Beton Rouge

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…

You loved  Dark  … now meet Chastity Riley

' 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

' Lyrical and pithy'   Sunday Times

***WINNER of the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger 2022***

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

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On a warm September morning, an unconscious man is found 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, and he' s been tortured. Three days later, another manager appears in a similar way.

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.
A smart, dark, probing thriller, full of all the hard-boiled poetry and acerbic wit of the very best noir,  Beton Rouge  is both a classic whodunit and a scintillating expose of society, by one of the most exciting names in crime fiction.

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' Stripped back in style and deadpan in voice, this is a scintillating romp'   Doug Johnstone,  Big Issue

' With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation'   Maxim Jakubowski,  CrimeTime

' There is a fantastic pace to the story which keeps you hooked from the first sentence all the way to the end. Once again Simone Buchholz holds no punches, with a unique voice that delivers a stylish story'   New Books Magazine

' The follow-up to  Blue Night  is 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

' Beton Rouge  is a killer read, original, unusual and yet I felt that a part of it, in fact a part of Chastity, lodged itself deeply within my soul, it' s quite simply fabulous'   LoveReading

' Great sparkling energy, humour and stylistic verve'   Rosie Goldsmith

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

' 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

' By turns lyrical and pithy, this adventure set in the melting pot of contemporary Hamburg has a plot and a sensibility that both owe something to mind-altering substances. Lots of fun'   Sunday Times