Read time: 4 minutes
🎧 Listened in audio | 📢 Narrated by L.J. Ganser
⏱ Duration: 14 hours
🏷️ Publisher: SoHo Crime | ARC provided by NetGalley
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Book Blurb:
Criminal defense lawyer Björn Diemel is handed an ultimatum: fix his work-life balance or lose his wife and daughter. He reluctantly signs up for a mindfulness course — and is genuinely transformed. Calmer. Happier. More focused. Deeply present. But when his most dangerous client, crime boss Dragan Sergowicz, starts threatening the family time Björn has fought so hard to protect, Björn discovers his newfound inner peace has a rather unorthodox outlet. Turns out, mindfulness is an excellent framework for murder. Darkly comic and wickedly smart, this is Headspace meets Dexter, and it absolutely slaps.
Let’s talk … murder!!!
I want to paint you a picture: 30+ hours of flight delays. Lost baggage. Airport limbo. The kind of travel day that makes you question every life choices, including the one where you said yes to the connecting flight. And through every single chaotic minute of it, Björn Diemel had me cackling. Karsten Dusse did not just save my sanity on that trip, he elevated it, which fittingly, is very on-brand for a book about mindfulness.
Björn Diemel is a defense lawyer so deep in mob entanglement that his moral compass doesn’t just spin, it’s completely detached from its housing. And yet, through the lens of his therapy sessions with mindfulness counselor Joschka Brietner, he becomes genuinely thoughtful, present, and self-aware about everything except the murders. The mindfulness lessons at the start of each chapters, I’m not joking when I say, are legitimately applicable to real life. How does this man write a satirical crime romp that also doubles as a functional self-help guide? I don’t know or need to know, but only need the rest of the series RIGHT NOW!!
What fun!
I should mention, I actually read Book 2 first because NetGalley approved it before this one landed in my queue. Going into Murder Mindfully already knowing I loved this world, and I was prepared to enjoy this one too. What I wasn’t prepared for was loving Book 1 more. The origin story hits differently when you know where Björn ends up, The dark comedy is sharper here, the stakes feel fresher, and watching him justify his first foray into crime with the serenity of a man who has just discovered breathe work is chef’s kiss.
The translation by Florian Duijsens deserves its own round of applause. The dry wit and comedic timing land perfectly in English. The narration by L. J. Ganser adds another layer to the beauty of this book. His dry, deadpan delivery perfectly matches Dusse’s humor Imagine Breaking Bad meets Headspace, but make it cozy. That’s this audiobook. This book was a German bestseller before it was anything else, and to think English readers almost missed it entirely? Absolutely criminal. (Björn would agree, and then he’d do something about it, very calmly.)
Would I recommend it?
If you’ve been sleeping on this one, wake up, caffeinate, and add this to your TBR immediately. Murder Mindfully is the kind of book you’ll want to shout about from rooftops while also texting your group chat the funniest quotes at midnight. It’s dark, it’s deliriously funny, it’s oddly instructive about mindfulness, and it features one of the most unhinged protagonist I’ve ever had the pleasure of spending 14 hours with. This series is a gift to the reading world, and I will be at MOTIVE in Toronto in June, making absolutely no attempt to be cool when I meet Karsten Dusse.
5 “Read Next” Recommendations:
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles — Not a crime novel, but it shares that same delicious quality of a man creating an entire rich world within impossible constraints, with tremendous style. If you loved Björn’s calm-amidst-chaos, this is your next read.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - The Long Drop by Denise Mina — Dark, darkly funny, deeply psychological. If you’re drawn to crime fiction that makes you question your own moral compass alongside the narrator’s, Mina delivers.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix — Different genre, same comedic-horror energy. Outrageous situations, deeply human stakes, laugh-out-loud moments that somehow also gut-punch you. Perfect tonal cousin.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy - Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc — The OG charming criminal who operates with gleeful moral flexibility. If you love a protagonist who does terrible things with tremendous flair, Lupin is your classic read.
Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy
Breathe In, Body Count Out: Your Thoughts?
Have you discovered Murder Mindfully yet, or are you still blissfully unaware of the chaos you’re missing? And honestly, which mindfulness lesson do you think would be most useful in your daily life? (Asking for a friend. The friend is Björn.) Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let’s talk dark comedy, unlikely self-help, and the surprisingly therapeutic nature of a good crime novel.
Book Links:
Want to purchase Murder Mindfully or any of your favourite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing through the sites below — they work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your orders. #SupportLocal
🇨🇦 Indiebookstores.ca 🌎 Bookshop.org
Track it, rate it, find your next read: Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | OpenLibrary | Litsy
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