Mexico Street

In Hamburg cars are burning. Set alight at random every night. But one night on the Mexico Ring, a ghetto of office high-rises to the north of the city, a person is still in his Fiat as it starts to blaze: Nouri Saroukhan, the lost son of a Bremen gangster family. Did he regret running away from his family? Had they started the blaze? And why are gangster youths from Bremen turning up dead in Hamburg?

State prosecutor Chastity Riley delves deep into the world of the gang families. Piece by piece, she starts to recognise the tentacles of criminal structures stretching the length and breadth of Germany. And she gains an understanding of Nouri Saroukhan’s story. It is a story of breaking free, but paying the highest price. And it is also a love story: that of Nouri and Aliza, not permitted to be together who tumble into another life that proves no better. Does Aliza know what happened to Nouri on the Mexico Ring?

»With precision and rigour Simone Buchholz describes the brutal ways men dominate daughters and sisters.« Frankfurter Rundschau

» ... the way Simone Buchholz arranges hard-boiled dialogue as if it was just a casual game of table tennis – balls zinging here and there, smashes coming out of nowhere –, this is real literary talent.« Oliver Jungen, DIE ZEIT

» ... ever since her debut novel Simone Buchholz has been creating her own genre, one which you might call ›Hamburg Noir‹. ... Every sentence hits home.« Martin Wolf, LiteraturSpiegel

»An intense book.« Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»Simone Buchholz knows how to read the writing on the wall with a sharp eye.« Kleine Zeitung

»Bottom line: Highly recommended.« radiobremen.de

»In Mexico Street [Buchholz] is in top form.« Buchmarkt.info

»In Mexico Street, the latest book in her series featuring Chastity Riley, public prosecutor from Hamburg, Buchholz shows that she is capable of keeping up the high level of quality of her books. With breathtaking cool. And surprising gentleness.« guenterkeil.wordpress.com

»When sentences crumble like crispbread and a few nicotine-addled, world-weary investigators wax philosophical, it must mean that Chas Riley ... is busy working a new case.« Ostsee-Zeitung

»Chastity Riley’s gaze is so sharp and fierce and, at the same time, caring and affectionate.« Elmar Krekeler, DIE WELT

»Chastity Riley belongs amongst Germany’s most complex crime heroines: a lone wolf, who looks into the abyss of human society.« Brigitte