Norman Hacker

A fictional account of one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On Christmas Eve 1877, Elisabeth, once idolized for her beauty, turns 40 and is officially deemed an old woman; she starts trying to maintain her public image.

A single long-range shot shatters the quiet of a country morning, leaving a beloved doctor dead on the steps of his family home. In the aftermath, a grieving widow and her withdrawn son cling desperately to the safety of routine. Meanwhile, a weary detective – mid-divorce and living out of a suitcase – is called to investigate, joined by a young colleague still reeling from a recent trauma.

Philipp Hochmair, the newly appointed special investigator, and his partner Andreas Guenther immerse themselves in the equally dazzling and twilight world of the Prater showmen in the sixth "Vienna thriller". To solve the murder of a strikingly successful businessman, the opposing duo must not only uncover his secrets, but also get a tight-knit circle of suspects to speak up.

The Graz chief investigator Sascha Bergmann and his colleague Eva Merz from the Spusi try to combine the official with the romantic, but unfortunately a routine case in the tranquil East Styrian hill country unexpectedly degenerates into work: What initially looks like the suicide of a drunk turns out to be poorly disguised murder! This in turn calls Bergmann's partner Sandra Mohr onto the scene, who puts herself in danger in her investigative zeal.

En route to a party they are not keen on attending, the Famous Five are almost relieved when Aunt Fanny's car breaks down, stranding them in a small town. To pass the time, they visit the local natural history museum, where some newly-discovered dinosaur bones are being unveiled. Here they meet Marty, who tells them that his father, long dead, supposedly found a complete dinosaur skeleton and made a map of its whereabouts. Unfortunately the map has been stolen. Unable to let a good mystery go unsolved, George, Julian, Dick, Anne and Timmy, join a guided hike through the Valley of Dinosaurs. But their fact-finding mission soon turns into a race to find the dinosaur when they suspect that the thief is one of the group.

Martin Behrens is a Middle East expert for the German intelligence agency BND. He obtains information leading to a U.S. drone strike on a wanted terrorist in Zahiristan. A few days later, there's a terrorist attack on a restaurant – the video claiming responsibility calls it payback for the drone strike. Freelance journalist Aurice, with whom Martin was having an affair, is among the victims – she was investigating corruption at the heart of the BND. Martin soon has to realize that in a world where big corporations profit from arms deals as well as from homeland security contracts, good and evil are sometimes hard to tell apart.

Successful businesswoman Maria has achieved everything except what she wants the most - a baby of her own. She decides to deal with the matter by herself and embarks on a desperate and dangerous journey in order to make her dream come true.

Stories about citizens of a big city who encounter a variety of fates as a result of their difficulties in communicating with each other.

No synopsis available yet.

In the last days of World War II, Gauleiter Eigruber ordered the blasting of the salt mine. Stolen art treasures are stored there. The villagers oppose it.

What if nobody wants to believe you? Hanni, a farmer's wife and mother of three, is worried about her daughter Magdalena. The girl is smaller than the others, more sensitive, vomits more often and has increasingly poor eyesight. The doctors, the teacher and the family all say it must be her psyche. Glasses with normal lenses will certainly help. But as a mother, Hanni senses that a new pair of glasses won't change anything and that there is more at stake. Even plagued by an unheard-of memory from her youth, she begins to fight unwaveringly and unstoppably for her daughter's suffering, not only putting her family's happiness and her livelihood at risk, but also not shying away from the Bavarian justice system in the end.

The quiet place in the gallery of the church in Iffeldorf, where Lena Fauch occasionally found refuge and listened to the organist practise, is a place she will not see again for a long time. She accepts the offer from Detective Superintendent Kuda and becomes a police chaplain in Munich. Her first assignment confronts her with the criminal investigator Gregor Hoffmann. Hoffmann, who was assaulted during an arrest, is supposed to work through his misconduct with Lena Fauch. Hoffmann is unapproachable and rude. The encounters with him are provocative and disturbing. Chief Inspector Christian Fenn behaves quite differently. He is a self-confessed Christian and is delighted to have Lena as support in what he calls the "fight against Sodom and Gomorrah". Fenn is firmly convinced that he is one of the good guys.

She has her life firmly under control - but then the unbelievable happens. For seven hours, Hanna, who works as a psychotherapist in a Bavarian high-security prison, is taken hostage in her office by one of her patients. She is at the mercy of her tormentor, whom she has recently made a positive prognosis, and is raped several times. While the SEK Hanna, who is standing in front of the door, looks to safety, a convicted rapist destroys the life of a wife, mother and self-confident, cheerful woman. After the fact, nothing is as it was.

No synopsis available yet.

Management consultant Lissy has almost made it: if nothing else goes wrong, she will soon be a junior partner and also the boss's wife. But then her Italian father, who she didn't even know existed, dies. Suddenly she owns 50 percent of a Ligurian ice cream parlor. The other half belongs to ice cream maker Fabio, who has no desire to be tampered with. However, after a look at the books, Lissy realizes that the ice cream parlor is practically bankrupt.