Chastity Riley #04: Hotel Cartagena

- Blurb -

Chastity Riley and her friends are held hostage in a hotel bar by twelve armed men set on revenge, in a searing, breathtakingly original new thriller from the ' Queen of Krimi' . ' Simone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-is sense of time and space . . . a palpable hit' Independent' Reading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers . . . a truly unique voice in crime fiction' Graeme Macrae Burnet' If Philip Marlowe and Bernie Gunther had a literary love child, it might just explain Chastity Riley - Simone Buchholz' s tough, acerbic, utterly engaging central character' William Ryan_______________Twenty floors above the shimmering lights of the Hamburg docks, Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley is celebrating a birthday with friends in a hotel bar when twelve heavily armed men pull out guns, and take everyone hostage. Among the hostages is Konrad Hoogsmart, the hotel owner, who is being targeted by a young man whose life - and family - have been destroyed by Hoogsmart' s actions. With the police looking on from outside - their colleagues' lives at stake - and Chastity on the inside, increasingly ill from an unexpected case of sepsis, the stage is set for a dramatic confrontation . . . and a devastating outcome for the team . . . all live streamed in a terrifying bid for revenge. Crackling with energy and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Hotel Cartagena is a searing, relevant thriller that will leave you breathless. _______________Praise for the Chastity Riley series' Caustic, incisive prose. A street-smart, gutsy heroine. A timely and staggeringly stylish thriller' Will Carver' With plenty of dry humour and a good old dash of despair, Simone Buchholz is an unconventional, refreshing new voice' Crime Fiction Lover' Lyrical and pithy' Sunday Times ' With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation' Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time' There is a fantastic pace to the story which keeps you hooked from the first sentence all the way to the end . . . a unique voice that delivers a stylish story' New Books Magazine' A smart and witty book that shines a probing spotlight on society' CultureFly' Fans of Brookmyre could do worse than checking out Simone Buchholz, a star of the German crime lit scene who has been deftly translated into English by Rachel Ward' Goethe Institute' Stripped back in style and deadpan in voice . . . a scintillating romp around the German criminal underworld and back' Doug Johnstone, Big Issue' By turns lyrical and pithy, this adventure set in the melting pot of contemporary Hamburg has a plot and a sensibility that both owe something to mind-altering substances. Lots of fun' Sunday Times' Disgraced state prosecutor Chastity Riley chases round the dive bars of the port city pursuing and being pursued by a beguiling cast of cops, criminals and chums, delivering scalding one-liners as she goes' The Times' Great sparkling energy, humour and stylistic verve . . . and the story itself is gripping and pacey' Rosie Goldsmith, European Literature Network' A must-read, stylish and highly original take on the detective novel, written with great skill and popping with great characters' Judith O' Reilly, author of Killing State' Constantly surprising . . . an original, firecracker of a read' LoveReading