Tobias was only twenty when he was sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of his childhood friend Laura and his girlfriend Stefanie. He has maintained his innocence and since the bodies were never found, was convicted on circumstantial evidence alone. His ten years are up and he returns to his hometown at the same time one of the girls' bodies is found. He wanted to start over, but now the cold case is once again opened and his life is turned upside down. Pia and Oliver, the two detectives assigned to the case, find a wall of silence in Tobias' hometown, and when another girl goes missing they must find her fast, because the villagers are starting to take matters into their own hands.

Nele Neauhaus has written a page turning mystery with secretive characters, unexpected villains, sinister conspiracies, and surprising heroes. The charming little village of Altenhain is an ingenious setting for SNOW WHITE MUST DIE. On the outside it is unassuming with every day people, but the secrets the village holds will change lives forever. Readers will soon find themselves thinking everyone and at the same time no one, in the village is a suspect. Neauhaus does a great job intertwining the lives of each of the characters, and readers will be stunned by the connections they have to each other.

Tobias is a wonderful character readers will empathize with right away. Readers will hope he is innocent, all the while wondering if he really did kill two girls. He is well - rounded, and his emotions are so raw readers will feel right along with him. Amelie is a bright, confident girl, who is the perfect opposite to everyone in Altenhain. She is a newcomer and outsider who easily be-friends Tobias. Pia and Oliver make a great detective team, and though their personal lives are part of the storyline, it never takes away from the main mystery of SNOW WHITE MUST DIE, and only helps Pia and Oliver grow and evolve as characters.

The plot twists and foreshadowing are extremely well done, and readers will be kept guessing until the very end. There isn't a dull moment, and as readers learn each characters' secrets the mystery only thickens until the shocking climax, and satisfying ending are revealed. SNOW WHITE MUST DIE is a thrilling read with secrets around every corner, readers won't be able to put down.

Book Summary

On a rainy November day police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: A woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation leads Pia and Oliver to a small village, and the home of the victim, Rita Cramer. On a September evening eleven years earlier, two seventeen-year-old girls vanished from the village without a trace. In a trial based only on circumstantial evidence, twenty-year-old Tobias Sartorius, Rita Cramer's son, was sentenced to ten years in prison. Bodenstein and Kirchhoff discover that Tobias, after serving his sentence, has now returned to his home town. Did the attack on his mother have something to do with his return? In the village, Pia and Oliver encounter a wall of silence. When another young girl disappears, the events of the past seem to be repeating themselves in a disastrous manner. The investigation turns into a race against time, because for the villagers it is soon clear who the perpetrator is-and this time they are determined to take matters into their own hands. An atmospheric, character-driven and suspenseful mystery set in a small town that could be anywhere, dealing with issues of gossip, power, and keeping up appearances.