Hotel Cartagena

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 2022***



***WINNER of the German Crime Book of the Year Award***



' 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



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Twenty 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 Hoogsmart' s actions.



With 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.



Crackling with energy and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters,  Hotel Cartagena  is a searing, relevant thriller that will leave you breathless.



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Praise for the Chastity Riley series



'Combines nail-biting tension with off-beat humor ... Elmore Leonard fans will be enthralled'  Publishers Weekly



'Buchholz doles out delicious black humor ... interwoven in a manner that ramps up the intrigue and tension' Foreword Reviews



' 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' 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



' Lyrical and pithy … 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