Hotel Cartagena

A chilly hotel bar in the Port of Hamburg. Down on the docks, the lights are shimmering, above the tables are rather sparsely occupied. Suddenly the doors open, twelve heavily armed men hijack the bar, take patrons and staff hostage. Right in the middle of it all: Chastity Riley, who had actually been bracing herself for a painful reunion with old friends, but now she and all the other hostages have to learn that there are injuries that just can’t be repaired…

St. Pauli, Hamburg’s red-light district, in the 1980s. A young man wants out. He gets on a ship to Colombia and learns what happens if you party with the wrong people on the beach of Cartagena. The raging party is followed by hell. At first, it’s big drug business, then betrayal, escape, going to ground. Later still: the chance for revenge. The man, no longer all that young, decides to take it.

And so, St. Pauli is rocked by a spectacular hostage situation. The police are on the outside and seem to be condemned to the role of spectators while state prosecutor Chastity Riley is forced to activate her inner John McClane.

»Simone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-ish 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

»[A] nerve-racking narrative … [with] a cunning climax that is shocking and deeply romantic« The Times

»Compared to the Riley novels, many popular detective stories seem yawn-inducing.« Miina Supinen, Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)

»Simone Buchholz stokes up the storm above St. Pauli with virtuosic narrative instruments. Razor-sharp dialogues, psychological studies thrown down in precise strokes, breath-taking scenes, and on top of that the merciless combination of irony and melancholia […] plus a certain amount of craziness – this is what the author knows how to do as skilfully as hard anyone else.« Alexander Cammann, DIE ZEIT

»Visor down, high above St. Pauli. Simone Buchholz puts The Count of Monte Cristo, Die Hard, drugs and state prosecutor Chastity Riles into a blender. High-octane. Incredible. Knocks you off your feet.« Die Literarische Welt

»No one rivals Riley when it comes to repartee, to close dialogue combat, she is the coolest arm of the law north of Frankfurt, but beneath all the coolness her heart always shines through.« Sylvia Staude, Frankfurter Rundschau

»Simone Buchholz’ Chastity-Riley-books are like drugs: You need more and more of them, faster and faster. But [unlike drugs] they make you happy permanently and are thus very healthy [...]« DIE WELT am Sonntag

»With wonderful dry humour, Simone Buchholz writes about her heroine Chastity Riley and the consequences of the cocain consumption within Hamburg’s high society.« freundin

»It’s about true love, lousy traitors and two men too many in this homage to Die Hard, dense, fast-paced, wonderfully told.« Brigitte

Praise for the Chastity Riley series:

»Modern noir, with taut storytelling, a hard-bitten heroine, and underlying melancholy peppered with wry humour […] there’s a fizz, a poetry and a sense of coolness« New Zealand Listener

»The coolest character in crime fiction […] Darkly funny and written with a huge heart« Big Issue

»Fierce enough to stab the heart« Spectator

»A stylish, whip-smart thriller« Herald Scotland

»Combines slick storytelling with substance […] like a straight shot of top-shelf liquor: smooth yet fiery, packing a punch with no extraneous ingredients watering things down« Mystery Scene

»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

»With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation« Maxim Jakubowski

»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« NB 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 [...]« Goethe Institute

»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

»Great sparkling energy, humour and stylistic verve and the story itself is gripping and pacey« Rosie Goldsmith

»A must-read, stylish and highly original take on the detective novel, written with great skill and popping with great characters« Judith O’Reilly

»Constantly surprising an original, firecracker of a read« LoveReading

»[...] 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