Failed surfing instructor as a private detective  Heaven or Hell?

Months of idleness on the brink of bankruptcy – then along comes a job that self-styled investigator Caruso simply cannot turn down. However, the search for a missing surfer on a Philippine island is anything but a walk in the park.

There are countless German crime novels; the genre has been booming for years. In particular, “regional crime novels” set in popular holiday destinations are flooding the market and the display shelves of the major book retail chains. The “hard-boiled” subgenre, by contrast, is scarcely represented. In his second novel, Heaven’s Gate, Daniel Faßbender has now presented a story featuring a private detective that fits the hard-boiled definition perfectly: a gripping crime thriller with a disillusioned, cynical investigator in an action-packed, high-stakes plot. Faßbender sets his investigator Caruso in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean; Surfer’s Paradise in the Philippines is also a popular holiday destination. In doing so, the author has at least made the holiday longing of crime fiction fans the foundation of his fast-paced story.

A Sharp Style, Laconic Dialogue

As with most hard-boiled crime novels, the writing style in “Heaven’s Gate” plays a key role in building tension. Taut, short sentences describe the scenes with precision and brevity; the accompanying images seem to spring to mind almost of their own accord. Laconic dialogue and a generous dose of sarcasm make investigator Caruso a likeable anti-hero who, naturally, is always teetering on the brink of failure, sometimes on this side, sometimes on the other.

Lost in Paradise

Caruso has been living on a Philippine island for some time as a down-and-out surf instructor and unofficial investigator. He needs a break; after all, he’s failed as an international professional surfer and his girlfriend has left him. Perhaps he’s trying to repress both. He rarely wears anything more than a pair of scruffy board shorts, he hardly ever goes a day without a drink, and of course he’s always broke. He can barely even afford his ramshackle lodgings.

It is on this very island that the adult son of a wealthy Spanish woman disappears one day. Unlike the local police, she does not assume he has simply vanished of his own accord, but rather that a crime has been committed. She therefore commissions Caruso to find him.

This search is no walk in the park – it’s all in the best “hard-boiled” tradition. Shady Russians, well-meaning environmental activists, Filipino businessmen, corrupt police officers, Latin American drug dealers and a German ex-boxer who was once a real local big shot – author Faßbender, himself a surfer, turns the small island in the Pacific into a seething hotspot of conflicting interests.

In the second half of his book, he also ramps up the pace considerably; Detective Caruso has to endure an agonising amount of hardship and cope with a series of surprising and, above all, painful twists.

The Hell of Heaven’s Gate

Whilst in typical holiday crime novels, detectives solve their cases at a leisurely pace whilst enjoying local cuisine, chatting with the vicar or visiting regional sights, Caruso is doing a back-breaking job. Instead of enjoying the perfect waves in the bay known as Heaven’s Gate, he repeatedly finds himself at the gateway to a hell of drugs, corruption and murder. And although the settings sometimes seem a little lacklustre – an impression that carries over to quite a few of the characters – Daniel Faßbender’s new book nevertheless leaves you wanting more of this hard-boiled investigator.

 

June 2026