The brain queen

I like intelligent crime fiction. Unfortunately, there isn't much of that genre available in German. So when I came across an interview with Thea Dorn, I decided to read one of her stories. I went for Die Hirnkönigin, and I do not regret it. The story is just a little bit splatter, as it's about a classically educated female serial killer who is driven to free good men's brains from their bodily confines (literally). It feels a bit like CSI. The most amazing parts, however, are where she goes for the kill, regularly quoting directly & by heart from the Greek, preferably from the battle scenes in Homer's bloodthirsty Iliad. The pulse of the language and the build up of tension are almost classical, and they compensate for some thinness in the overall structure. It's recommendable, but just. I enjoyed it, but I do not feel compelled to read any other of Dorn's books.