Crime, coffee for Vienna’s fiction readers

Dozens of murders in Vienna in one night, and all in the Austrian city’s iconic cafes, sounds alarming. But this was “Kriminacht,” an evening devoted to crime fiction that is unique in Europe.
Now in its eighth edition, the event on Tuesday night saw 63 readings from authors — not just from Austria and Germany but also stars from the United States, Britain and of course Scandinavia — at 54 locations.
In addition to homegrown writers like Eva Rossmann and Andreas Pittler, they included Daniel Woodrell of the United States, Denmark’s Jussi Adler-Olsen, Arne Dahl of Sweden and Scottish “Tartan Noir” author Christopher Brookmyre.
Organizers were hoping to beat last year’s record when 27,000 people lapped up tales of grisly killings from the likes of US authors Mary Higgins Clark and Daniel Depp (half-brother of actor Johnny Depp) and Britain’s Simon Beckett.
“I love the humor, his descriptions, he is so witty,” said Sabine Hauswirt, a photographer, who came to listen to Woodrell read out bits of his “The Death of Sweet Mister” amid the mirrors and lamps of the plush and packed Cafe Landtmann. “The event is sensational,” the beaming Hauswirt, clutching two freshly signed copies of 59-year-old Woodrell’s thrillers, told AFP.
According to the appropriately named Juergen Kill from Woodrell’s Munich-based publisher Liebeskind, which has just released the German version of “The Death of Sweet Mister,” there is no end of demand in the German-speaking market.
In particular, he said, anything Scandinavian sells “insanely” well, following on from the enormous success of Sweden’s Stieg Larsson, the late author of the incredibly successful “Millennium” trilogy.
“We are seeing a boom everywhere. It appeals to all ages, to men and to women,” he said. And importantly for the publishing industry, “they are also read by people who read a lot of books,” he told AFP.
“There are lots of explanations for the phenomenon. One of them is that we live in highly technological time where everything is rationally organized, and that many people miss the dark, mysterious and the unexplained,” Kill said. Events like “Kriminacht” (a combination of the word “Krimi” or crime novel and “Nacht” meaning night) have also mushroomed in recent years in German-speaking markets.
In Munich for example there is a festival devoted to the genre, as well as one in Vienna. On Wednesday a “Kriminacht” inspired by the Vienna event was due to take place in Berlin.
“Lots of crime readers want to actually see the writer,” said Kill.
Across town in Vienna meanwhile demand for Adler-Olsen, whose books regularly feature highly on the Spiegel bestseller list in Germany, was so strong that the event had to be moved to a cinema — where he was cheered like a pop star.
In the German-speaking market alone, Adler-Olsen’s books have sold more than 3.5 million copies. This was his third time in Vienna.
“The author knows best what the book is all about and he can bring it across so much better,” Fritz Weiland, 24, a self-confessed crime novel fanatic — he reads a book and a half per week — told AFP as he joined a scrum of people queuing before Adler-Olsen’s performance.
The event is also free of charge — except for the legendary Viennese cake and coffee and other refreshments — with corporate sponsors picking up the tab, organizer Franz Schubert told AFP.
“The event is unique. Nowhere else do you have so many authors at so many locations, and on only one night,” Schubert said. “People always ask me to extend it, but I think it would lose something.”