František Šmehlík
František Šmehlík (b. 1995) is a native of Ostrava. He dedicated his formative years to sports, mainly judo, in which he is a three-time national champion. He is now finishing his Czech Language and Literature studies in Olomouc. A lifelong lover of books, his favorite authors include Milan Kundera, Bohumil Hrabal and Ladislav Fuks. His crime novel debut Hear the Stags Singing draws readers with a well-developed plot and a unique ability to capture the complicated social bonds in a small community, where anyone could be the murderer. The Beast (2022) is a first story of a tree-part series with the chief investigator Laura Ara.
WINNER OF THE GREATEST LITERARY PRIZE IN CZECHIA (2023)
Hear the Stags Singing
May 2021, 328 pages
Available material: English summary
Rights sold to: Poland (Afera)
A murder in the mountains, a village full of secrets
In a remote village in the Beskydy Mountains, a young girl’s mutilated body is discovered. The brutality points to a deranged predator, but as the investigation unfolds, something even more disturbing emerges. Ostrava homicide chief Miroslav Lada and his team explore the village’s hidden undercurrents: drugs, resentment, and long-buried trauma. Suspects include a failed musician, a reclusive goatherd, and a man whose son may have witnessed more than he understands. Driven by their own personal demons as much as by duty, the investigators must stop the killer before they strike again.
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