A Fondness for Truth - (A Linder and Donatelli Mystery) by Kim Hays (Paperback)

About the Book

"Honesty isn't always the best policy in Kim Hays' third Linder and Donatelli Mystery novel . . . Andi Eberhart is riding her bicycle home on an icy winter night when she is killed in a hit-and-run. Her devastated partner, Nisha, is convinced the death was no accident. Andi had been receiving homophobic hate mail for several years, and the letters grew uglier after the couple's baby was born. Bern homicide Detective Giuliana Linder is assigned to investigate what happened to Andi. As she pieces together the details of Andi and Nisha's lives, her assistant Renzo Donatelli looks into Andi's job advising young men drafted into Switzerland's civilian service. Working closely together, Giuliana and Renzo are again tempted to become more than just friendly colleagues. As both detectives dig into Andi's life, one thing becomes clear: Andi's friends and family may have loved her for her honesty, but her outspokenness threatened others--perhaps enough to get rid of her."--from Simon & Schuster website.

Book Synopsis

Honesty isn't always the best policy in Kim Hays' third Linder and Donatelli Mystery novel . . .

Andi Eberhart is riding her bicycle home on an icy winter night when she is killed in a hit-and-run. Her devastated partner, Nisha, is convinced the death was no accident. Andi had been receiving homophobic hate mail for several years, and the letters grew uglier after the couple's baby was born.

Bern homicide Detective Giuliana Linder is assigned to investigate what happened to Andi. As she pieces together the details of Andi and Nisha's lives, her assistant Renzo Donatelli looks into Andi's job advising young men drafted into Switzerland's civilian service. Working closely together, Giuliana and Renzo are again tempted to become more than just friendly colleagues.

As both detectives dig into Andi's life, one thing becomes clear: Andi's friends and family may have loved her for her honesty, but her outspokenness threatened others--perhaps enough to get rid of her.

Review Quotes

This is the best of the three very good books in the series so far. Though a reader new to the series might want to start with the first, Pesticide, it's perfectly possible to start here and enjoy the experience. I love these books because the detectives aren't geniuses or super-heroes. . . The plot is ingenious, the setting unusual, the characters multi-layered. Highly recommended. . . --Lois K. Cox, DOROTHYL Digest

In this third entry in her much-lauded Polizei Bern series, Kim Hays offers readers an utterly compelling and elegantly written police procedural. The thread of evidence followed by Linder and Donatelli, the novel's homicide detectives, is seamlessly woven into the fabric of family stories, both ordinary and extraordinary, which makes the plotline all the more meaningful. Add to this a glimpse of Switzerland . . . and you have the perfect elements for an absolutely riveting mystery.--William Kent Krueger, bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author of The River We Remember and the Cork O'Connor mysteries

With [Giuliana Linder and Renzo Donatelli's] powers of deduction once again on impressive display, this third outing is a fine addition to the series, with Hays remaining consistently focused on current affairs, international cultures, and hot topics. . . A brisk, smoothly written police procedural from an author engaged with contemporary social issues.--Kirkus

A Fondness for Truth feels fresh as it engages with societal conflicts that resonate . . . Hays's empathetic, entertaining, smartly plotted mystery will keep readers guessing . . . [in this] stellar series procedural with compelling detectives. --BookLife

For aficionados of fine police detection and procedure, it doesn't get better than Kim Hays's LInder and Donatelli series. Puzzling mysteries, artful prose, and engaging characters abound in these Swiss-based treats for mystery fans of all tastes.--George Easter, Editor, Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

If you thought Switzerland was all mountains, clocks, and bankers, Kim Hays will make you think again. In the venerable tradition of the police procedural, and in precise, evocative prose, A Fondness for Truth pulls back the scenery curtain to reveal the reality: people are complex, darkness is as universal as light, and crime is everywhere. --SJ Rozan, bestselling author of The Mayors of New York

About the Author

Kim Hays, a citizen of Switzerland and the United States, has written four Polizei Bern books featuring Swiss homicide detectives Linder and Donatelli. She moved to Bern, her Swiss husband's hometown, thirty-seven years ago, after growing up in San Juan and Vancouver and studying at Harvard and Berkeley. In Switzerland, she worked as a cross-cultural coach for multinational companies before becoming a mystery writer. The first Linder and Donatelli book, Pesticide (2022), was a finalist for the Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award and the Silver Falchion Award for Best Mystery. It was followed by Sons and Brothers (2023), A Fondness for Truth (2024), which was a BookLife Editor's Pick, and now, Splintered Justice.