Der Beobachter by Charlotte Link has been translated into Maltese by Alfred Scalpello.  The 2011 thriller starts with the identical brutal murder of two old women who live alone. The police find it hard to apprehend the culprit since there is no apparent connection between the two victims.

Sometime later a man is murdered. The family of this third victim had been under the constant watch of an unemployed, somewhat shy young man - Samson Segal. Samson is a lonely young man who is unable to form loving relationships with women. Instead he spends his time observing and documenting the daily routines of complete strangers - especially women. The police therefore believe that he is a most likely suspect for the murders.

 Charlotte Link was born on 5 October 1963 in Frankfurt am Main and resides in Wiesbaden. She is one of the most famous contemporary authors and the daughter of the famous German writer and journalist, Almuth Link.

She wrote her first novel Die schöne Helena when she was sixteen and published it at the age of nineteen. She is well known for her books on contemporary life as well as for her many popular psychological thrillers. Most of them, including Der Beobachter (In-Nemmies/The Watcher), were adapted for television and were transmitted by the German television station, ZDF. Others immediately topped the list of best sellers in the yearly list published by the German magazine Der Spiegel. In 2007 Charlotte Link was awarded the Golden Pen.