Nele Neuhaus read in the Königstein City Library before, 15 years ago.
The crime writer remembers it well: “It wasn't as big an audience as it is today, but it was incredibly funny.
We were maybe seven people.” The reading from the new book “In aller Freundlich” on Tuesday evening is sold out, more than 60 Königsteiners are sitting between the wooden shelves full of books, a few are also on the stairs to the upper floor.
The vast majority are women.
When Neuhaus asked who hadn't read any of her books, nobody answered.
Florentine Fritzen
Correspondent in the Hochtaunus district
Follow I follow
Then it starts.
The tenth Taunus thriller by the 55-year-old author takes place in the book industry and with the motif of the book in the book: the proofs of the second thriller by forensic doctor Henning Kirchhoff are ready.
This is the former husband of investigator Pia Sander, and the dedication reads: "For Pia in love." That makes Christoph, Pia's no longer quite so new, jealous - and gets the plot rolling.
Ten million books sold
Neuhaus, with glasses and light blond hair tied in a bun at the nape of her neck, reads with obvious pleasure, sometimes she snorts suppressed.
For example at the point where the titles of Henning's books appear.
They are called the same as the first and second volumes of the Taunus crime series.
Neuhaus has since sold ten million books.
When the lady from the "LeseLust" association mentions this, the audience says "Wow!" and "Chapeau!".
Between the sections read, Neuhaus tells anecdotes from her working life.
Once she was asked to sign a jar of Nutella at a reading.
Sometimes she has to part with characters because otherwise the book would be 1000 pages.
She used to find the names of her protagonists in the phone book.
Today, thousands of her Facebook friends want to donate her name, most for the first body.
In the new book, a writer exposed as a plagiarist rings his editor's bell.
She has also just been fired by her publisher.
Later, Pia Sander will find the woman's wallet with all the important cards in the house - and upstairs an old man with a chain on his ankle.
When traces of blood are secured from a garbage can, very professionally with a tube, Neuhaus looks up from the manuscript and says: "I used to have to research it, but now we know something like that."
From the life of a writer
Again and again the author plays with her professionalism.
She recounts how she initially got into trouble from a homeowner for using an address in Kelkheim that actually existed.
How she anxiously knocked on the door of the Frankfurt forensic medicine to finally find out what a corpse really looks like in the summer after a few days.
And along the way, she learned that she shouldn't call coroners pathologists anymore.
How her sister streamlined the first book to allow the plot to move forward.
The last words of the reading are: “.
.
.
and bounced back as a swarm of flies buzzed at them.” The City Library is co-hosting the evening with Millennium Bookstore.
Stacks of crime novels are available for sale at the exit.
Neuhaus stays for a while to sign.