF HAAS was born in 1960 in the Austrian province of Salzburg. He is the author of seven books in the bestselling Detective Brenner mystery series, where each title has sold in the hundreds of thousands, and three volumes of which have been made into popular German language films.

Translator ANNIE JANUSCH is the translator Wolf Haas’ Brenner and God, and the Art of the Novella series edition of Heinrich von Kleist’s The Duel.

“A brilliant book whose brilliance…comes through in unique and surprising ways and whose voice is among the most unique iconoclast genius voices in literature. The way the tale is told is as gripping as the tale itself… Already among the greats of mystery fiction.” —Book Devil

“This excellent translation by Annie Janusch is full of wit and sparkle; it’s a novel that leaves you laughing even as you work to solve the mystery… Fans of Carl Hiaasen ought to love this series, and there are at least seven more books awaiting translation.” —The Globe and Mail

Praise for Brenner and God

“One of the cleverest — and most thoroughly enjoyable — mysteries that I’ve read in a long time. Wolf Haas is the real deal, and his arrival on the American book scene is long overdue.” —Carl Hiaasen, New York Times bestselling author of Skinny Dip

“Simon Brenner, the hero of Wolf Haas’ marvelous series of crime thrillers, is a wildly likable and original character—a delightful and unexpected hero to show up in this noble and enduring genre.” —Jonathan Demme, Oscar-winning director of The Silence of the Lambs

“A must for crime fiction lovers with a sense of humor: In Simon Brenner, Wolf Haas has created a protagonist so real and believable that I sometimes wanted to tap him on the shoulder and point him in the right direction!” —Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin

“A wry sense of humor … American readers will look forward to seeing more of Simon Brenner.” —Publishers Weekly

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