A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
How might a former chancellor of Germany spend her retirement? The series "Miss Merkel" imagines she'd become a small-town amateur sleuth, kind of like "Agatha Christie's Miss Marple." Esme Nicholson investigates.
ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE: In office, Angela Merkel was something of an enigma. Now, in retirement, a fictitious version of her is an open book, or whole series of books, called "Miss Merkel Investigates" - also adapted for TV and currently proving a hit with viewers in Italy.
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NICHOLSON: As the title suggests, it's a whodunit that imagines the former chancellor as an Agatha Christie-style detective who starts solving crimes out of sheer boredom. For want of a G7 or EU summit, she's desperate to put down the garden shears and get back to solving something, anything. This time, it's a village murder. Move over, Miss Marple.
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NICHOLSON: The TV adaptation stars German theater doyenne Katharina Thalbach as Merkel. Like Merkel, Thalbach is 70 and from former East Germany. She says it wasn't too hard to prepare for the role.
KATHARINA THALBACH: (Through interpreter) You could always see the burden of power in Merkel's shoulders, how it weighed on her. So I focused on my shoulders, put on a wig and one of her signature colorful boxy blazers, and I had the feeling I was her, that I am Angela Merkel.
NICHOLSON: Thalbach has met Merkel a number of times but is not sure whether she's a fan of "Miss Merkel."
THALBACH: (Through interpreter) Last time I saw Angela, I tried to figure out whether she's read the books or seen the series. But she definitely dodged the question, saying instead that her office staff are big fans.
NICHOLSON: The series is the work of author David Safier. He says he's also none the wiser as to what Merkel thinks of his retirement plan for her.
DAVID SAFIER: Probably she has read the novels, even though she says she didn't, because to be honest, if there would be a crime novel where you are the hero, wouldn't you at least read the first 10 pages?
NICHOLSON: Safier came up with the idea the day Merkel announced she wouldn't be running for a fifth term. He watched an old rerun of "Columbo" that evening, and the Top 10 Spiegel Bestseller was born.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Tonight, starring Peter Falk as Columbo.
NICHOLSON: Safier says Merkel makes a consummate detective.
SAFIER: Angela Merkel is highly intelligent, much more intelligent than other politicians. She is strongheaded. Also, after 30 years in politics, she's used to deal with sociopaths and psychopaths.
NICHOLSON: And like Miss Marple, Angela Merkel is often underestimated, something she used to her advantage throughout her political career. Thalbach says this particularly baffled alpha male politicians.
THALBACH: (Through interpreter) The real Merkel was brilliant at finding skeletons in the closets of her political rivals but had none of her own, the perfect trait for an ace detective.
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NICHOLSON: Angie nostalgia aside, Safier says his next book sends Miss Merkel to a shrink to deal with all the things that have fallen apart since the real Merkel left office, and move, perhaps, from cozy crime to the more hard-boiled variety.
For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Berlin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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