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    Rain Girl
    Rain Girl
    Rain Girl
    Audiobook7 hours

    Rain Girl

    Written by Gabi Kreslehner

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Veteran homicide detective Franza Oberwieser prefers her job in the winter. Summer is for growing, not for dying. So when the body of a beautiful young woman is found on the autobahn, dressed in a glittering party dress and bathed in June rain, Franza is determined to give her justice.

    Revealing victims’ hidden lives is part of the job, but as Franza and her partner, Felix, peel back the layers shrouding the girl’s disturbing past, darker mysteries emerge. Everyone has something to hide—even Franza, who must face her own secrets to reveal the truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Translator Lee Chadeayne
    Release dateAug 1, 2014
    ISBN9781491508718
    Rain Girl
    Author

    Gabi Kreslehner

    Award-winning writer Gabi Kreslehner lives and works in her hometown of Ottensheim, Austria, located on the shores of the Danube. She became interested in theater and writing at a young age and now works as a teacher. Her previous novel, Rain Girl, was her English-language debut.

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    Reviews for Rain Girl

    3.5/5

    34 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      3.5 stars

      Looking through the dozens of unread books I have in my Kindle app, I found this one, reread the synopsis, and decided to give it a whirl. Turned out to be a pretty good choice.

      This is a rather simply mystery set in Munich, Germany, along the Danube and the autobahn. The writing style was terse, with many chapters only a sentence or paragraph long. This felt almost like flipping through a photo album and having the story revealed through simple descriptions rather than in-depth story-telling. I'm not normally a fan of this approach, but it worked pretty well in this instance. The story itself was pretty straight-forward, with some good twists. Recommended for fans of European mysteries.
    • 4/5
      i hope "Rain Girl" turns out to be the first in a long series; it's a compelling suspense story with interesting central characters, and I'd like to spend more time with them. The book starts when a young girl in a sparkly dress, staggering along the Autobahn in the rain, stumbles towards the headlights of an oncoming car and is killed on impact. Homicide detective Franza Oberweiser starts her investigation with big questions. Who is the girl? And was she attacked before car crash? The story starts rather slowly, as we are introduced to Franza and her colleague Felix, and as the investigation gets underway. But it builds momentum, both around the unknown girl, and around Franza's complicated personal life. The style is episodic, with short chapters (a few from the viewpoint of characters we don't yet know), piling on to produce a coherent whole. Characterization is very strong; the central characters are fully rounded, who make mistakes and have faults. I enjoyed it a lot, and have already bought "Raven Sisters", the only other novel featuring Franza that seems to be available in English. Let's hope there's a nice big lot waiting to be translated.
    • 3/5
      "She staggered along the northbound shoulder of the autobahn in the mist of the rising dawn unaware of the danger hurtling toward her."
      Franza Oberweiser is a veteran homicide detective. Along with her partner, Felix, she investigates the death of a young girl who hit by a car on the autobahn. They know how she died, but they found blood at the rest stop nearby. What happened at the rest stop and how did the girl (Marie) end up in the middle of the highway?

      Franza has a difficult home life. Her husband cheated on her a while ago and they have never really recovered. Now Franza is having an affair with an actor and she hardly ever hears from her son. He is off to college this year and her husband tells her she shouldn't worry, he is an adult now and taking care of himself. But, she still worries.

      It is tough for Franza to juggle all the aspects of her life. The story covers her home life, her affair and the search for the killer. In between, we have glimpses into Marie's life, as a young man falls for her. Who is he and how does he fit into this story?

      My opinion:
      Franza wasn't very likable as a character; I understand that we all have flaws, but I didn't really connect with her. There seemed to be some sexual tension between Franza and her partner Felix but that was never really explored. Felix's wife is about to have twins and didn't consult him first, so he isn't thrilled.
      I wasn't enthralled by this book, but I was anxious to find out who killed Marie and who was her secret lover. I finished the book easily.
      I wouldn't recommend this book unless you really like crime thrillers and are interested in reading about detectives in a country other than the U.S. Maybe then it would appeal to you more than me.
    • 1/5
      Der erste Franza-Oberwieser- Roman „Das Regenmädchen“ von Gabi Kreslehner handelt von dem tragischen Mord an der jungen Marie, die eines Morgens im Ballkleid am Rand einer Autobahn auftaucht, um schließlich von einem herannahenden Auto erfasst zu werden. Was zunächst als Unfall erscheint, erweist sich schnell als Mord und führt die ermittelnden Kripobeamten Franza Oberwieser und Felix Herz zu einem Geflecht aus Lügen, Missbrauch und Prostitution.Dieses Buch zeigt, dass man sich beim Buchkauf nicht zu sehr von einem Buchcover beeinflussen lassen sollte. Denn obwohl das Cover dieses Romans sehr ansprechend gestaltet ist und auch der Klappentext mein Interesse geweckt hat, konnte mich dieser Krimi nicht überzeugen.Leider kann ich nicht viel Positives über diesen Roman schreiben, da ich mehr von diesem erwartet hätte. Dabei hat mich vor allem der Erzählstil in diesem Romans sehr gestört. Dieser hat mir überhaupt nicht gefallen, wobei es mir schwer fällt, diesen zu beschreiben. Als poetisch wird er in einigen Rezensionen dieses Krimis bezeichnet, dem kann ich nur bedingt zustimmen. Es scheint als könnte die Autorin sich selbst nicht entscheiden, eine zum Teil etwas schräge und/oder vulgäre Ausdrucksweise ist die Folge.Meiner Meinung nach nimmt außerdem das Privatleben der Kommissarin Franza Oberwieser einen zu großen Teil in diesem Roman ein, was mir diese Person nicht sympathischer macht. Weshalb zusätzlich ihr Sohn in die Handlung verwickelt werde musste, ist mir schleierhaft.Letztlich war ich froh, dass dieses Buch mit 300 Seiten verhältnismäßig dünn ist, andernfalls hätte ich es möglicherweise nicht bis zu Ende gelesen. Merkwürdigerweise war in diesem Roman dennoch Platz für eine schwer nachvollziehbare Nebenhandlung um den Fahrer des Wagens, der Marie anfangs angefahren hatte. Alle Personen in diesem Roman wirken klischeehaft und wenig glaubwürdig, weshalb dem Leser der Mörder bereits sehr früh offenbart wird. Auch muss ich sagen, dass mir dieser Roman nicht lange im Gedächtnis geblieben ist, denn jetzt nur einen Monat nach der Lektüre dieses Krimis fällt es mir bereits schwer, mich an einige Passagen zu erinnern. Zum Glück habe ich mir dieses Buch nur als preisreduziertes Mängelexemplar gekauft, andernfalls wäre ich jetzt womöglich enttäuschter. Es wäre zudem sinnvoll gewesen, vor dem Kauf dieses Krimis die Leseprobe zu lesen, da diese bereits einen guten Eindruck von dem Erzählstil dieses Romans vermittelt.Abschließend kann ich sagen, dass sich jeder selbst ein Bild von diesem Roman machen sollte, vor allem da die Meinungen über Gabi Kreslehner Schreibstil doch sehr auseinanderzugehen scheinen. Ich denke jedoch nicht, dass ich in Zukunft weitere Franza-Oberwieser-Krimis lesen werde.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book well enough, but it wasn't suspenseful enough and the plot was a bit too predictable. The characters had believable flaws, and I thought the scenes where the main detective Franza interacted with her partner Felix were particularly engaging. The ending left too many loose ends dangling for my taste.
    • 4/5
      'Er würde ... die Stille des Hauses spüren, seine Größe, seine Leere.', 'Das ... ist sie also gewesen ohne Tod im Gesicht.', 'Verschwindlichter. Wenn man darauf zuging, verschwand man.'
      Wer Sätze wie diese liest, denkt sicherlich, hier eine gefühlvolle, überaus poetisch geschriebene Lektüre vor sich zu haben statt einen ,schnöden` ;-) Kriminalroman. Doch das Regenmädchen ist beides: Es gibt Tote, zahlreiche Spuren, eine Reihe Verdächtiger - all dies ist in einer spannenden Geschichte verpackt, die zudem einen tiefen Einblick in das Leben der verantwortlichen Kommissarin Franza Oberwieser gewährt.
      Diese versucht gemeinsam mit ihrem Kollegen Felix Herz zu klären, wie es zu dem tragischen Unfall auf der Autobahn kommen konnte, bei dem die junge Marie tödlich verunglückte. Schon bald stellt sich heraus, dass noch eine weitere Person beteiligt gewesen sein musste und aus Maries Leben werden Dinge offenbar, die manch einer lieber verborgen wissen möchte. Selbst zu Franzas Umfeld werden Verbindungen erkennbar, die kaum jemanden mehr überraschen als sie selbst.
      Franza Oberwieser ist eine ungewöhnliche Kommissarin. Geplagt von privaten Problemen (unglückliche Ehe, ein Liebhaber, Beziehung zum Sohn), hat sie sich trotz all der Grausamkeiten und Toten, mit denen sie tagtäglich konfrontiert wird, auch in ihrem Beruf eine verblüffende Empfindsamkeit bewahrt. Die Autorin bringt dies durch eine außergewöhnlich poetische und bilderreiche Sprache zum Ausdruck, die in dieser Literaturgattung doch recht selten anzutreffen ist.
      So bietet dieses Buch gleich zwei Dinge: Ein gefühlvolles und lebensnahes Psychogramm einer Frau in den Vierzigern. Und einen spannenden Kriminalroman über den mysteriösen Tod einer nicht minder mysteriösen jungen Frau.
    • 3/5
      Two police officers in the Munich area are investigating the death of a young woman who was hit by a car on the autobahn. There is no other car so she didn’t drive herself and her clothes and some of her injuries suggest an earlier attack. So how did she get out here without transport, who was she with, and what happened that made her run into the road in the dark and heavy rain that made visibility difficult for oncoming traffic?Rain Girl is the first book by Austrian author Gabi Kreslehner translated into English. Although I didn’t dislike the main characters, I never developed any sense of caring about them either. They had flaws and I would normally consider that a good thing but, because we’re told so little else about them, they become little more than these flaws: there’s not enough beyond the affairs and the manipulations to make the reader feel anything, certainly not empathy, even for the victim. And, honestly, no author besides Dickens can get away with using coincidence to create suspense without making the reader feel like they’re being manipulated. The mystery itself was interesting enough to keep me reading despite my lack of investment in the lives of the characters. The writing is very good even lyrical at times, especially in the descriptions. Rain Girl is listed as a standalone but it felt like the first in a series. If it is the first, I’m not sure if I would read another by this author. The author clearly has talent that makes me think future books could be very good indeed. But as to this one -it was a fast easy read, requiring little from me except a couple of hours and I can honestly say they weren’t wasted. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a decent enough mystery to fill up some time but that won’t keep you up wondering what will happen next.
    • 3/5
      Rain girl is a meandering mystery, long on poetic observations and short on substance. While many reviewers are blaming the translation, I actually liked the word choices and I thought the prose flowed well. My problems arose from the overall story, which has nothing to do with the translator.There are a lot of characters, most of them minor, moving in and out throughout short chapters. This makes it a hard book to put down and come back to. I read it in one day, and even then I was forgetting who certain people were and how they pertained to the issue at hand. The tone of the book feels philosophical, and that aspect is sometimes overdone. The writing has a tendency to feel weighty and introspective, more suited to drama than mystery/suspense. The characters, in a way, are difficult for me to judge. Being an Austrian book, some of my issues could be attributed to a difference in culture. Still, the characters did a lot of talking about trivial things but very little talking about important things. I don't want to give spoilers, so I'll just say that a lot of dangling threads needed to be pulled.The story is wrapped up with an open-ended non-ending. This is an intentional choice by the author, but it has an incomplete feel for me. While leaving something for the reader to decide is fine, too many unanswered questions makes the book feel unfinished.Overall, I neither loved nor hated this story. It's like a person I met but learned nothing about. The impact is small and forgettable.