Sharks

In Hamburg's troubled Wilhelmsburg district, Prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a brutal double murder amid corruption and gentrification. Battling personal demons and powerful foes, she fights to expose a city's dark secrets. Germany's Queen of Krimi returns with the caustically funny, breathtakingly dark next instalment in an addictive series…

`For the first time in a long time, I found a book I simply couldn't put down – and I didn't want it to end. There really should be a word for the sadness you feel when you're nearing the end of a truly fantastic read. Sharks is that kind of book´ Leye Adenle

`Taut, compulsive and laced with humour as dark as its setting, Sharks raises the bar again for one of my favourite series. Chastity Riley is the perfect anti-hero for our times, and Simone Buchholz is the real deal´ Rod Reynolds

`Simone Buchholz can make you grin, gasp or gag at will´ The Times

`Such a revelation´ Laura Lippman

**The Chastity Riley series WON the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger**

____

In Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg's so-called 'problem area', an American couple is found brutally murdered in a derelict villa.

Prosecutor Chastity Riley is assigned the case, and quickly finds herself waist-deep in a murky tangle of city planners, shady investors and vanishing officials. The gentrification machine is rolling on, and someone is sending a very clear message.

As November fog settles over the city, Chastity is coughing up blood, her personal life is a slow-motion disaster, and her former colleague, Faller, won't stop interfering. But nothing's going to stop her from cutting through the lies – not even the sharks circling ever closer.

Dark, caustic and piercing, Sharks is a searing investigation into greed, power, and the price of resistance in a city devouring itself, from one of Germany's finest, most original crime writers.

_______

Praise for the Chastity Riley series:

`A dark treat … memorable modern noir, and a fascinating portrait of seedy life in Hamburg´ Telegraph

`Beautifully concise, with commendably sparse prose, dark humour and an appealing protagonist … uncompromising, provocative and righteously fierce´ Guardian

`Beautifully written in cool, witty prose´ N.J. Cooper, Literary Review

`German-American Chastity Riley [is] snooty, churlish, sarcastic, sometimes drunk and always inappropriate. The whole series breaks the boundaries of typical crime novels´ Romy Hausmann

`A distinctive voice, and a flawed but compelling protagonist … style and sass and St Pauli´ Will Carver

`Ice-cool, effortlessly classy prose´ Observer

`Reading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers´ Graeme Macrae Burnet

`Buchholz's work remains as persuasive as ever´ Financial Times

`Simone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-ish sense of time and space … a palpable hit´ Independent

`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 … a unique voice that delivers a stylish story´ NB Magazine

`A smart and witty book that shines a probing spotlight on society´ CultureFly

`A must-read, stylish and highly original take on the detective novel´ Judith O'Reilly

`A real blast of adrenaline´ Big Issue

`Elmore Leonard fans will be enthralled´ Publishers Weekly

`Buchholz doles out delicious black humour [and] ramps up the intrigue and tension´ Foreword Reviews