Wolf Haas Books In Order

Publication Order of Brenner Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Wolf Haas is a well known Austrian writer who is widely popular for writing the crime fiction novels. He is also famous for doing the characterization of the famous protagonist Simon Brenner. Among the crime fiction novels written by author Haas, 3 have been made into movies. He has also many prizes and prestigious awards for his excellent works, including the highest German award for fiction novels. Author Haas was born on December 14, 1960 in Maria Alm am Steinernen Meer, which comes under the Austrian province of the state of Salzburg in Germany. After completing his graduation from the university, Haas began working in an advertising agency as a copywriter. Simultaneously, he used to work on the stories of his novels. Eventually, Haas went on to write a total of 7 detective stories between the years 1996 and 2003. Six of his first seven detective novels featured the character of Simon Brenner as the main protagonist.

Theses novels went on to become extremely successful and helped author Wolf Haas to win the German award for crime fiction for a total of 3 times in his career, specifically in the years 1997, 1999, and 2000. The names of the movies which were adapted from the novels of author Haas are Life Eternal, Silentium, and The Bone Man. In the year 1970, he joined a Catholic private school in Salzburg. After completing his school education, Haas went on to join the Salzburg University and initially studied psychology and then Linguistics and German Studies. Between the years 1988 and 1990, Haas worked as a lecturer in a college in South Wales. After going back to Austria, he began working as a junior copywriter for a number of advertising agencies in Vienna. Many of the successful crime novels written by Haas as based on laconic wit, satirical criticism and tension. Haas says that he shares a special relationship with his editor Wolfram Hammerling, who has supervised the thriller series of the year 1995 at the Rowohlt publishing house. In the adapted movies Come, Sweet Death and Silentium, Haas has written the screenplay along with the actor Josef Hader and the director Murnberger. Haas also acted in those movies in tiny supporting roles. His collaboration with Josef Hader and Murnberger continued in the films Eternal Life and The Bone Man, which were also adapted from his novels.

The Brenner novel series written by author Wolf Haas consists of a total of 8 novels published between the years 1996 and 2008. The first novel of the series was published under the title ‘Resurrection of the Dead’. It was released by the Rowohlt publishing house in the year 1996. The plot of the novel is set in Austria and features the main protagonist, Simon Brenner. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, a well known ski resort is depicted, comprising an area of around three thousand meters and including a dam and a glacier. It is the time of Christmas at the resort and just before the day of Christmas arrives, a couple of dead bodies are discovered from the resort. After the initial investigation, it is found that the victims were an old American couple. The first suspicion of the murder of the American couple goes to the character named Andretter. An investigation team is formed to do the thorough investigation of the murder case, no clue is found about the real killer. Simon Brenner is introduced into the case as CID officer. After some days in the case, he resigns from his post as a CID officer because of department politics. But, he continues to work on the case as a private investigator. At one point of time when Simon use to work for the German police, he was involved in a shootout. He knew very well who was behind all of it, but could not do anything because of his high connections.

In spite of being an outsider, he knew very much about the local people around him. But being not able to work freely made him feel life he was trapped. Soon, Simon Brenner finds out that the nephew of Andretter named Lorenz was the witness of the American old couple at the ski resort. He begins to protect Lorenz from the killer, who seemed pretty much determined to kill Lorenz. The author says that the novel, Resurrection of the Dead cannot just be read, but heard as it gives exciting and thrilling account of a criminal case involving the local mafia of Austria and the efforts of the police to catch them. The readers also agreed that by reading the crime fiction novel, it felt as it someone was sitting in front of them and narrating the whole plot of the novel. The novel also provided an account of the life in the small town of Austria, an over ambitious journalist, and the overall criminal set up a crime fiction novel. It went on to become extremely successful and helped author Wolf Haas to establish himself as a noteworthy author of the crime fiction genre. His unique style of characterization and the description of the plot of the novel was very much liked by the readers all over the world. Even the critics and the fellow authors praised the efforts of author Haas and appreciated the novel. This gave a lot of motivation to author Haas and encourage him to more crime fiction novels in his successful writing career.

The second novel of the Brenner series written by author Haas was published under the title ‘The Bone Man’. It was released by the Rowohlt publishing house in the year 1997. The plot of this novel continues to feature the main protagonist Simon Brenner. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, it is depicted that the guests of the gigantic hotel in Austria have developed a craving for the fried chicken that is served in the hotel. Soon, a dead body is discovered from the huge pile of chicken waste in the garbage. This causes a lot of tension among the hotel staff and eventually, private investigator Simon Haas is called to carry out the investigation and find the real killer. This novel was adapted into a film with the same name. Actor Josef Hader was cast to play the role of the male lead Simon Brenner, whereas actor Jose Bierbichler was chosen to play the role of a secondary character. The movie was directed by the famous director named Murberger and the screenplay was written by author Wolf Haas, who also had a a tiny supporting role to play.