IMMER ETWAS (It’s always something…)

Friday, August 1, 2025

This is the first entry for the Jonathan Burke blog. I’ll use it to post longer answers to questions or to fill in the details of life as a debut author. The blog title is taken from the book. “Immer etwas” is the beginning of statement regularly uttered by Hildie during Jonathan’s childhood when she encountered a new problem. As an adult, he often had reason to repeat it to himself.

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

The question I am asked frequently by friends and readers is whether I have based the site of the kills on places that I have visited. The answer is often--Barcelona, Lyon, Monte Carlo, St. Paul de Vence, Washington DC. The Gstaad kill is based on a trip to Zermatt in the Swiss alps, site of the Matterhorn. I haven’t traveled to Asia, but Florida’s climate in the summer is much like southeast Asia—very, very hot and very humid with “feels like” temperatures of 100 degrees plus for many days in a row. So, I did not exaggerate Jonathan’s experience in the jungle kill.

The setting for the Barcelona kill was discovered on a walk after lunch at El Nacional restaurant just a couple of blocks off the Ramba. My wife and I were ended up strolling down a short street of shops which dead-ended at the restaurant of a boutique hotel. Above the outdoor tables, we could see the windows of hotel rooms. Directly above the tables was a room with open curtains. A huge man, dressed stylishly in a suit and tie, was drinking a glass of wine as he looked out down the street. We were surprised not just by his size, but the fact that he was so formally dressed with siesta hours approaching. I’m not sure why the image stayed with me, but now—years later—it struck me as the locale for one of Jonathan’s carefully engineered kills. I’ll try to visit other kill sites in future posts.