Description



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.

About the author(s)

Kim Hays is an American who moved to Bern thirty-five years ago when she married a Swiss; by then, she’d already lived in the US, San Juan, Vancouver, and Stockholm. She studied at Harvard and Berkeley, and before beginning the Polizei Bern series, she worked in a number of jobs, including executive director of a small nonprofit and lecturer in sociology.  A Fondness for Truth is her third police procedural featuring Swiss detectives Linder and Donatelli. The first, Pesticide (2022), was shortlisted for a CWA Debut Dagger Award and a 2023 Silver Falchion Award for Best Mystery. Kirkus called the second mystery, Sons and Brothers (2023), “a smart Swiss procedural that keeps its mystery ticking.” 

Reviews

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

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