Strict order prevails at one of Vienna's waste collection centers, until one day a human knee is found in the bulky waste tub. Other body parts soon turn up, all of which have been thrown in incorrectly, contrary to the rules of the waste collection center and much to the dismay of the refuse collectors. Only the heart of the dismembered corpse is missing. The criminal investigation department is at a loss. Fortunately, there is an ex-colleague among the refuse collectors who finds the missing heart and has never forgotten what has to be considered when murdering someone. And so Simon Brenner is not only in a new case, but also up to his neck in trouble.

The crime stories about the oddball private detective Simon Brenner have long been cult: they are thrilling, quirky, very clever, and extremely funny. Published in eight volumes since 1996, the Brenner thrillers have won several awards and been successfully filmed for the cinema with Josef Hader in the leading role. At the festival, bestselling Austrian author Wolf Haas (born 1960) will present his latest Brenner crime novel Müll (garbage) which has been number one on the SPIEGEL bestseller list for weeks.