Katja L. Pauli’s debut novel, Intrigues à la Carte (Spletke à la carte), published in 2023, was reprinted after just two months and attracted media attention and positive responses. Its sequel, Deceptions à la Carte (Prevare à la carte), published in March 2025, once again offers a socially critical crime narrative, at times tinged with romance and humour.
The novel takes readers into a world of intrigue, revenge and the worship of material possessions on the one hand, and a longing for genuine values on the other. A very contemporary question concerning relationships and manipulation also remains at the forefront: it matters whom we associate with, and it matters even more if we have shared a bed with a sociopath and incurred his resentment through our actions.
A year after Vanesa’s murder, Nathalie is still tormented by the question: who is the real murderer?
Was the murder committed by someone from the group with whom she had planned the financial ruin of her ex-husband Jörg and his long-time mistress Vanesa? Jörg was convicted of Vanesa’s murder, although he was with Nathalie at the time of the murder. But she refuses to give him an alibi. The threats he made that evening lead her to believe that she and her son will only be safe if Jörg remains behind bars.
The story leads from the streets of Vienna to the Slovenian Karst, villages in Kosovo and the shores of the Adriatic Sea, gradually revealing an old truth: whoever seeks revenge should dig two graves.
Deceptions à la Carte is a crime novel about how far the consequences of a single lie can reach – and how difficult it is to break off a relationship with someone who has built his power on manipulation.
Responses to the Novel
“It is still rare for an author to succeed in combining such a convincing romance with a good murder mystery that continues to unravel right up to the end.”
Sonja Javornik, journalist and lecturer
“The story is dramatically impressive and irresistibly compelling … There are few books this interesting in our country.”
Andreja Jernejčič, MA, expert in public relations and public speaking
“The novel masterfully intertwines a suspenseful narrative, surprising twists and social issues. Katja L. Pauli’s new novel once again impresses with its multifaceted characters, sharp dialogue and profound insights that go beyond the boundaries of the classic crime novel.”
Ajda Vodlan
Marketing Magazin: Crime Fiction and Engaged Social Criticism
In the BereMMo section, editor Simona Kruhar Gaberšček presented Deceptions à la Carte.
She emphasised that Katja L. Pauli continues along her established literary path – a combination of a suspenseful crime plot and engaged social criticism.
What distinguishes the author is that she does not separate the crime plot from the social environment in which it arises. Behind the murder and revenge, questions emerge concerning power, financial dependence, emotional manipulation and the possibility of a woman regaining control over her life after the breakdown of a destructive relationship.
Marketing Magazin describes the novel’s style as readable and fluid, noting that the author knows how to maintain the pace and the reader’s interest.
Read the BereMMo article in Marketing Magazin
Metropolitan: “A True Literary Discovery”
Following the publication of the novel, Metropolitan also published an extensive article about it.
The article includes responses from readers and an interview with the author. Andreja Jernejčič describes the novel as:
“A true literary discovery that draws us into a whirlwind of unusual and masterfully interwoven plot twists.”
Ajda Vodlan particularly highlights the combination of a suspenseful story, surprising twists and social issues, as well as the complexity of the characters and the sharp dialogue.
The article also draws attention to one of the author’s central themes: women’s right to set boundaries, to personal and financial independence, and to make decisions that are not subordinated to the expectations of those around them.
Read the article about Deceptions à la Carte in Metropolitan
Interview: “Women Should Find It Easier to Say No and Courageously Stand by Their Yes”
Following the publication of Deceptions à la Carte, a longer interview with Katja L. Pauli was also published in Jantarna lastovka.
In it, the author discusses writing crime novels, women in relationships with manipulative men, financial independence, setting boundaries and the social criticism she weaves into her genre fiction.
Her thought is clear:
“Women should find it easier to say no and courageously stand by their yes.”
For Pauli, crime fiction is not merely a game of finding the murderer. It is also a way of using a suspenseful story to address everyday power relations – in partnerships, families, workplaces and society.
Read the interview with Katja L. Pauli in Jantarna lastovka
Love, Prejudice and Old Grudges
An excerpt from the novel was also published in Jantarna lastovka, revealing another important narrative thread in the book: the story of Fadil and Emilija.
Fadil is a Kosovo Albanian and a Muslim, while Emilija is an Austrian woman with Serbian and Croatian family roots. Their love story raises questions of prejudice, national identities and the legacy of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
In this way, the novel moves beyond classic crime fiction. Murder and revenge intertwine with the question of whether the second generation of immigrants is capable of living beyond the hostilities and historical resentments inherited from previous generations.
The excerpt also reveals the significance of the Kanun and blood revenge, which become important for understanding the crime plot itself.
Read an excerpt from Deceptions à la Carte in Jantarna lastovka
The New Novel Also Raises the Issue of Child Maintenance
Deceptions à la Carte also addresses very concrete social issues.
These include child maintenance payments, lengthy divorce proceedings, economic inequality between partners and women’s financial independence.
The author compares different social and legal systems and uses the crime plot as a framework for questions that often remain hidden behind the closed doors of families and intimate relationships.
Read the article about the novel’s social issues
Readers: Suspenseful to the Last Page
Readers’ responses also particularly highlight the plot twists, dialogue and fast pace of the narrative.
One of the shortest responses says practically everything:
“I read it in one sitting. Waiting for the sequel!”
Deceptions à la Carte on Goodreads
From Vienna to the Karst, Kosovo and the Adriatic
One of the distinctive features of Deceptions à la Carte is its geographical openness.
Vienna remains the central setting of the author’s crime trilogy, but the second instalment extends the story towards Kosovo, the Slovenian Karst and the Adriatic. The different locations are not merely backdrops: each brings its own social relations, memories, prejudices and historical burdens.
Katja L. Pauli combines crime fiction, psychological narrative, romance and the social novel. She is interested in people caught between the desire for revenge and the possibility of a new beginning, between material success and personal dignity, between inherited hatred and love.
At the forefront, however, remains Nathalie – a woman who must discover whether it is truly possible to escape a man who has shaped her world for years.
Deceptions à la Carte deals with crime, but even more with its long-lasting echo: with what remains after deception, when the doors close, the marriage ends and the danger seems to have passed.
