A long hot summer, a serial killer and enemies at every turn – this is ‘Marnow Murders’

By a benign lakeside in Germany, a murderer lurks then pounces. As secrets unravel, the investigating duo also come under threat in this thrilling crime drama.

Detectives Lona Mendt and Frank Elling in ‘Marnow Murders’. Source: NDR/Polyphon/Philipp Sichler

At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly remarkable about the lakeside German city of Schwerin. Or the upmarket community of Leonhagen. Other than that the residents of both are sweltering through the hottest summer in living memory. But, as German crime drama Marnow Murders reminds us, it’s often the most unassuming places that have the biggest secrets to hide.

When suspected child molester Alexander Beck is discovered dead in his dingy flat, local detectives Frank Elling (Sascha A Gersak) and Lona Mendt (Petra Schmidt-Schaller), along with their young colleague, Sören Jasper (Anton Rubtsov), are first on scene.

Petra Schmidt-Schaller as Detective Lona Mendt in ‘Marnow Murders’. Source: NDR/Polyphon/Philipp Sichler

The three waste no time gathering whatever information they can about the victim, and by anyone’s standards, they get off to a flying start: 61 years old, unemployed, former citizen of the GDR. It all seems fairly run-of-the-mill for Elling and Mendt, though there’s nothing like a heatwave to add an extra layer of sensory overload to a corpse that’s quite literally been hanging around for days.

This team know better than most to expect the unexpected, but as they take a closer look at the victim’s past, a connection to the East German secret police and an unexplained trip to a campground in nearby Marnow are two pieces of information that could be something or nothing. Safe to say, this discovery spells the end of a clear-cut investigation, and the question of who would want such a man dead suddenly becomes one with many potential answers. Maybe the better question is, who wouldn’t?

Mendt (Petra Schmidt-Schaller) and local police in their makeshift office. Source: NDR/Polyphon/Philipp Sichler

Before they have a chance to make much headway in shortlisting suspects, a second body turns up, this time on the grounds of a retirement home in Leonhagen, as far from the world of Beck’s apartment as they could have imagined. Another slit-throat homicide isn’t something that anyone wants, least of all Elling and Mendt, especially when it now appears that the killer they are searching for doesn’t have a type.

It’s hardly an easy summer for Detective Frank Elling (Sascha A Gersak). Source: NDR/Polyphon/Philipp Sichler

Eighty-six-year-old affluent retirees like Dreyer don’t usually attract the same hostility as the Becks of the world, but the more the duo try to find a connection between the victims of these brutal homicides, the more they realise that no one in this case is exactly who they appear to be.

“Beck and Dreyer,” Mendt remarks. “Different ages. One is rich, one is poor. One in Leonhagen, one in Schwerin.”

“There are no parallels, besides the identical method of killing,” Elling replies.

“And maybe the motive.”

One thing is certain: all roads seem to be leading them back to the sleepy lakeside town of Marnow, deep in the former GDR, and a long-forgotten and hushed up pharmacological scandal, that it turns out not everyone has left in the past.

As if the case wasn’t proving complicated enough, Elling and Mendt have their own complexities to contend with. Between bribery, affairs and questionable ethics, the pair might be on their way to unravelling the secrets that are fuelling the series of murders but, in doing so, they have made themselves some fairly dangerous enemies who will do everything in their power to keep the truth from coming to light. And there are certain truths that Elling and Mendt would rather keep under wraps themselves.

Mendt (Petra Schmidt-Schaller). Source: NDR/Polyphon/Philipp Sichler

As the number of victims continues to grow, so too does the toll the investigation takes on the personal lives of all those involved in bringing the killer to justice. Despite their differences, Elling and Mendt must have each other’s backs or risk losing their reputations. Or even their lives.

At every opportunity, Marnow Murders takes a part of the crime drama formula and goes one better. The troubled detective persona that usually carries the genre benefits from the interplay between the equally flawed Elling and Mendt, the often nameless victims of such crimes are fully fleshed out characters, and a perfectly balanced and multidimensional plot will keep you hooked from beginning to end.

Two seasons of Marnow Murders are now streaming at SBS On Demand.