The snowman

International Noir Fiction is a blog that includes reviews and ideas on crime novels mostly from outside the U.S. In this post about German Noir the author reviews a Malta located novel called The Snowman:

Bitter Lemon Press, who publish Black Ice, has also recently published a couple of other apparently classic German noir novels, one of which I liked and the other not so much. The Snowman, by Jörg Fauser, is an on-the-lam-from-drug-dealers tale of a down-and-out German emigre who is eking out a living in Malta by selling old Danish porn magazines, but suddently finds himself in the possession of a large quantity of the best cocaine in the world. Fauser's novel is a road movie of violence and the underworld, very graphic, funny, and enjoyable...

More on the The Snowman from Barbara Nadel's Shotsmag review:

I have a confession to make: I am a sucker for losers. Men obsessed by dreams, men down on their luck and a tad melancholy, men who smoke and drink to excess - men very much like Seigfried Blum the 'hero' of this remarkable book. Although a German citizen by birth, Blum is just as much at his ease, or not, in a seedy hotel in Malta or a brothel in Holland as he is in Munich or Frankfurt. A not very successful wheeler dealer, Blum has, over the years, peddled antiques, pornography and various other odd commodities around the globe.

Always on the edge, legally, he was once arrested in Istanbul but managed to evade conviction on that occasion. However, by the time he arrives in Malta, at the beginning of 'The Snowman', he is very down on his luck indeed. He can't shift any copies of the Danish pornography magazines he's been carrying around for ages, he's been asked to leave Malta by the local police and he is just about to hit forty. It is at this point however, that he comes into possession of five pounds of cocaine...

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