Planet Literature

Excerpts from Nadja Dietrich’s Novel Murder in the German Parliament! Investigations of a Cleaning Lady

In a six-part series on Planet Literature, we will delve into the dreams of the protagonist of Nadja Dietrich’s novel Murder in the German Parliament! Investigations of a Cleaning Lady.

What a shock for Lidia Afanasyevna! While cleaning the toilets in the German parliament, she finds a dead politician. Who was the man? And why does the news claim that he died in his office? Is there perhaps a cover-up going on?

Curious, Lidia Afanasyevna begins to investigate the circumstances of the death. Not a completely harmless plan! Fortunately, she is not alone: Lutz, a former intelligence officer, the mysterious Leona, a beauty from the red-light district, and last but not least her family give her active support. And not to forget: Alyosha, the man of her dreams …

Lidia Afanasyevna is a very dreamy cleaning lady. Time and again, dreams and reality intermingle in her everyday perception. The postings in the next six weeks will give a few examples of this. The complete novel is available as an ebook.

Our protagonist’s first dream also marks the beginning of the novel: One night, as she falls asleep in front of the television, the evil one takes advantage of her inattention to break into her dreams:

Breakout from the TV

One could certainly not say that this week had started well for Lidia Afanasyevna. Actually, her streak of bad luck had already begun the previous evening, when the mantra of interrogations in a late-night thriller had lulled her to sleep. Promptly, the evildoer had taken advantage of her lack of vigilance to break free from his television cage and invade her snuggery. Now he stood there and, in keeping with his nature, conceived evil.

He was just as black as in the night alley where the good guys had confronted him. Only his eyes shone zombie-like from his dark face. Lidia Afanasyevna wanted to call for help and run away, to seek shelter from this fiend who was polluting the surroundings by his mere presence. But sleep had shackled and gagged her, she could not utter a sound and remained glued to her television armchair.

Insidiously, the evildoer looked around, searching for an object for his sinister intentions. At last he seemed to have found something suitable to satisfy his lust for murder. „Just you wait – I’ll wring your neck,“ Lidia Afanasyevna heard him hiss between his teeth.

Her breath was caught in her throat, but to her relief, the evildoer did not approach her, but walked towards the small fish tank that stood on a chest of drawers in a corner of the room. Before Lidia Afanasyevna could wonder about the fish tank – for she was sure she had never had one –, the evildoer had already grabbed the fish swimming in it by the throat and held a knife to it.

Lidia Afanasyevna wondered: Did fish have throats at all? However, she did not have the chance to consider this question further, because at the same moment she realised that she herself was the fish that the evildoer was about to stab. A hoarse scream escaped from her throat, which sounded horrible enough not only to send the evildoer running, but also to make her jump up from her armchair.

Ebook