Literature The crime thriller "Deadly Ultimatum" targets the really big issues
The two authors from western Switzerland, Marc Voltenauer and Nicolas Feuz, have written their first crime thriller together, which is now being published in German translation. "Tödliches Ultimatum" is fast-paced entertainment that transcends the language barrier.
11.03.2025, 06:30
SDA
In Montreux, against the backdrop of the Christmas market, a thirty-year-old high-class escort lady is brutally murdered in a parking garage. The trial of the corps commander and head of the Swiss army is underway at the Palace of Justice in Lausanne. He is accused of rape and has therefore been suspended from office.
Terrorists from the so-called Islamic State (IS) demand the release of an IS terrorist and set Switzerland an ultimatum. This demand is staged to great public effect, with the terrorists hijacking the Christmas lights of the Federal Palace and replacing them with their countdown.
A Federal Councillor and Snow White
The Federal Palace is a hive of activity because, on the one hand, Parliament is due to vote on the army budget in the winter session and, on the other, a crisis team is meeting under the leadership of the SVP Federal Councillor and Head of the Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS).
Snow White and her seven dwarfs keep popping up in all of this. But this troop has nothing to do with the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. Instead, it turns out to be a secret society of brutal mercenaries.
This complex set-up alone shows: In "Deadly Ultimatum", authors Marc Voltenauer and Nicolas Feuz are aiming for big themes. The two are bestselling authors in French-speaking Switzerland. Voltenauer has already gained an audience in German-speaking Switzerland with translated crime novels such as "Das Licht in dir ist Dunkelheit" (2021) and "Die Nacht des Blutadlers" (2024). Feuz, on the other hand, is probably unknown to a German-speaking audience.
Premiere of an investigative duo
Voltenauer's investigator character is the Vaudois inspector Andreas Auer. In the crime novels by Feuz, who has been public prosecutor for the canton of Neuchâtel since 1999, the focus is on Norbert Jemsen, himself a Neuchâtel public prosecutor. In their first joint work, the two authors now have their characters investigate together. Independent of their respective superiors and with a penchant for unconventional approaches, Auer and Jemsen appreciate and complement each other.
The two friends Voltenauer and Feuz told the Keystone-SDA news agency that the idea of having the two investigators meet in a story came to them during joint book-signing sessions last year. The actual story came about during many conversations over the course of a month, "in quiet moments or on car journeys, while Marc was taking notes with his computer on his lap", said Feuz. The thriller was then written "within two months", added Voltenauer.
French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland
One special feature is that the two authors are expanding the regional crime thriller genre and thus crossing the language barrier. The plot takes place in various locations in both French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland. Voltenauer pointed out that there is a "distinct tradition of regional crime novels" in German-speaking Switzerland, with local characteristics playing a central role. This is less pronounced in French-speaking Switzerland.
Universal themes such as justice or human abysses play a greater role in French-speaking Switzerland. With "Tödliches Ultimatum", Voltenauer and Feuz wanted to write a crime thriller that would work for readers in both language regions, as they said, "regardless of linguistic and cultural differences".
In terms of content, however, both authors have oriented themselves towards the universal themes common in French-speaking Switzerland: The many threads they laid out boil down to the fact that, ultimately, democracy in Switzerland is under scrutiny. It is about terrorism and justice, about the moral conflict between security and freedom, said Voltenauer.
He, who once studied theology, emphasized the "universal" significance of these topics during the discussion. And public prosecutor Feuz was particularly interested in the questions relating to the legal system in the context of terrorism.
And the readers are treated to a heroic story with the two investigators Auer and Jemsen at its center. Whether this premiere will be followed by further joint investigations depends not least on whether they survive their first adventure.
