After convicting a superior for corruption and shooting off a gangster’s crown jewels, the career of Hamburg’s most hard-bitten state prosecutor, Chastity Riley, has taken a nose dive: she has been transferred to the tedium of witness protection to prevent her making any more trouble. However, when she is assigned to the case of an anonymous man lying under police guard in hospital – almost every bone in his body broken, a finger cut off, and refusing to speak in anything other than riddles – Chastity’s instinct for the big, exciting case kicks in. Using all her powers of persuasion, she soon gains her charge’s confidence, and finds herself on the trail to Leipzig, a new ally, and a whole heap of lethal synthetic drugs. When she discovers that a friend and former colleague is trying to bring down Hamburg’s Albanian mafia kingpin single-handedly, it looks like Chas Riley’s dull life on witness protection really has been short-lived… Fresh, fiendishly fast-paced and full of devious twists and all the hard-boiled poetry and acerbic wit of the best noir, Blue Night marks the stunning start of a brilliant new crime series, from one of Germany’s bestselling authors.
My Thoughts:
Blue Night has been a runaway success in Germany where the author Simone Buchholz is from. It has been seamlessly translated by Rachel Ward and deserves to a be a success across the globe.
Blue Night is the first in a series to feature Chastity Riley, a state prosecutor that has recently been assigned a desk job. Her superiors preferring for her not to cause anymore problems. A new assignation through promises to be anything but boring.
This is a relatively short novel at under 300 pages so I raced through it, the sentences were snappy and the writing was highly addictive and engaging. Once I settled into the underbelly of Hamburg there was no putting it down until I had read the final chapter.
Chastity Riley is something of an enigma, we only ever really learn bits and pieces about her. I couldn't help but like her though, she has a certain fire about her and I look forward to learning more about her in future books in this series.
This book had a very cinematic feel to it and I think that mainly came from the perspectives that the story was told and the snippets of information that were laid bare over the course of the book.
German Noir is something new on me but I was utterly enthralled and will most definitely be reader more. Simone Buchholz has a refreshing writing style and a unique talent of drawing the reading right into the heart of the story with the wonderful descriptions of Hamburg and a narrative that is spectacular.
Really recommend it.
Blue Night has been a runaway success in Germany where the author Simone Buchholz is from. It has been seamlessly translated by Rachel Ward and deserves to a be a success across the globe.
Blue Night is the first in a series to feature Chastity Riley, a state prosecutor that has recently been assigned a desk job. Her superiors preferring for her not to cause anymore problems. A new assignation through promises to be anything but boring.
This is a relatively short novel at under 300 pages so I raced through it, the sentences were snappy and the writing was highly addictive and engaging. Once I settled into the underbelly of Hamburg there was no putting it down until I had read the final chapter.
Chastity Riley is something of an enigma, we only ever really learn bits and pieces about her. I couldn't help but like her though, she has a certain fire about her and I look forward to learning more about her in future books in this series.
This book had a very cinematic feel to it and I think that mainly came from the perspectives that the story was told and the snippets of information that were laid bare over the course of the book.
German Noir is something new on me but I was utterly enthralled and will most definitely be reader more. Simone Buchholz has a refreshing writing style and a unique talent of drawing the reading right into the heart of the story with the wonderful descriptions of Hamburg and a narrative that is spectacular.
Really recommend it.
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 as well as runner-up for 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.
Please do have a look at some of the other stops on the blog tour:
Thanks so much for the Blog Tour support Leah xx
ReplyDelete