The Collini Case and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Trade in Yours
For a £0.25 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Start reading The Collini Case on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Collini Case [Hardcover]

Ferdinand von Schirach
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.96 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £4.03 (31%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 4 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want delivery by Saturday, 25 May? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £4.99  
Hardcover £8.96  
Paperback £5.99  
Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in The Collini Case for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more

Book Description

13 Sep 2012

From one of Europe's bestselling writers comes a spellbinding and utterly compelling court room drama, which will stay with you for a long time. Ferdinand von Schirach's The Collini Case has been at the top of the German charts since publication and will be loved by all fans of Bernhard Schlink and John le Carré.

A murder. A murderer. No motif.

For thirty-four years Fabrizio Collini has worked diligently for Mercedes Benz. He is a quiet and respectable person until the day he visits one of Berlin's most luxurious hotels and kills an innocent man.

Young attorney Caspar Leinen takes the case. Getting Collini a not-guilty verdict would make his name. But too late he discovers that Collini's victim - an industrialist of some renown - is known to him.

Now Leinen is caught in a professional and personal dilemma. Collini admits the murder but won't say why he did it, forcing Leinen to defend a man who won't put up a defence. And worse, a close friend and relation of the victim insists that he give up the case. His reputation, his career and this friendship are all at risk.

Then he makes a discovery that goes way beyond his own petty concerns and exposes a terrible and deadly truth at the heart of German justice . . .

The Collini Case is a masterful court room drama that will have readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

'A magnificent storyteller' Der Spiegel

'A murder trial full of political explosiveness: thrilling, clever, staggering' Focus

'Terrific' Elle

'Ferdinand von Schirach brilliantly draws you under his spell' Bunte

Ferdinand von Schirach was born in Munich in 1964. Today he works as one of Germany's most prominent defence lawyers in Berlin. His short story collections Crime and Guilt became instant bestsellers in Germany and are translated in over thirty territories.


Frequently Bought Together

The Collini Case + Dominion
Price For Both: £18.96

Buy the selected items together
  • Dominion £10.00

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Michael Joseph (13 Sep 2012)
  • Language: Unknown
  • ISBN-10: 0718159195
  • ISBN-13: 978-0718159191
  • Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 2.7 x 21.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 120,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

A magnificent storyteller (Der Spiegel )

A murder trial full of political explosiveness: thrilling, clever, staggering (Focus )

Terrific (Elle )

Ferdinand von Schirach brilliantly draws you under his spell (Bunte )

About the Author

Ferdinand von Schirach was born in Munich in 1964. Today he works as one of Germany's most prominent defence lawyers in Berlin. His short story collections Crime and Guilt became instant bestsellers in Germany and are translated in over thirty territories.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars a succinct, satisfying read 12 Feb 2013
By bookworm VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Only 164 pages long, this manages to tell a full bodied, tight and well written story. There is no flowery language to distract from the actual plot. The crime is committed, the young, newly qualified,defence lawyer is called on to take the case, the case is played out in the courtroom and behind the scenes to deliver the background to the crime and the outcome is delivered. An excellent read.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Disapponting. 25 Jan 2013
By S. J. Williams TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
The most interesting aspect of this very brief novel is the courtroom revelation towards the end where we learn of a bizarre amendment to the laws relating to the statute of limitations in Germany. However, the central plot, the Collini case itself, is, for me, pretty predictable. Given the novel's brevity and the positioning of the 'revelation', it fails to have the disturbing force which I imagine the author intended. 'Gosh, isn't that terrible?' is so quickly followed by closing the book that I feel it really diminishes the impact.

The author, at least in this translation, seems to lack the admittedly rare skill of creating interesting and believable characters within a short structure, so they don't linger in the mind (mine at least), to leave the reader dwelling on the denouement. It all smacks of being 'a novel making a point', a point which I would think is far more suited to a newspaper article. As far as this being a variant on the theme of characters with a secret Nazi past, that is done so much better elsewhere in novels which provoke the emotional involvement of the reader and therefore lead to a much more interesting perception of the complex issue of guilt, culpability etc amongst those 'just obeying orders'.

As a thriller it is OK, but nothing beyond that, for this reader at least: as a book with an interesting point to make, it fails to give it the weight and focus that it deserves.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A model of story telling! 6 Jan 2013
By  TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This is either a very good book or a very good translation! The prose is beautiful and the story well told. Given that the accused is guilty even according to his own admission, I had no trouble guessing where the back story was going, but that just didn't matter.

The story is pretty short and is maybe a day's reading, but is so gripping, as you study a young lawyer struggling with his first case, a seemingly unwinnable one. This is nothing like Grisham. It runs with the story from beginning to end without getting bogged down in loads of details.

The volume is attractive, with an almost monochrome jacket. My Vine copy was printed onto the hardback directly, making it even more appealing, but the shop ones have a plain cloth cover under the jacket, disappointingly. Publishers need to think harder about making printed books more attractive if they are to halt the advance of eBooks.

I must now read Crime and Guilt.
Was this review helpful to you?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Short but good
More of a novella than anything else, but probably better in this format - well written and gripping, even if you realise early on where the story is going. Read more
Published 3 days ago by George Rodger
4.0 out of 5 stars Gets straight to the point.
This book was great for me as books often leave my attention lagging. The Collini Case gets straight to the point, and follows the main story through to the end effortlessly. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Cleopatra
5.0 out of 5 stars Strangely Addictive
The Collini Case is quite a short novel at 164 pages and while the book was quite dry at times those 164 pages did hold my interest. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dave
5.0 out of 5 stars Short but good
Caspar Leinen, a newky qualified defence lawyer, takes the case of Fabrizio Collini; a quiet, industrious, respectable middle-aged man, Collini walks into a hotel room and kills a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Old Hen
3.0 out of 5 stars Too short no septh
I was expecting a much deeper darker novel looking at Germany's conscience. Here it just floated over the whole episode. Why was the law re-written, on whose advice ? Read more
Published 1 month ago by Peter Michael Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars Short, but good.
I was attracted to this by the name Von Shirach. I couldn't think why, but I knew I'd heard the name before. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Graeme Stewart
4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Study
'The Collini Case' comes in at a very light ~160 pages, which is both a good and a bad thing. Telling of the trial of a retired citizen, who's never broken the law until he... Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. R. Aldridge
4.0 out of 5 stars Tense court room drama.
An open & shut case?

Following a clinical murder of an elderly man with unrestrained brutality and violence, the perpetrator calmly rings the Police, sits down and waits... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Richard Latham
3.0 out of 5 stars The Collini Case by Ferdindnad von Schirach - a very predictable tale
Well, it ticks one of the nation's favourite boxes 'Nazis', but if it were not for the author's grandfather's name it would not have attracted much attention. Read more
Published 4 months ago by tabali
4.0 out of 5 stars Decent read
Good storyline and a decent read, however, slightly predictable. One of those I couldn't put down and read in a few days.
Published 4 months ago by Custard
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges