Book Review: “Anatomy of a Killer”, by Romy Hausmann

Reading time: 2 mins

I’m furious and I’m absolutely terrified.

★★★☆☆

A solid thriller with some juicy twists and turns and a satisfactory ending, it let me guess till its resolution.

In the Berlin of 2017, somebody has been abducting and killing young girls for fourteen years. Then the killer leaves red ribbons to show the police the way to their bodies. When philosophy professor and anthropologist Walter Lesniak is arrested on the suspicion of the murders, it seems like we’re at the end of the case, and of his terror. For his daughter Ann, under whose eyes the arrest took place, it’s only the beginning of it. She’ll go to any lengths to prove her father’s innocence. But is he?

I like the premise of Anatomy of a Killer: it’s one of those books that will let you guess till the end, and that has the potential of turning security into doubt. According to how you perceive Walter Lesniak, guilty or innocent, you’ll have your own perception of the daughter as well.

If you think he’s innocent, you’ll root for her and you’ll be annoyed by the characters that keep treating her condescendingly.

If you think he’s guilty, like I did, you’ll be annoyed by Ann’s naivety (not to say plain stupidity). I understand that she’s emotionally destroyed and Romy Hausmann did a good job of depicting denial and obsession, but I especially didn’t like how Ann endangered another character (one of few) with her blindness to danger (and at times, reality) because “her perfect dad can’t be less than perfect”. But boy, was the outcome of that not expected! I also find pretty annoying how she bent some clues and seemed to stretch the truth to make it fit her own, just because she was so inherently biased.

With that being said, of course I was also biased while judging her. No matter how open I tried to stay, I drew anyway the conclusion that he was guilty. Maybe even because of how Ann acted. But even so, I can’t deny that I had my doubts, and of course the end will bring clarity.

This clarity will not come only as the unmasking of the killer, but also of their motivation. I will not say anything for obvious reasons, but it was great to see Anatomy of a Killer dive into psychology, if only briefly. I’m on the fence about praising Romy Hausmann, because I don’t know much about… well, what she talked about in the end. She also admits having limited knowledge of it, and didn’t pretend otherwise.

I also like how the book is structured. The main part follows Ann’s quest for the truth, but we also have two other lines. In one we witness the killer seemingly perpetrating their crimes, in the other they are interviewed about their reasons. Simple device to let us make up our mind, not just based on Ann’s biased version of it, but of whatever we want to make out of them as well. Can it still be biased on our convictions?

One final praise goes to the writing style: it is a translation from German, and yet the concise and precise style breaks through the linguistic barrier. Speaking of translation: I prefer the German title Perfect Day. It fits, and apart from the fact that they could have kept it, being already in English, I’m not entirely sure what the translation was trying to say that the original did not.

Final Thoughts

If you want to spend some enjoyable hours with a book that will have you guessing and doubting till the end, Anatomy of a Killer is for you. No matter what you think before starting reading it, your belief will be challenged. I will for sure read more books by Romy Hausmann.

**Thanks to NetGalley, Romy Hausmann, and Quercus Books for an ARC of this book.**