Bamberger Reiter. Ein Frankenkrimi (2012)

After his mother’s death, Chief Inspector Peter Haller returns to Bamberg. Before he can really get started sorting out his mother’s estate, he has to solve his first case: a Western rider has been killed. Jana Prager, a psychology student at the University of Bamberg, had been out riding alone. When her horse suddenly shied, she fell onto a harrow lying by the side of the path and bled to death. Evidence collected at the scene points to a thin rope stretched between two trees. There are also hoofprints from a second horse, suggesting that the death was intentional. Haller looks around the riding stable and finds, alongside the victim’s horse, a second horse that had been ridden recently. He collects soil samples from its hooves and has them examined. The results show that this horse must also have been near the scene. Haller’s colleague, Detective Inspector Birgit Sacher, who transferred from Würzburg to Bamberg with him, finds a lead pointing to Professor Eberlein. The victim was his student, and he also owns the second horse that must have been at the scene. Eberlein, however, says he last saw Jana Prager four days ago and claims he had not been with his horse. The stable hand, Georg, takes care of exercising the animal when needed. To find out more about the riding stable, Birgit Sacher signs up there as a riding student. On her very first day, she witnesses an argument between the stable’s operator, Stefan Breu, and the professor, who is taking his horse away from the premises. Further inquiries establish that Breu was having an affair with Jana Prager. Haller discovers that Eva, a bookseller who had befriended him two days earlier, is the actual owner of the riding stable. She had leased it to Tessi and Stefan Breu and had also helped them financially out of friendship. Haller had noticed for some time that Eva was very possessive toward other people, including the Breus. The student’s intrusion into her “little kingdom” felt like a threat to her, and she had particularly pressured Tessi Breu to do something about it. Haller goes with Eva to the ranch, where his colleague Sacher has just managed to secure evidence from the Breus’ autistic son. He had taken the rope that was stretched between the trees in order to protect his mother. Tessi Breu, a down-to-earth and warm-hearted woman who sacrifices herself for her family and had always insisted she was not jealous, now confesses. Unfortunately, Haller cannot prove that Eva had previously coerced her in her own particular way.