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…

'As much a character study as the story of a crime … like a flipbook, full of startling images and sudden movements, that will thrill cynics and romantics alike' Sunday Times

'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

`Such a revelation´ Laura Lippman

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

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

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.

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'Richly entertaining, wickedly cutting, to the point and funny. The perfect example of a crime novel that is literally pacy and has something to say, because you know Buchholz cares about society and Hamburg, and it shows in her writing' Paul Burke, CrimeTime

Praise for the Chastity Riley series:

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

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

'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