Hen Hermanns was born on 04.02.1953 in Dusseldorf. His zodiac sign is Aquarius, and he even calls the Zodiac cynic. After several aborted trainings and professions, he completed training as a copywriter and worked for many years as a creative director in various advertising agencies.

In 1992 he wrote his first mystery novel, Ciao Tao, in which Max Reinartz plays the lead role, a copywriter who is shot and later worked as a private investigator. His second thriller Max Perplex was also written and published in 1992. The novel Max Perplex was nominated for the ZDF Literature Prize.

He then gave up his career in advertising, stated, however, very quickly that he could not live solely from writing books. He subsequently translated books, including those by Kinky Friedman, Peter Tasker and Susan Geason.

After a discussion with the film producer George Althammer, Hen Hermann began writing screenplays for television movies and series. Among others, he wrote several episodes of the series Soko 5113, Soko Leipzig and A Case for Two.

After many screenplays, the focus of his work today is to write scripts for TV thrillers.

The West German newspaper wrote about Hen Hermanns private investigator in Cologne, Max Reinartz, in 1993 under "Max Reinartz Cologne's answer to Philip Marlowe."

Other Characters

Hartmut Knodt, Restaurant Owner and Real Estate Agent

Hartmut Knodt is a skilled auto mechanic and has interrupted his studies in sociology, psychology and architecture. He then focused on the purchase and sale of Citroens 2CV and founded an alternative city newspaper. It is rumoured that Knodt researched a story for this newspaper, and received a lot of money for it not to get published. It did not take long until Knodt moved into a luxurious 200sqm large old building and began driving a new Jaguar instead of his old VW bus. Today, Hartmut Knodt owns the restaurant "Basil", a restaurant promoting nouvelle cuisine, but with dishes based on wheat, and also deals with real estate trade.

Alwine, Girlfriend

Alwine met Max at a party. She is an actress at the beginning of her career, which is why she also works as a waitress. She bears a resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, though Alwine is slimmer, and wears horn-rimmed glasses. Her looks, her manner and her smoky voice drive Max Reinartz crazy. Alwine lives in an apartment in Cologne’s Marienviertel. Her bed offers the best view over St. Mary's Church.

Novels about Investigator Max Reinartz

• Ciao Tao
• Max Perplex
• Maximum Trouble
• Max Times 3 (the three Max Reinartz stories in one volume)