German police have launched a murder investigation after a bestselling novelist was found dead on her houseboat in Hamburg.

Relatives found Alexandra Fröhlich deceased aboard her houseboat located in the Moorfleet district of the German city, as confirmed by a statement from Hamburg Police shared with CNN.

“Following the discovery of a 58-year-old woman dead on her houseboat in Hamburg’s Moorfleet district on Tuesday morning, the police and public prosecutor’s office suspect a homicide and are seeking public assistance for information,” the statement declared.

According to the statement, Fröhlich’s family initially alerted the fire department upon discovering her lifeless body, leading to subsequent notification of the police.

“As the cause of death was unclear and outside influence could not be ruled out, officers from the homicide squad took over the investigation at the scene in close coordination with the public prosecutor’s office,” the statement said, adding that police divers had been deployed at the scene.

Examination of the scene and evidence has led police to assume that “the woman died as a result of violence”.

The police called on potential witnesses to contact them with any information they might have about the ongoing investigation.

Fröhlich was a freelance magazine editor, as well as a novelist. She started her career as a journalist, founding a women’s magazine in Kyiv, according to German publisher Knaur, which published her first novel.

According to Penguin, which published her recent books, her novels “My Russian Mother-in-Law and Other Catastrophes” and “There’s Always Someone Dying” were Spiegel bestsellers.