History Literature / CorpusDelicti

* BigBrotherIsWatching: Constant surveillance of any step the citizens take is absolutely crucial for the Method to work.

* ColdBloodedTorture: Mia gets tortured with electric shocks. She requests Heinrich Kramer to watch in the hopes of a Heel Realization. He is unimpressed.

* DatingServiceDisaster: Moritz goes on a blind date. The woman is not at all like he expects her to be -- she isn't even alive anymore.
* DespairEventHorizon: Moritz crosses it after having to go to prison for a terrible crime he did not commit. Hence his suicide.

* ForcedToWatch: Mia tries to invoke this trope on Kramer when she gets tortured.
* FutureFoodIsArtificial: Real food is a scarcity and seen as NauseaFuel by most people. You usually eat artificial protein or vitamin from tubes.

* HumanPopsicle: The equivalent punishment to execution under the Method.
* ImaginaryFriend: Exaggerated with an Imaginary Lover or Ideal Beloved, Moritz' imaginary girlfriend, who is passed on to Mia.

In the mid-21rst century, Germany is a nice place to live. The streets and everything else is clean, hell, houses that are best at being clean even get awarded with the seal “Guardhouse”. The people are perfectly healthy (well, at least physically) and live long lives - at least usually. Everything overseen by bacteriometers in any regular house, toilets that analyze their users’ urine immediately and microchips injected into every person - and under the guarding eyes of the Method, the system ruling it all.

A nice life – or not?

34-year-old Mia Holl mourns the death of her younger brother Moritz. Moritz was incarcerated for rape-murder, but she is convinced of his innocence. When TV journalist Heinrich Kramer visits her, she finally seems to get a chance to clear his name – only to start questioning the Method more and more. No good idea in a system that claims to be infallible and unquestionably for the good of everyone…

* AnAesop: Several. “It is perfectly fine that life is life-threatening. Do not give up your freedom for security.”, “The body is volatile, but the mind can live on forever.”, or “Never forget caring for your mental health.”, or “Every society system is flawed.”, or “Dictatorship is never good, even if it explicitly wants the wellbeing of the people.”
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: There is nothing known about our immune systems influencing the quality of our relationships. Could be an in-universe example of Science Marches On.
* BetterToDieThanToBeKilled: Moritz’ reasoning behind his suicide, although “being killed” would mean being turned into a Human Popsicle in the setting. For Moritz, this means being kept as a trophy by the regime.

* BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage: Downplayed. There is still a choice for the individual citizen, but everyone can only choose their partners from the people in the “immune groups” deemed fitting to them.

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: The Holl siblings’ parents are only seen in a flashback and seem not to be alive anymore at the time of the main plot. That doesn’t mess with their children’s lives anyway.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Well, Germany seems to be a nice place to live under the Method – clean cities, renewable energy, vibrant culture, eradicated poverty and perfectly healthy people. The truth is that everything comes with a price – society is terribly unfree, surveillance is everywhere, people snitch on each other frequently and even small trespasses against the Method like drinking alcohol once are treated like something close to terrorism.

* DatingServiceDisaster: Moritz goes on a blind date. The woman is not at all like he expects her to be – she isn’t even alive anymore.

* DirtyCoward: Lutz Rosentreter. He first seems to be an ally to Mia because It’s Personal, but after his separation from his immunologically incompatible girlfriend, he shows himself as a Method loyalist.
* DrugsAreBad: The Method’s view, what is the reason why alcohol, cigarettes and even candy are illegal.

* FutureSlang: Heinrich Kramer greets people with “Santé!” instead of any normal greeting.

* GoneHorriblyRight: The Method. Everyone is healthy and everything is clean – but there is a “too clean” for human health, and it is implied that nobody’s immune system is fully intact anymore. So the Method has to stay in place forever to ensure that no epidemic breaks out.

* HollywoodAtheist:
** Heinrich Kramer is atheist, views religion founders and religious people as crazy and believes in the very science-based Method with religious passion.
->- '''Mia Holl''': “I do not believe in God and he does not believe in me.”

* ImaginaryFriend: Exaggerated with an Imaginary Lover. Or “Ideal Beloved”, Moritz’ imaginary girlfriend who is passed on to Mia.
* JesusWasCrazy: Invoked by Heinrich Kramer, who calls him a “bearded masochist”.

* LivingIsMoreThanSurviving: Mia Holl’s crucial revelation.

** Lutz Rosentreter ( the surname translates to “rose stepper”) is in love with a woman he isn’t allowed to love due to incompatible immune systems. In the book, he solves the conflict with the Method by ending his relationship, metaphorically “stepping on the rose”.
** Würmer, Kramer’s spineless, slimy younger colleague (the name translates to “worms” in English).

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Nobody seems to be religious anymore, and religious buildings are only depicted as parts of a museum. Heinrich Kramer even calls Jesus a “bearded masochist”.

* TotalitarianUtilitarian: The Method is a straight example.
** Heinrich Kramer is this as a person.

* DyingAsMyself: Downplayed. Moritz killed himself because he wanted to die in a free-spirited state of mind before he lived as a slave of the Method.

** Heinrich Kramer is atheist, views religion founders and religious people as crazy and believes in the very science-based Method with religious passion.

[[caption-width-right:219:some caption text]]

->- ‘’’Mia Holl’’’: “I do not believe in God and he does not believe in me.”

* Living Is More Than Surviving: Mia Holl’s crucial revelation.
* Meaningful Name:

* NamedAfterSomeoneFamous: Heinrich Kramer has the same name like the author of the infamous “Literature/Malleus maleficarum”. Maria Holl was the name of a real woman that was burnt as a witch under his oversight.

* AccidentalAesop: The book can be read like if it would be wrong for the state or even yourself to care for your health at all.

* FalselyAccused: What is said to have happened to Moritz Holl, especially by himself. It is right.
** Later in the book, Mia is falsely accused of planning a bioterrorist attack.
* FalsifyingEvidence: [[spoiler:Heinrich Kramer plants material into Mia’s apartment to get her convicted for what he believes her opposition to be – bioterrorism.]]