Hotel Cartagena

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.\r\n\r\nSimone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-is sense of time and space ... a palpable hit Independent\r\n\r\nReading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers ... a truly unique voice in crime fiction Graeme Macrae Burnet\r\n\r\nIf Philip Marlowe and Bernie Gunther had a literary love child, it might just explain Chastity Riley - Simone Buchholzs tough, acerbic, utterly engaging central character William Ryan\r\n\r\n_______________\r\n\r\nTwenty 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 Hoogsmarts actions.\r\n\r\nWith 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.\r\n\r\nCrackling with energy and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Hotel Cartagena is a searing, relevant thriller that will leave you breathless.\r\n\r\n_______________\r\n\r\nPraise for the Chastity Riley series\r\n\r\nCaustic, incisive prose. A street-smart, gutsy heroine. A timely and staggeringly stylish thriller Will Carver\r\n\r\nWith plenty of dry humour and a good old dash of despair, Simone Buchholz is an unconventional, refreshing new voice Crime Fiction Lover\r\n\r\nLyrical and pithy Sunday Times \r\n\r\nWith brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time\r\n\r\nThere 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\r\n\r\nA smart and witty book that shines a probing spotlight on society CultureFly\r\n\r\nFans 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\r\n\r\nStripped back in style and deadpan in voice ... a scintillating romp around the German criminal underworld and back Doug Johnstone, Big Issue\r\n\r\nBy 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\r\n\r\nDisgraced 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\r\n\r\nGreat sparkling energy, humour and stylistic verve ... and the story itself is gripping and pacey Rosie Goldsmith, European Literature Network\r\n\r\nA must-read, stylish and highly original take on the detective novel, written with great skill and popping with great characters Judith OReilly, author of Killing State\r\n\r\nConstantly surprising ... an original, firecracker of a read LoveReading