Beton Rouge by Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward #Review

My thanks go out to Orenda Books for the chance to be on the blog tour for Simone Buchholtz's Beton Rouge. This is the second book featuring Chastity Riley, the first being Blue Night. You can read my review of Blue Night here.

On a warm September morning, a man is found unconscious and tortured in a cage at the entrance to the offices of one of Germany’s biggest magazines. He’s soon identified as a manager of the company. Three days later, another manager appears in a similar way.

The magazine staff were facing significant layoffs, so sympathy for the two men is in short supply. Chastity Riley and her new colleague Ivo Stepanovic are tasked with uncovering the truth behind the attacks, an investigation that goes far beyond the revenge they first suspect, to the dubious past shared by both victims. Travelling to the south of Germany, they step into the hothouse world of boarding schools, where secrets are currency, and monsters are bred…monsters who will stop at nothing to protect themselves.

‘If Philip Marlowe and Bernie Gunther got together in a Hamburg speakeasy and had a literary love child, then that might just explain Chastity Riley – Simone Buchholz’s tough, acerbic and utterly engaging central character’ William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier

My Thoughts

Back for a second bite of German Noir, I find that the character of Chastity Riley  is still the great creation she was in Blue Night. She has a dry way of looking at life, with a huge dollop of cynicism. She is the centre of the book for me, flaws and all. 

    Written in short sentences with equally short chapters, this is a snappy, fast paced read which you fly through. You get to hear Chastity's thoughts and each chapter has to the point information. You don't feel as if there are any wasted words- far from it. There is lashings of atmosphere in Hamburg and in all, in Beton Rouge, you have a great little nugget of crime writing which glitters like a harsh, flinty jewel.

In short: A second portion of Chastity Riley to savour. 

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, and second place in the German Crime Fiction Prize, for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.

 

You can follow Simone here: Website   |  Twitter

Book links:  Amazon UK 

Thanks to Simone, Karen Sullivan and Anne Cater of Orenda Books for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.

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