Read in 2025 - 24: Life Sentence

Life Sentence

A. K. Turner

Another paperback I found at the second-hand book sale at the church in town centre and took home for 2 €, it went on holiday with me and provided really good reading during some rainy afternoons and evenings at the hotel, before and after dinner.

It is the second book in a series about Cassie Raven, a young woman who works as a mortuary technician and takes her job seriously to the point of conducting her own under-the-radar investigation when she doubts the verdict on someone's cause of death.

Not having read the 1st book doesn't really matter; there are occasional references to it, but the story and characters can be understood very well without it.

In this book, the main case is not related to one of her "guests" (that's what Cassie calls the dead people she has to prepare for identification or viewing by their loved ones as well as for autopsies and funerals) at the mortuary, but about her own family.

She lost both her parents in a car accident when she was only four years old, and was raised by her maternal grandmother. Recently, her grandmother has suffered a stroke, and while it wasn't life threatening, it has left the elderly woman with the wish to come clear about what really happened when Cassie was four: Her father murdered her mother.

Now, 17 years later, he is out of prison and makes contact, claiming that he didn't do it.

Cassie is torn between wanting to believe him - it wouldn't change the fact that her Mum was murdered, but it would bring her Dad back, whom she remembers as loving, gentle and funny - and doubting his story. After all, her grandmother tells her that she suspected domestic violence and alcoholism in her daughter's marriage, and that she wasn't surprised when her son-in-law was convicted of the murder.

Nobody seems to be interested or willing to pick up the old case, and so Cassie sets out on her own to find the truth, ruffling more than one set of feathers along the way. 

At the same time, she handles several cases at work, finding clues to a different cause of death than what was first assumed, which in turn creates problems with her boss who is annoyed at her acting "above her station".

I really liked this book. Some detail can seem a bit gory, but nothing is unnecessarily drawn out, and it all serves the story's purpose. The overall impression of Cassie and her work is her very respectful dealing with each dead person and their loved ones, and I like the way she does not treat death as a taboo - it is all around us, after all, and shutting ourselves completely off it doesn't change that, it only makes it harder to accept this fact of life.

According to the book's first page, the author works also as a TV producer and writer of documentaries, and her character Cassie Raven was first introduced in two short stories on BBC Radio 4. Her website with more about her and her books is here.

September Holiday: Thursday, 25.09.2025

Our last day here was again chilly at a max of only 10 C and as rainy as the previous day.

Morning view from our room

Nonetheless, we started on another one of the walks suggested in the booklet we'd picked up at the tourist information, this time a short one of only about 2 hours. Of course, the time it took us to get from the hotel in Kues across the river to where the walk starts in Bernkastel added another half hour or so each way, and the chance to take some more photos on our last day.

It was obvious that a lot of rain had made the river's level rise.

The vineyards directly rising behind the houses of Bernkastel are called "Doctorberg", doctor's vineyard. There is a legend behind it, and for convenience, I have taken a photo of one of the information boards along the way that gives a short summary:

If you think steep slopes, think really steep - almost a sheer drop, and I truly wonder how the people who work those vineyards do it! Where do they even place their feet?! It's not possible to work there with machines, everything needs to be done by hand. No wonder this is one of the most expensive wine terroirs in the world!

We walked on as the rain changed from a slight drizzle to proper rain, but of course we were well equipped. 

Another mysterious gate leading to an abandoned garden.

Still, it was nice to reach the end of the walk and spend some time in a shop selling sparkling wine; we were able to taste three different ones and then made our purchase.

By that time, we were as good as dry, and at around 4:00 pm we were back at the hotel, having our customary quiet time before changing for our last dinner here.

The next morning after breakfast, we said good-bye, paid the bill and were on the road at 10:00 am; three hours later, O.K. pulled up in front of my house.

Unpacking and loading the washing machine was soon done, and then we walked into town for an errand, followed by an espresso at our favourite Italian coffee bar.

For the evening, we met my Mum and my sister at the Italian restaurant within easy walking distance from my Mum's. After a nice welcome-home meal, we went back to Mum's for a drink and chat before calling it a day.

September Holiday: Wednesday, 24.09.2025

At a max of 10 C and nearly constant rain, it was the perfect day to visit a museum, and we knew just which one we wanted to see: The Zylinderhaus, a cars and motors museum right here in Kues, about half an hour‘s walk away. (Clicking on the link takes you to the museum‘s website, also in English.)

Morning view from our room

Of course we were not the only holidaymakers who had that idea, but the museum is large enough and well organised to cope with a good number of people.

Now, most of you know that I am not a car person at all, and so you may wonder what my interest in that particular museum was. Well, it is about much more than cars and motorbikes; it is also about our recent past and how the availability of individual transport changed our society and culture forever. Last but not least, it is also about some of the people who made it all happen.

My favourite part of the museum was the ground floor. There, a whole row of shops is set up like a high street in a small town where you can walk past a clothes shop, apothecary, village shop, café, toy shop, kiosk with magazines and cigarettes, post office and more. Each and every one of those shops is lovingly put together, with wallpaper, lamps, doors and windows to match, and everything is original, down to the last detail. In short, it‘s like time travel, and although I wasn‘t around yet in the 1950s or earlier, I still saw lots of things I remember from my childhood and youth in the 70s and 80s.

Bleyle was a producer of knitware and other close just down the road from where I live!

My sister and I played with a miniature shop, too; ours was handmade by our granddad for his children when they were little, i.e. my Mum and my late uncle.

Our grandparents had an orange telephone, too, but without the German eagle!

And besides not being into cars, I do appreciate the style and design of classic cars and motor bikes. The ones presented on the two upper floors were all in excellent condition, some of them so rare that according to the information provided, they are the last known of their kind still existing.

Some come with personal stories of their owners and the journeys they undertook in that car. It was all well done and really interesting.

That would be my car!

I well remember police cars looking like that.

Before leaving, we browsed the shop but didn‘t buy anything. 

Back at the hotel, we had coffee in our room and then spent the rest of the afternoon resting and reading. For a change of scene, we didn‘t eat at the hotel but went to the restaurant about 10 minutes from the hotel, where we‘d been on Sunday evening.

September Holiday: Tuesday, 23.09.2025

The weather was similar to the day before, and we knew there was likely to be some rain during the day but not so much as to make a good walk unpleasant.

Sunrise as seen from our room

From our trusted booklet, we chose a tour by the name Burg-Olymp-Tour, castle Olymp tour. Now, if you read that name, wouldn‘t you think the tour was going to include a castle (or maybe its ruins) named Olymp? Especially if the photo next to the description showed two hikers leaning against the sun-lit old wall of a stone tower?

Well, it turned out that there is no Burg Olymp. Instead, the tour went past the castle on the hill we‘d already visited, and the viewing point at the highest part of the tour, up in the woods, is called Olymp.

Never mind, we still enjoyed the hike in the woods and the beautiful vistas, and needed our rain jackets with the hoods up only for maybe 15 minutes at one time and for another short while later on.

Burg Landshut, where we‘d already been

A mysterious gate

First stop was the chapel of St. Anna, directly in our line of vision from the hotel room. 

Onwards and upwards to the viewing point Wilhelmshöhe:

And again onwards and upwards to Olymp, where I did not take yet another picture of almost exactly the same view.

The path leading downwards was rather steep and required full focus, but I stopped twice to take these pictures:

Back down in Bernkastel, we went to a bakery to buy a couple of Nussecken (think a kind of flapjack) and on our way to the hotel, stopped briefly at a historic wine cellar that offers tastings (for 30 € per person) but can be visited for free as long as you don‘t drink anything. 

We were impressed by the vastness of the old cellar, like a burrow underneath a former monastery, but mostly wanted inspiration as to which wines we might buy to take home as a souvenir. 

Leaving without actually making a choice, we arrived at the hotel at about 3:00 pm and enjoyed a rest in our room, making coffee to go along with the Nussecken.

For our dinner (very good again), we remained at the hotel.