Excerpts from Reviews A 2005 GCLS Debut Author Finalist, Ursula Steck has crafted a sinister medical thriller in the tradition of Robin Cook with The Next World. (...) Steck generates multiple sub-plots within the story with an easy and clear writing style and without extraneous details. She expertly ties together everything as the book closes. The author uses medical facts to add a realistic and chilling aspect to The Next World so when we finally get to the shocking truth, we are stunned. The Next World is a disturbing and unsettling book that questions medical ethics within a spine-tingling story. It is a must read for anyone who loves pure mystery. (amazon.com, K. Isserman) With her pronounced sense for emotional layers, Ursula Steck reinvents many of the crime genre's conventions. (…) Smoldering suspense underlies her story. WDR (biggest German public broadcasting company) Ursula Steck's novel pleasantly stands out from the wide field of stories drafted on the drawing board. Engaged, emotional and sensitive, she leads the reader into the most detestable abyss. Hellweger Anzeiger An extremely promising crime novel debut. Saarbrücker Zeitung I hope very much that Ursula Steck will continue to write crime novels. Her protagonist is a woman with engaging thoughts, the story is very suspenseful and the author has developed her very own writing style. I strongly recommend this book to fans of intelligent mystery novels. Us Women Ursula Steck creates a universe on 333 pages. (…) She keeps a thrilling balance between hard boiled and fragility. EMMA (biggest German feminist magazine) In a State of Flux develops into an exciting murder hunt with a full fleshed protagonist and a lot of atmosphere. Book-Recommendation: TV-Movie (big German TV guide) A very well written crime novel with fullfleshed characters which deals sensitively with a difficult topic without becoming filthy or sensationalistic. INFO Bücherbar One of the rare cases, where the second book is a good as the first one. After In a State of Flux we are now also absolutely thrilled by Fire Signals (which is not easy to achieve with us). Good story with multiple twisted threads a great portion of humour – for us everything here is just right. We are already looking forward to the next book by Ursula Steck. INFO Bücherbar Again its all about women's power. But Ursula Steck's heroines do not resemble Hollywood's revenge angels, instead she convinces us with character portraits beyond role and gender cliches.(…) Her views into Cologne's scenes, into lifelines and states of mind are this time shorter without losing any of the atmospheric intensity. And for everything else there is the thrilling and twisted plot. WDR (biggest German public broadcasting company) The book is always authentic and thrilling to read. 20 min Köln I liked her second book so much, that I bought her first one right away. Rosige Zeiten, (Gay and Lesbian Magazine) Again the author takes us on an intense and exciting murder-hunt with a lot of atmosphere. Harburger Anzeiger und Nachrichten