#BlogTour-‘Beton Rouge’ by Simone Buchholz

About The Book…..

On a warm September morning, a man is found unconscious
and tortured 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. Three days later, another manager appears in
a similar way.
The magazine staff were facing significant layoffs, so sympathy
for the two men is in short supply. 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 bbred…monsters who will stop at nothing to
protect themselves.

‘If Philip Marlowe and Bernie Gunther got together in a Hamburg speakeasy and had a
literary love child, then that might just explain Chastity Riley – Simone Buchholz’s tough,acerbic and utterly engaging central character’ William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier

I am so thrilled to be able to bring you my turn on the blog tour for ‘Beton Rouge’ by Simone Buchholz.

Organised by Random Things Book Tours, ‘Beton Rouge’ is the second German based thriller featuring Chastity Riley, public prosecutor, following 2018’s ‘Blue Night’, and is translated by Rachel Ward.

Orenda Books have an established and critically acclaimed selection of translated works, and reading ‘Beton Rouge’, it is easy to understand why. It’s sharp, biting novel that at 186 pages packs in lots of story and characters without ever feeling overloaded.

Chastity Riley is on of those characters that gets under your skin, like the Hamburg fog, you don’t realise she is in there until you are bone deep into the story. Her relationship with her new partner is precariously balanced, her friends minimal and she likes to control her personal life as much as her work life.

‘Here’s the hot iron,the saw,the squared timber.

Here are the rusty pliers and all the bis of old dental kit.

The blocks of wood,the willow rods,the belts.

So,now, here’s the question:with or without chloroform?’

Shudders, right?

Why has someone decided to display, like circus animals, 2 publishing managers? Tortured, humiliated and literally as well metaphorically exposed, the police have not only a hard time figuring out who done it, but how it was done with no witnesses and many thinking the men got their due.

Add in a narrator who makes you feel like you are living in her stream of consciouness, the landscape of Hamburg which is a character in and of itself plus a unique writing style which has me clamouring to read ‘Blue Night’ and follow where Chastity Riley goes next, and you have a winning combination of noir thriller.

My grateful thanks to Anne Cater and Karen Sullivan for my gifted copy of ‘Beton Rouge’ in return for an honest review.

‘Beton Rouge’ is available in paperback on 21/02/2019 from all good bookshops!

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, and second place in 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.

Links-http://simonebuchholz.com/

Twitter @ohneKlippo

Interview with Simone Buchholz-https://mrspeabodyinvestigates.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/interview-with-simone-buchholz-hamburg-noir-and-why-everyone-needs-a-beer-family/