Hotel Cartagena

Chastity Riley #9
Suhrkamp | Insel
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda), France (L’Atalante), Denmark (Dreamlitt), Finland (Huippu)


Hotel Cartagena / Hotel Cartagena
Chastity Riley #9

Cartels, Coke and Caribbean

The new novel from the winner of the German Crime Fiction Prize 2019

CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger 2022 (UK)

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...

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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

»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,...
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2019, 228 pages
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Persons

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. She studied philosophy and literature and trained to be a journalist. She started writing in 2008 and her Chastity Riley series has won numerous awards. She lives in Hamburg.

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. She studied philosophy and literature and trained to be a journalist. She started writing in 2008 and...


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Swedish Bitters
Year of Publication: 2025
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2025
Wilhelmsburg in Hamburg – a »problem area«. An American couple is found dead. They had been the last tenants of an old villa. Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her team take on the case and quickly run up against some brick walls. Dodgy real estate investors, the city planning office – one big impenetrable swamp. And then there’s the cough Chastity’s been trying to shake for weeks. But there’s...
This Side of Heaven
Year of Publication: 2024
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2024
After their plane nearly goes down as they prepare to land, eight people eventually make it to their destination on a Mediterranean island. An idyllic paradise with gorgeous bays, boatloads of sun, picturesque architecture, and bars and cafés on every corner. It should be the perfect holiday, but something seems off. The scenery looks washed out, and the locals are strangely absent, as if they...
Only the Others are Immortal
Year of Publication: 2022
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2022

Tarik and two other men disappear without a trace on the MS Rjúkandi, a ferry on the North Atlantic. Two women, Iva and Tarik’s partner Marlin, set out to find their missing friends – and board the ship to Iceland firmly convinced that they will soon be home again. But in the first days onboard, they begin to notice strange things and a weird atmosphere: The crew is...

River Clyde
Year of Publication: 2021
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2021

State prosecutor Chastity Riley runs off to Glasgow. Because, for one, there is that letter, written by a lawyer, that lures her to the birthplace of her great-great-grandfather. And secondly, her...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda), France (L’Atalante), Denmark (Dreamlitt), Finland (Huippu)

Mexico Street
Year of Publication: 2018
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2018

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...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda), France (L'Atalante), Denmark (Dreamlitt), Finland (Huippu)

Beton Rouge
Year of Publication: 2017
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2017

Chastity Riley is chasing a madman. Or at least that’s what it seems like. Because who else would lock high-ranking executives in a cage in the middle of Hamburg? And so Chastity...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda), France (L'Atalante), Italy (Emons), Denmark (Dreamlitt), Finland (Huippu)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Hörbuch Hamburg)

Blue Night
Year of Publication: 2016
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2016

»Just for the record: This is an extremely strange night. And strange nights are always a harbinger.«

Due to an unfortunate incident where she convicted a...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda), France (L'Atalante), Italy (Emons), Denmark (Dreamlitt), Finnland (Huippu), Turkey (Altın Kitaplar)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Hörbuch Hamburg)

Vigilantes
Year of Publication: 2010
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2010

Summer in Hamburg, it’s far too hot, but Sankt Pauli is glowing – when suddenly, a few extra feet are found floating in the Elbe. Men’s feet, to be precise, and there’s not...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda)

Revolver Heart
Year of Publication: 2008
Simone BuchholzYear of Publication: 2008
Hamburg, a foggy March, dead strippers lie next to the the Elbe. Who is responsible for the young women’s deaths? Why were they scalped? What's with the wigs? State prosecutor Chastity...
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Orenda)

 


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We are delighted to present to you our latest arrivals!