The author is available for readings. "Cold-Blooded Murder of a US-American in West Berlin" is a crime case surrounding the spectacular collapse of the Congress Hall in 1980. This new Kappe crime novel by the successful author Bettina Kerwien tells the story of Charles M. Cramer, a German-born US-American found dead near Bellevue Palace in October 1980. He had been brutally beaten to death, and particularly gruesome was the fact that Cramer's right hand was cut off, later discovered on the bank of the Spiegelteich in front of the Congress Hall, which collapsed in May of the same year.

Detective Inspector Peter Kappe and Detective Inspector Wolf Landsberger, assigned to the case, soon wonder whether the perpetrator placed the severed hand there by chance or intended to send a message. Cramer had been involved in the construction of the Congress Hall in 1957 as a civil engineer. The collapse of the southern outer roof of the building, referred to by Berliners as the "pregnant oyster," was attributed to inadequate construction planning and resulted in the death of an editor from the radio station Sender Freies Berlin. Did Cramer's murderer seek revenge for the journalist's death? Kappe and Landsberger are inclined to believe this theory.

However, the investigation proves challenging, especially with interference from the Allied Command and the commander of the US troops in Berlin. The case becomes even more perplexing when the autopsy reveals that a significant amount of time elapsed between the amputation of Cramer's hand and his murder. Are there possibly two different perpetrators involved? Kappe and Landsberger remain in the dark until they uncover why Cramer left Berlin 25 years ago and emigrated to the United States. Bettina Kerwien has crafted a fast-paced crime novel centered around the dramatic collapse of the Berlin Congress Hall, a symbol of German-American friendship during the Cold War.