"Swiss Vendetta"

Tracee de Hahn is the author of the Agnes Lüthi Mysteries published by St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books. The first in the series, Swiss Vendetta, was inspired by the 2005 ice storm that ravaged Geneva. De Hahn was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and spent most of her youth in Kentucky. After receiving degrees in Architecture and European history from the University of Kentucky she moved to Switzerland with her husband. Currently they and their two Jack Russell terriers live in Virginia.

De Hahn applied the Page 69 Test to Swiss Vendetta and reported the following:

From page 69:

“He was a good man, and he loved his sons. Remember that. And he was so proud of you.”

“Don’t say things to make me feel better. I won’t have it.”

“He was proud of you.”

“You didn’t even know George.” Her voice quavered. She remembered Carnet arriving at the scene seconds after her: taking charge, making sure she was away before she learned more of the horrific detail of the drop from the bridge onto the road; before hysteria could settle in.

Above is the first twenty-five percent of the sixty-ninth page of Swiss Vendetta. The mystery at the heart of the book centers on the stabbing death of an art appraiser on the lawn of Château Vallotton in Switzerland. The main character, police inspector Agnes Lüthi, is called to the scene on her first day at work after the death of her husband and it turns out to be a very unusual day, even for the Violent Crimes division. When an ice storm of historic proportion descends, she is trapped, along with her colleagues and the suspects, as the power goes out and the roads close.

Agnes’s quest to find the murderer is at the heart of the book, however, on a different level Swiss Vendetta is about her internal struggle to understand her husband’s suicide. His death has caused Agnes to question her own actions and those of everyone she knows and the passage on page sixty nine centers on that theme. The dialogue on this page is between Agnes and her colleague Robert Carnet. They are discussing Agnes’s husband George and we understand her determination to separate home life from work, at the same time we know that it might not be possible.

Visit Tracee de Hahn's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Tracee de Hahn & Alvaro and Laika.

Writers Read: Tracee de Hahn.

--Marshal Zeringue