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Recently, some contemporary media feel particularly catered to Generation Z \u2014 as in, for our low attention spans<\/a> and addictions to short-form media. \u201cMurder Mindfully\u201d by Karsten Dusse \u2014 written originally in German and recently translated<\/a> into English by Florian Duijsens \u2014 is one of these pieces of media. There is a fine line between guiding your reader and overstating your point, and this book leaned heavily on the latter, creating a story that was too easy to read.<\/p>\n \u201cMurder Mindfully\u201d centers around criminal defense lawyer Bj\u00f6rn Diemel as he tries to get his life together for his wife and young daughter. His marriage and mental state are in a shaky place due to his highly stressful job, made worse by the fact that he legally represents crime kingpin Dragan Sergowicz and his empire. In an attempt to improve both his personal and professional life, he starts seeing a therapist, who offers him several mindfulness tips that he takes to heart \u2014 though maybe too much so.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every chapter starts with an excerpt from a fictional <\/strong>book written by Bj\u00f6rn\u2019s therapist: \u201cMindfulness for Managers.\u201d The excerpts talk about strategies for living a more mindful life, each one focused on a different aspect of life that Bj\u00f6rn struggles with. These excerpts were fine in isolation, but Dusse often repeats them word-for-word in subsequent chapters alongside Bj\u00f6rn\u2019s internal reflections. This double-dipping of quotes quickly becomes predictable and weakens their effectiveness. It became easy to stop reading them at the start of chapters, knowing they\u2019d make an appearance later on.<\/p>\n Dusse\u2019s chapters were \u2014 in general \u2014 extremely short, often beginning with a two-paragraph summary of what happened in the chapter before. While it was partially helpful to have\u00a0reminders of the sometimes confusing plot, it also felt like Dusse was trying to hold the reader\u2019s hand. Summarizing wasn\u2019t limited to the start of chapters either, and it tended to overpower the action. Important character-building scenes, such as Bj\u00f6rn spending time with his family, were dismissed by being written as summary. As a result, it was difficult to care about his relationship with his daughter and wife to the extent the narrative demands.<\/p>\n