Letzte Ernte

The fox has long carried a reputation, from cunning deceit to serious theft. Slander follows him everywhere. But what is now being attributed to him in the Altes Land, where a poor apple harvest and gossip about pesticide use weigh heavily on the long-established farmers, is quite a stretch. In the barn of organic farmer Marlies, the decapitated body of Romanian seasonal worker Robert is found, with his head nowhere to be seen. According to the police, the fox took it. The case is classified as an accident, the file closed.

Enter Charlotte Lindholm. The LKA investigator moves into Marlies’ farm and begins piecing together a puzzle of suspicion and envy. Using a variety of psychological tricks, she brings the truth to light and becomes the true “fox”—not stealing the head, but returning it. In the end, George Orwell’s famous insight from Animal Farm hovers over the foggy morning that follows: Four legs good, two legs bad!