Soren Henning is Chief Inspector in Homicide Division K1 in Kiel. His main area is the investigation of murders and disappearances of children and adolescents. He hates working in the office and compares it to prison. Managers appreciate him for his labour input, but they are rather reserved towards him because he can sometimes be dominant and only reluctantly accept other opinions. Henning often wants to knock his head against a wall – when it comes down to it, though, he keeps his head cool and calmly approaches the case.

He is married and has 2 children (Elizabeth and Mark), he is 1.80 m, slim and has very short light brown hair with read highlight. Striking are his bright blue eyes, reminding of actor Terence Hill, even if he otherwise bears no resemblance to him.

Henning performs his investigations together with his colleague, the aspiring Superintendent Lisa Santos. The spirited Lisa is almost a head shorter than Henning and relies on her intuition and feel, without, however, neglecting her logic.

These two very different characters are, of course, sometimes in disagreement and yet form an excellent team with above-average investigation rates. Perhaps it is these contrasts that make this detective duo so unbeatable.

Invisible Evidence

After the brutal murder of a 17-year-old hitchhiker, evidence leads to the identification and arrest of a suspect. Because of the consistent and tight chain of evidence, he is condemned. He continuously denies to have committed the crime, both during interrogations, and even during the trial. Even while reading, the reader learns that this suspect is not the culprit.

Lisa Santos had doubts about the man’s guilt. Her intuition told her that it was not him. Her head, however, followed the burden of proof. Soren Henning, however, was firmly convinced that he had captured the offender. After the verdict, he admits to Lisa, however, that he has recently been having doubts about the guilt of the man. At this point it was already too late to change anything. A few days after the verdict, the condemned wrote a letter in which he asserts his innocence again and then kills himself.

Soren Henning blames himself for the suicide. His marriage fell to pieces in the upcoming years, which was followed by a separation and a little later by divorce. His two children are living with their mother. He now lives in a small cheap apartment in an anonymous 8-story house in the district Gaarden-Ost. His sparsely furnished apartment is situated in the 7th floor of the decrepit-looking house, the elevators do not work and the caretaker is usually drunk. Henning cannot afford a car - he rides a bike.

After paying the support for his ex-wife and two children, hardly anything remains to live from. He started smoking and changed a lot even professionally. Henning is hardly out from behind the desk and buries itself in the acts. While he used to regard the office as a prison and fled at every opportunity, he now rarely works outside of the office. He is often brusque and dismissive and does not allow anyone to come close to him.

Five years after the first murder, a 19-year-old woman is brutally murdered and her body is found in almost the same spot as back then.

Lisa Santos insists that Henning accompany her, which he reluctantly does. First, he emphasizes that this is a onetime thing and that he would return to his beloved desk very soon. Step by step, however, Lisa succeeds in helping her colleagues escape his self-imposed isolation.

Lisa Santos, Aspiring Superintendent

Lisa Santos is young, has semi-long dark brown hair and large expressive hazel eyes. She has a full mouth and is described as gorgeous. Despite her good looks, she is a highly assertive woman who is experienced in combat and keeps her distance from any crook.

She lives in a small, cosy, two-room apartment in the city of Kiel. Much like Julia Duran (Homicide Frankfurt), she likes to take a hot bath to unwind. She drives a Mini Cooper.

She inherited her temperament from her Spanish father, who lives with her mother in Schleswig and runs a restaurant offering predominantly Spanish specialties. She enjoys working with her parents and sometimes helps out at the restaurant for fun. If time allows it, she drives at least three times a week to Schleswig. Henning succeeds in his sometimes stoically calm way to drive her up the walls and in deep rage.

In the first novel, Invisible Evidence, the two protagonists develop a relationship gradually. After the case is completes (of course successfully), the two go on a trip to Lisa Santos' parents’ house Spain. This relationship will continue in the following novels and forms a small secondary plot.

Other Characters Close to Soren Henning and Lisa Santos

Carmen Santos, Lisa's Older sister

Carmen Santos was raped and beaten by three men at the age of 17, on the way back home from a fun night. Several ribs were broken and she also had several other injuries. One of the attackers had tried to strangle her. Large parts of her brain have died through the long interrupted oxygen supply. She cannot walk and must be fed. Carmen Santos lives in a private nursing home in Schleswig. She sits all day in her wheelchair and looks out the window. Nobody knows whether she notices anything of what is happening around her. The three perpetrators were never caught and it was at that point when her younger sister, Lisa, decided to join the police force.

Volker Harms, Chief Inspector K1

Volker Harms is in his early 50s and is described as a tall and wiry man. His full brown hair is streaked with countless grey threads. The upbeat Harms is married and has 6 children. His desk is supposed to resemble a photo gallery through the lined-up pictures of his family. Volker Harms is described as a tough but fair boss.

Reinhardt, Forensic Pathologist

The relatively small man wears glasses and smokes cigars under the great admiration of his colleagues, who respect him as an expert in his field. He speaks in a grumbling voice in a monotonous way. With appearances as an expert on various forensic shows on television, he has become a sort of media star in recent years. Yet he never seems to laugh.

Jan Freidrichsen, Criminal Psychologist and Case analyst

Friedrichsen has moved with his wife from Hamburg to Laboe, since his wife no longer endured living in the city. He is just 1.70 m and has a quiet and unobtrusive personality. His figure is slender, almost frail, and he has a little beer belly. He has only a few hairs on the back of his head and over the ears. He has wide blue-grey eyes and wears wire-rimmed glasses. Jan Friedrichsen is an excellent analyst who has repeatedly attended further training classes in the United States. Topics of these developments were the creation of psychological profiles and criminal profiling.

Homicide Division Kiel with Soren Hennig and Lisa Santos

Invisible Traces (2006)

Play the Devil (2008)

Icy Close (2010)

Moreover, crime writer Andreas Franz has also written a series on Inspector Peter Brandt of the Offenbach Homicide Division. His first published novel, however, was centred on Inspector Julia Durant from the Frankfurt Homicide Division. In the book The Death Cross, Peter Brandt investigates a murder together with Julia Durant.

Many books by Andreas Franz are also available as audiobooks. Here, the number of Kiel Stephan Benson was read. The first 3 books of the series Offenbacher Tommi Piper has read the book The Death Cross read Johannes Steck. The novels by Julia Durant were read by Julia Fischer or Uta Kromer.

Many of the books by Andreas Franz are also available as audiobooks. The books about Inspector Durant are read by Julia Fischer and Uta Kromer. Stephen Benson read the novels about investigator duo Soren Hennig and Lisa Santos. The first three books about Peter Brandt were read by Tommi Piper. The Death Cross was read by John Steck.