A murder inquiry has been launched after a bestselling German novelist was found dead on a houseboat in Hamburg having been violently attacked, police have said.
Alexandra Fröhlich, 58, whose novels have had prominence on Germany’s bestseller lists, was found on Tuesday morning, investigating authorities said.
The case was quickly passed to the murder squad amid evidence she had been attacked. Authorities have refused to give more details other than saying forensic evidence had been gathered and a coroner’s report submitted.
According to the local broadcaster NDR, citing police sources, Fröhlich was shot. Investigators have issued an appeal for potential witnesses who may have observed suspicious activity on or around the long cerise houseboat in which Fröhlich resided, on the Holzhafen bank of the River Elbe in the eastern Moorfleet district.
Her son discovered her body on Tuesday morning, according to police, who believe she died between midnight and 5.30am.
“According to current information, relatives found the 58-year-old woman lifeless on her houseboat and alerted the fire brigade, who were only able to confirm the woman’s death,” a police spokesperson told local media. “After evaluating traces and evidence, the investigating authorities now believe that the woman died as a result of violence.”
The spokesperson said investigators were looking into possible suspects and whether the killer may have been known to Fröhlich. “Given the ongoing investigation, no further information can be provided at this time,” he said.
Media reported that divers were at the scene of the crime, amid speculation that the weapon could have been thrown into the Elbe.
Fröhlich started out as a journalist, initially in Ukraine where she founded a women’s magazine in Kyiv. She later worked as a freelance journalist in Germany for women’s and other magazines such as Stern, before turning her hand to writing novels.
In 2012 she published her debut novel, My Russian Mother-in-Law and other Catastrophes, which she said was based on her own experience of being married to a Russian. It entered the bestseller list of Der Spiegel magazine, one of the closest-observed indicators of fiction and nonfiction sales in Germany, where it remained for several months. It was subsequently translated into French. A critic at the time described it as “a hilarious west-east satire”.
In 2016 she published the crime novel Death is a Certainty, which was similarly successful, and in 2019 she followed this with Skeletons in the Closet. Both were published by Penguin. Her novels were characterised by a mix of humour, family tales and social topics.