There is plenty of high drama in the room where Petra Steps creates her works: she is not only a journalist and publisher, but has also made a name for herself as a detective story writer. Her Vogtland Thriller Literature Days have now become something of a legend.

She does not think much of so-called “water glass reading sessions” – she often finds it boring when an author just sits in front of their audience in a simple room, reads from their book and sips water from a glass. Unusual event sites are the trademark of the Vogtland Thriller Literature Days, which Petra Steps has been organising every year since 2007. Authors read their works at an undertaker’s premises, a waterworks, a salt cave, a dentist’s practice or in castles in the region. About 40 authors and 1500 visitors are involved in the spectacle every year.  

The journalist, who mainly writes articles for the ‘Freie Presse’ newspaper nowadays, discovered detective story writing through her degree course in philosophy in Leipzig in the 1980s.

“I learned to think in a certain way and analyse things. That’s a big help when writing.”

Her work for the Netzschkau Castle Support Association then brought her in contact with detective story writers – and a well-functioning network was created.

“I felt at home in the author and literature scene right from the very beginning and made an effort to attract reading sessions to the Vogtland region,” says Steps; she is one of the founders of the association, which began life in 1998. Since that time, Netzschkau Castle, the old, late Gothic building, has become the scene for many gory literary events.

“Our region is one of my literary focal points too – I’m a Vogtland person through and through.”

As a publisher and author, she has helped organise different publications during the last few years, including “Who Is a Murderer in the Vogtland Region?”, “Crooks, Fiddles, Dumplings – Short Detective Stories from the Vogtland Region” and “A Vogtland Blood-(Bath): 25 Detective Stories”. She has written some of her works with the author, Friederike Schmöe: they present spa treatment towns, including Bad Elster and Bad Brambach, through detective stories in “Murderous and Magnificent Spas”, a criminal tourist guide book.

“Many of her books are not just unusual travel guides,” says Petra Steps, “but a great gift idea too.”