Hauke Brandt

Hauke Brandt sometimes looks as if he has already solved the case and is only waiting politely for everyone else to catch up. Forty-one, detective chief inspector, based in Hamburg (Altona/St. Pauli), temporarily in Berchtesgaden: fast, direct, harbour-edge attitude.

No sentimentality, but a heart that refuses to stay hidden. A hobby cook who likes to experiment, and an eye for patterns in data. The Hamburg dialect is not a garnish with him; it is the voice. And somewhere in his head the cars of the eighties are still parked, neatly.

On his recipe sheet, Kaiserschmarrn becomes an operation: fold the snow in gently, tear it quickly, and a margin note that strikes him as odd.