HORRIFIC CRIME

Bestselling Novelist, 58, Shot Dead on Houseboat

Officials said that her body was discovered by her son.

Bestselling German novelist Alexandra Fröhlich, 58, was shot dead on her houseboat Tuesday. Local authorities said that the author was attacked in her houseboat on the Holzhafen bank of the Elbe River in Hamburg early Tuesday morning. “After evaluating traces and evidence, the investigating authorities now believe that the woman died as a result of violence,” a police spokesperson told local media. Police said that Fröhlich, a mother-of-three, was discovered by her son. She originally started out as a journalist in Ukraine and founded a women’s magazine in Kyiv. Her career as a novelist began in 2012 when she released her bestselling debut novel My Russian Mother-in-Law and Other Catastrophes, which she said was based on her experience being married to a Russian. She then published another successful novel in 2016 titled Death is a Certainty, as well as Skeletons in the Closet in 2019. Authorities are still looking for witnesses who might have seen any suspicious activity around the houseboat. Local media also reported that divers were deployed in the river, presumably to find the murder weapon. The police have not yet announced any suspects.