Once Upon a Crime

In which we meet 18th century Bavaria's finest private detective Gretel (yes, that Gretel!) who is now 35, very large, living with her brother Hans, and working as a private investigator. The sleepy town of Gesternstadt is shaken to its pretty foundations when the workshop of the local cart-maker is burnt to the ground, and a body discovered in the ashes. Gretel notices the cadaver is missing a finger, but dismisses it, as she is fully focussed on a search for three missing cats for a well-paying client. Soon Greta realises that the three-missing-cats mystery is inextricably linked to the workshop-arson-cadaver mystery, which leads her into perilous situations and frightening company. She finds herself accused of kidnapping Princess Charlotte, locked up in the cells at the Summer Schloss, repelling the advances of an amorous troll, strapped to a rack in Herr Schmerz's torture chamber, and fleeing a murder charge. With dubious help from her drink-addled brother Hans, she must prove her innocence, solve the puzzle of the unidentified corpse and find the stolen cats before they meet a grisly end.