His Time to Die

An enthralling, powerful thriller out of the gleaming world of Kitzbühel.

The Streif in Kitzbühel: the most dangerous downhill ski race in the world, a hell-trip on naked ice. The city in an annual emergency: all eyes on the Hahnenkamm, on this glittering snow world and the final straight. It’s a breath-taking day, perfect alpine weather, and the mood couldn’t be more festive.
Until suddenly a child disappears on the slope – and this doesn’t fit the picture. It certainly doesn’t fit the storybook direction of the organizers, of the locals, and of the crowd. What happened? An accident? A kidnapping? Abuse? A family drama? A twisted joke? The search begins. But the disappearing boy isn’t the only thing to disturb the party, the politics, and the prominent personalities. On top of it all, a snowstorm descends from the bright sky above and sweeps away all illusions, all lies; it dusts up yesterday’s snowfall and blows in death.

In his rapid-paced new novel, which comes out of the cold and lands in your heart, Albert Ostermaier tells of a race with time and death that threatens, like an avalanche, to bury everything.

A glittering social novel and a perspicacious snapshot of our times, in the snow.