The Chastity Riley series
About this ebook
Award-winning German noir – an addictive, breathtakingly original detective series. State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her team investigate a series of dark crimes in Hamburg. From mafia networks and kidnappings to arson attacks and hostage situations, chain-smoking Chastity is drawn into some of the city's most dangerous cases.
'[A] nerve-racking narrative ... [with] a cunning climax that is shocking and deeply romantic' The Times
'Fierce enough to stab the heart' Spectator
'A stylish, whip-smart thriller' Herald Scotland
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Blue Night (Book 1)
Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley has been side-lined to prevent her from causing trouble, but her new job turns out to be far from dull when she finds herself involved in taking down an Albanian mafia kingpin. First in an addictive, wildly original series from the Queen of Krimi...
Beton Rouge (Book 2)
Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her new sidekick Ivo investigate the case of newspaper executives who have been caged and tortured outside their offices ... on a trail that leads them to the hothouse world of boarding schools and some harrowing secrets...
Mexico Street (Book 3)
Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a series of arson attacks on cars across the city, which leads her to a startling and life-threatening discovery involving criminal gangs and a very illicit love story...
Hotel Cartagena (Book 4)
Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her friends are held hostage in a hotel bar by twelve armed men set on revenge, in a searing, breathtakingly original, and unexpectedly moving new thriller from the 'Queen of Krimi' – WINNER of the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger
River Clyde (Book 5)
Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley travels to Scotland to face the demons of her past, as Hamburg is hit by a major arson attack. Queen of Krimi, Simone Buchholz, returns with the emotive fifth instalment in the electrifying Chastity Riley series ...
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Praise for the Chastity Riley series
'Reading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers ... a truly unique voice in crime fiction' Graeme Macrae Burnet
'A cunning climax that is shocking and deeply romantic' The Times
'Combines nail-biting tension with off-beat humour' Publishers Weekly
'Buchholz doles out delicious black humor' Foreword Reviews
'Modern noir, with taut storytelling, a hard-bitten heroine, and underlying melancholy peppered with wry humour' New Zealand Listener
'The coolest character in crime fiction ... darkly funny and written with a huge heart' Big Issue
'With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation' Maxim Jakubowski
'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
'Lyrical and pithy' Sunday Times
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About the author
Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg. In 2016, Simone Buchholz was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. The critically acclaimed Beton Rouge, Mexico Street, Hotel Cartagena and River Clyde all followed in the Chastity Riley series, with The Acapulco out in 2023. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.
Rachel Ward is a freelance translator of literary and creative texts from German and French to English. Having always been an avid reader and enjoyed word games and puzzles, she discovered a flair for languages at school and went on to study modern languages at the University of East Anglia. She spent the third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saaebrücken, Germany. During her final year, she realised that she wanted to put these skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA’s MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. Her published translations include Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel, and she is a Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. Follow Rachel on Twitter @FwdTranslations, on her blog www.adiscounttickettoeverywhere.wordpress.com and on her website www.forwardtranslations.co.uk
