Translated by Marina Sofia.
Published in ebook 15th January 2025, and paperback 1st February 2025, by Corylus Books.
From the cover of the book:
Berlin, August 1961.Since the death of her beloved father, Carla has been running the Nightingale & Co detective agency by herself. It’s a far from easy job for a female investigator.
When the chaotic, fun-loving Wallie shows up at the door, claiming to be her half-sister, Carla’s world is turned upside down. Wallie needs Carla – the Berlin Wall has been built overnight, leaving her unable to return to her flat in East Berlin.
Carla certainly doesn’t need Wallie, with her secret double life and unorthodox methods for getting results. Yet the mismatched pair must find a way to work together when one of their clients is accused of murdering her husband.
Nightingale & Co is the first in a cosy historical crime series featuring the sisters of the
Nightingale & Co detective agency in 1960s Berlin.
Berlin, August 1961.
Since her father died, Carla has been balancing running the Nightingale & Co detective agency by herself, with caring for her emotionally distant, strong-willed mother. Neither are easy jobs, leaving her little time for romance. It does not help that she is also called upon to periodically extricate her eccentric aunt Lulu from tricky situations of her own making.
Trying to stay professional while pursuing challenging investigations, and dealing with her complicated personal life is hard, particularly as a lone female investigator constantly reminded of the absence of her former beloved partner. But she has no idea quite how chaotic life can be until a young woman called Wallie shows up on her door step, claiming to be her half-sister trapped in the West after the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Carla and Wallie are like chalk and cheese, but somehow they must find a way to trust each other, as the political landscape in Berlin changes around them - and attempt to locate a man simply known as 'Jack', while simultaneously trying to save a client accused of murder.
The story begins with luscious 1960s vibes, as Carla is called to rescue Aunt Lulu from arrest on the film set of the Billy Wilder movie, One, Two, Three, which is on location by the Brandenburg Gate. It is a scene that pretty much sets the tone for the book, when Carla has a prophetic encounter with Billy Wilder himself, during which he announces "Nobody's perfect!", as a nod to his earlier masterpiece, Some Like it Hot.
What follows is part atmospheric detective caper, and part insightful exploration of time and place, set against the shocking political fall-out of the raising of the Berlin Wall. Carla is prim, respectable, inexperienced in affairs of the heart, and totally over-whelmed by the arrival of Wallie, a brash, busty, bar-tender in a risque club called the Eden - I loved their descriptions as Audrey Hepburn vs Marilyn Monroe, which works beautifully. They have very different ideas about how to behave, and this makes for a magical pairing - and a coming-of-age for Carla, with a touch of romantic suspense along the way. Printz fields a delightful supporting cast around them too, especially Aunt Lulu, who is quite a character!
The relationship between the sisters drives the slow-burn plot, bringing in lovely themes about family circumstances, jealousy, and betrayal that they have to navigate over the course of the story. Printz also uses their situations to cleverly examine the shadows that still loom large from World War Two in a defeated Germany, the impact of international politics, and the stark differences between those living in East and West Berlin as the Cold War plays out - and there is a lovely glimpse back to the heyday of the Berlin club scene. But this is not just about the past, because there are also fascinating threads here about women's rights, and changes in attitudes towards sex with the wider availability of the contraceptive pill.
This is the kind of book that draws you in gradually. The way the gritty 1940's-esque noir, gum shoe elements of a quirky missing person investigation, and a complicated murder mystery, blend with the social changes of the 1960's is fascinating. Suddenly, you find yourself totally immersed in the twists and turns of Printz's novel, which will send you down rabbit holes about the events of 1961. There are moments when the use of language is a little mindboggling for those of us unused to the conventions of German speech, but they do not get in the way of the story, and Sofia does her best to make clear where the flipping between formal and more familiar speech is significant as part of her excellent translation.
I really enjoyed the darkness that lurks beneath the lighter tones of this story, especially the chill that pervades the ending - an ending which leaves you with unanswered questions that I sincerely hope will be addressed in the next book in the series!
Nightingale & Co is available to buy now in ebook, and will be published in paperback on 1st February 2025.
Thank you to Corylus Books for providing me with an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Ewa Sherman for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Charlotte Printz is the pseudonym of a successful former TV editor with a penchant for writing gripping historical novels and screenplays.
Marina Sofia is a translator, reviewer, writer and blogger, as well as a third culture kid, who grew up trilingual in Romanian, German and English.
published by Corylus Books.
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