Roadblocks: a guest post by Kim Hays

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: One of the reasons we tend to love mysteries set in foreign (to us) lands, is the pleasure of armchair traveling. As the song goes, "See the pyramids along the Nile, watch the sunrise on a tropic isle..."

But the other gift of fiction from far-flung places is the chance to get a deeper understanding of what life is truly like, with all its ambiguities and imperfections. My mental image of Switzerland, for instance, was heavily influenced by Richard Scarry books and the the cuckoo clocks my mother collected (both from my childhood in Germany, which is no coincidence.) 

Kim Hays has given me an infinitely better understanding of her adopted home. In her Linder and Donatelli series, she's examined the clash between development and rural values, the rigid social structures dominating Bern society, and now, in A FONDNESS FOR TRUTH, the lives of immigrants in a famously heterogeneous society. Along with the charged, complicated relationship between her two detectives and mysteries as intricate as the workings of a Tissot watch... well, you can see why she's on my auto-buy list.

 

 

The last two times I had a mystery come out, I wrote something about Switzerland for this blog since that’s where my books are set. In fact, my first guest post for JRW was about Swissness itself and how to define and convey it. Today, however, I want to write about the people who live full-time in my adopted country and are not Swiss.

Different nationalities use different ways to create citizens. A baby acquires Canadian or US citizenship, for example, by being born on those nations’ soil, even if the baby’s parents are not citizens and later leave the country. This form of “birthright” citizenship exists in New World countries settled primarily by immigrants from many nations.

Most European countries—in fact, most countries in the world—think about nationality as a family matter. You are Swiss, for example, if you are born to at least one parent with Swiss nationality. If you aren’t a Swiss “by blood,” you must apply for Swiss citizenship. The process is long, complicated, and expensive, and you need to have lived in the country for at least ten years. Generations of foreigners living and working legally in Switzerland and paying taxes haven’t bothered to become citizens—which means they can’t vote in federal and (with a few exceptions) cantonal and local elections. This is a tragedy.

The US is the country that takes in the largest number of immigrants but by no means the largest percentage: only 15% of its 335 million people are foreign-born. This proportion of foreigners is about the same as it was between 1890 and 1910 when many of our great-grandparents arrived in America. Contrast this US percentage with that of the United Arab Emirates, which hires its workforce from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and is, therefore, 88% foreign. The populations of Australia and New Zealand are each about 30%, and Ireland and Germany, around 20%.

Switzerland has 8.9 million people, and 27% of them are foreign-born. A further Swiss statistic involves a category of residents called “people with a migration background.” This is defined as everyone who is not a citizen of Switzerland, no matter how long they’ve lived here, along with first-generation foreigners who have acquired Swiss citizenship plus citizens with one or both parents born abroad. By this definition, 40% of Switzerland’s residents have a migration background. Most of them are Europeans, the majority from the seven ex-Yugoslavian countries, followed closely by Italy, Germany, Portugal, and France.

My latest mystery, A Fondness for Truth, is the third in the Polizei Bern series featuring detectives Linder and Donatelli. It introduces a set of Swiss residents with a “migration background” who aren’t European: around 50,000 Sri Lankan Tamils. In 1983, fighting broke out in Sri Lanka between the majority Singhalese and the minority Tamil populations, continuing until 2009 and killing at least 100,000 people, including many civilians. During this civil war, Tamils dispersed worldwide, seeking safety, and Switzerland became one of their refuges. 

Fifty-thousand Sri Lankan Tamils are not many, but in a country as white-skinned as Switzerland was in the 1980s, they stood out. Although it’s the nation’s capital, my city of Bern was particularly vanilla-looking. On my first walk through Bern in 1987, I told my Swiss husband-to-be that I’d never been in such a white city—and I didn’t mean the color of the walls.

I don’t know how many insults, how much violence, and what kinds of discrimination those first Tamil asylum seekers experienced in the 1980s, but, like every Swiss, I saw how determinedly they went to work. For over a decade, it seemed as if every restaurant kitchen in Bern was peopled by dark-skinned men mopping floors, washing dishes, and chopping vegetables. Tamil mothers and fathers, many with good educations, went to work at menial jobs, determined that their children—boys and girls—would have better lives. The young Tamil parents who arrived in the 1980s and 1990s are grandparents now; the younger generations speak perfect Bernese German and work at skilled jobs. 

 But although they seem so well integrated, the process of assimilation hasn’t been easy for them, trying to meet their parents’ high expectations and preserve Tamil culture in their homes while yearning for the independence of their Swiss peers. This dilemma is something I examine through the character of Nisha Pragasam, a Swiss Tamil who plays an essential role in A Fondness for Truth.

Like its predecessors, Pesticide and Sons and Brothers, my third book starts with a death and proceeds to my detectives' investigation of it. Into this story of Giuliana and Renzo’s police work, I’ve woven an examination of the struggles to communicate that parents and children of all ages experience. Second-generation immigrants like Nisha, brought up in a country so different from their parents’, have particular cross-cultural problems to overcome—but every family has its roadblocks. The first and possibly hardest step is recognizing them so the dismantling can begin.

Some families in A Fondness for Truth make a good start at it. Others don’t.

 

Andi Eberhart is riding her bicycle home on an icy winter night when she is killed in a hit-and-run. Her devastated partner, Nisha, is convinced the death was no accident. Andi had been receiving homophobic hate mail for several years, and the letters grew uglier after the couple’s baby was born.

As Bern homicide detective Giuliana Linder pieces together the details of Andi and Nisha’s lives, her assistant Renzo Donatelli looks into Andi’s job advising young men who’ve been drafted into Switzerland’s civilian service. Working closely together on the case, Giuliana and Renzo are again tempted to become more than just friendly colleagues. 

As both detectives dig into Andi’s life, one thing becomes clear: Andi’s friends and family may have loved her for her honesty, but her outspoken integrity threatened others, including, perhaps, her killer. 

 

Kim Hays, a citizen of Switzerland and the United States, has made her home in Bern for thirty-six years since marrying her Swiss husband. Before that, she lived in San Juan, Vancouver, Stockholm, Cambridge, MA, and Berkeley, CA. Kim has worked at many jobs, including factory forewoman, lecturer in sociology, and cross-cultural trainer. Pesticide, the first book in her Polizei Bern series featuring detectives Giuliana Linder and Renzo Donatelli, was published by Seventh Street Books in 2022 and was a finalist for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and the Falchion Award for Best Mystery. The second book in the series, Sons and Brothers, came out in 2023, and the third, A Fondness for Truth, in April 2024. William Kent Krueger has called it “an absolutely riveting mystery.”

 

 

Photo of Tamil Temple from the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) site.

Switzerland: Where the Idyllic Created Frankenstein - a guest post byTracee de Hahn

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: How do you make the perfect place into the setting for a murder? Don't ask me - I chose an economically failing town in upstate New York plagued by rotten weather. Who needs the challenge of creating bad deeds in a perfect part of the world?

Tracee de Hahn does. Her debut novel, SWISS VENDETTA, introduces readers to Detective Agnes Lüthi, new to widowhood and to the Violent Crimes Unit in Lausanne. I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing: There are violent crimes in Switzerland? Land of the sweet baby cheeses and wooden clocks? Country of cow-dotted meadows beneath majestic alps? Nation famous for its precision, discretion, and high standards? 

Today, Tracee tells us  about the Switzerland she's come to know and love; the good, the bad, and...we can't say ugly, can we. How about...questionable?

Thanks Reds for inviting me to come and hang out and chat.

We are deep in the heart of winter – a season I love – and I’m enjoying the snow, although I do dream of ‘bigger and better’ snow in Switzerland.

My husband is Swiss and I was fortunate to live there for several years. Was it idyllic? Absolutely. We moved to Lausanne from another European city, which I won’t name – it is farther south and built on water – where things didn’t always work perfectly. In Switzerland, all was perfection, from the views, to the food, to the people on the streets.

Well, maybe not absolutely perfect.

First off, even getting the name right is hard. There are four official languages - French, German, Italian and Romansh - resulting in four informal names for the country: Suisse, Schweiz, Svizzera, and Svizra. The official name is Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (Swiss Confederation in English), although the literal translation is more like ‘the brotherhood of men who stood in a field and swore an oath of eternal cooperation and friendship.’ To cause more confusion, the government chose another name for the international registration code: The Confederatio Helvetica, derived from the Helvetii, one of the local pre-Roman tribes. Masters of compromise, and why you see CH stickers on cars across the country.

At roughly twice the size of New Jersey, Switzerland is a big, diverse village. The natural beauty of the country was ‘discovered’ by the English in the 19th century and worldwide tourism was born. This happened in 1863, which was a good year. The Red Cross was founded in Geneva and Mr. Thomas Cook of Great Britain conducted the first package tour of the country. The Brits climbed the mountains and sailed the lakes, leaving five star hotels and restaurants in their wake.

In addition to its natural beauty, Switzerland is a land of trust. People expect their neighbors to follow the laws. They trust each other to make important national decisions together. Including one memorable vote on whether or not to purchase new fighter planes AND whether or not to disband the carrier pigeon corps. It was yes to both. The US sold them F-16s and the pigeons were put out to pasture, so to speak.

Of course, even in a perfect world not everyone behaves correctly. This often means that when the Swiss are faced with dishonesty or deceit they are alarmingly innocent. Or perhaps they have been turning a blind eye for so long they don’t want to admit it? Their role in World War II? In certain banking practices? Hmmm.

Secrecy is a national pastime. Hidden amongst the mountains and lakes are dozens of deep tunnels created as army bunkers during World War II. Today, many are open to the public as hotels, museums and restaurants, while others store cheese and mushrooms. Most had concealed entrances (fake boulders, castle ruins), but a few were hidden in plain sight, including one bright pink house near the small town of Gland. There, the garage doors open to reveal a cannon and array of machine guns in case the enemy made it over the mountains.

My husband attended boarding school at the Institut La Gruyère and the village and castle of the counts of Gruyère remain a favorite vacation spot. The landscape is bucolic, and at the foot of the hill is the Maison du Gruyère where the famous cheese is created. Cheese is one of the friendly and wholesome associations with Switzerland… until you read about the cheese mafia. Who knew that those fondue parties of the 1970s were the result of a masterplan!

Of course, writers have made their mark with figures ranging from Lord Byron and the Shelleys, to Nietzsche and Rousseau. Byron brought his personal physician with him and the man was inspired to write The Vampyre (progenitor of the romantic vampire novels of today) while, of course, Mary Shelley was inspired to create Frankenstein. All in an idyllic summer setting!

With its beauty and diversity, its history and geography, I’ve always found Switzerland inspiring and wonder what places inspire others? And why? 

JULIA: Fondue the result of Swiss plotting. It all begins to make sense, now. What do you think, dear readers? One lucky commentor will win a copy of SWISS VENDETTA!

 

  

On the eve of the worst blizzard Lausanne has seen in centuries, Inspector Agnes Lüthi is called out to investigate her very first homicide case. On the lawn of Château Vallotton, at the edge of Lac Léman, a young art dealer has been found stabbed to death. Agnes finds it difficult to draw answers out of anyone—the tight-lipped Swiss family living in the château, the servants who have been loyal to the family for generations, the aging World War II survivor who lives in the neighboring mansion, even the American history student studying at the château’s library. As the storm rages on, the roads become impassable, the power goes out and Agnes finds herself trapped in the candlelit halls with all the players of the mystery, out of her depth in her first murder case and still struggling to stay afloat after the death of her husband. 

Find out more about Tracee, SWISS VENDETTA and la vie suisse at her site. You can read more of her writing at her blog, Missdemeanors, discuss books at Goodreads, and follow her on Twitter as @Luthimysteries.

Not an April fools joke, honest.

JAN: When I first heard the chocolate news at a yoga retreat in February, I was just the tiniest bit dismissive. After all, these were the same people who believed that chanting could positively affect my chakras (energies.)

Chanting gave me an enormous headache, but they were right about the chocolate.

Chocolate reduces heart disease. And even better. You have to eat it every day for it to do its job.

It's the flavenols. Found in cocoa, they are a kind of antioxidant that helps release nitric oxide. Apparently, nitric oxide causes the blood vessels to relax and widen and also improves platelet function.

Do I understand what that means? Not really. But here's what one professor of cardiology says.

"Basic science has demonstrated quite convincingly that dark chocolate particularly, with a cocoa content of at least 70%, reduces oxidative stress...",” Frank Ruschitzka,director of heart failure/transplantation at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.

And that's enough for me.

Is it a wee bit suspicious that he comes from Switzerland, home of Lindt and other fine chocolates? Who cares?

As long as I get to eat dark chocolate every day, GUILT FREE, I'm in, hook, line nad sinker.

And if that isn't good enough news, the people at Cooking Light Magazine now says you don't have to remove chicken skin anymore.

I'm willing to accept this on faith since since I never remove chicken skin. It also bugs me when I'm cooking that the skin I marinate or rub with fine herbs might be peeled off and thrown into the trash.

But this month's issue says basically, its not worth the time to remove. You are only saving 2.5 grams of fat and 50 calories. "the long-standing command to strip poultry of its skin before eating doesn't hold up under a nutritional microscope.'

And now, for the most earth shaking change of rules EVER. Listen to this one: Fried food might not be okay, too.

The same Cooking Light article makes the argument that as long as you fry in a healthy oil, such as canola, and heat it sufficiently, the food you fry in it should retain very little fat -- and what it does contain won't hurt you.

I don't have the time to double check the research on any of this, I'm off to get some donuts, fried chicken (skin on) and chocolate. But how about the rest of you out there?? Is this the best week ever, or is this news just too good to be true?

(photo credit: Isabel M. Tirado)