The Blurb:
Hamburg state prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a series of arson attacks on cars across the city, which leads her to a startling and life-threatening discovery involving criminal gangs and a very illicit love story…
Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect.
Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect.
Until, one night, on Mexico Street, a ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, a Fiat is torched. Only this car isn’t empty. The body of Nouri Saroukhan – prodigal son of the Bremen clan – is soon discovered, and the case becomes a homicide.
Public prosecutor Chastity Riley is handed the investigation, which takes her deep into a criminal underground that snakes beneath the whole of Germany. And as details of Nouri’s background, including an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza, emerge, it becomes clear that these are not random attacks, and there are more on the cards…
Mexico Street was published by Orenda Books as an eBook on 5th January 2020 and in paperback on 5th March 2020. It is available from the publisher and all usual retailers. Why not visit your local independent bookshop? Or online you could try Bert's Books, The Big Green Bookshop, or Hive (which will link to the nearest participating indie bookshop).
My Review:
This is the third book featuring prosecutor Chastity Riley but the first one I've read. I didn't feel particularly disadvantaged and enjoyed this as a standalone, but there are various incidents and relationships alluded to here that I want to investigate further so I will be seeking out the previous books.
Hamburg is being set on fire. Well, cars in Hamburg are being set on fire. Public prosecutor Chastity Riley isn't that bothered about those, but when a car set alight in Mexico Street with a man locked inside she's interested. The man is Nouri Saroukhan, an estranged member of an extensive, strict and closed off criminal clan from Bremen. His death leads Riley and her colleagues into the murky world of the Mhallami criminals, clan wars and uncovers an intense, illicit love affair.
Written in the first person, mainly present tense and mainly from Riley's point of view, although we do visit the past with Nouri and Aliza, Buchholz's style is not one I'm used to. So it took me a while to get used to it. The world she presents is dark, noirish, intense and pretty bleak. However, Riley and her team provide a counterpoint to that with their humour, sarcasm and camaraderie.
Chastity is such an interesting, layered and flawed character. She drinks too much, smokes too much and tells it like it is. She doesn't like mornings - 'The pilot-policeman tries to focus on me. It won't work. I'm fundamentally out of focus at this time in the morning.' and used phrases like 'gets on my tits'. I like her! But she doesn't do soft or emotional. There seems to be much heartache in Riley's past and she has tried to close herself off. But there is a definite frisson between her and colleague Stepanovic - I loved their exchanges - and she is completely thrown when an old face turns up.
The extended Saroukhan clan are cruel, vicious and deadly with absolutely no respect for the law. Their treatment of women is eye watering and anger fizzles off the page every time the Mhallami men meet with the police. This feels authentic - Buchholz has clearly done her research. And in the face of all this anger, fear and hostility, love affairs must all be doomed.
Once used to it, the author's style is often surreal, frequently poetic. There is a wonderful moment when Chastity mentally throws a question out into the room and Buchholz describes the route it takes on its way back to Chastity, bouncing off walls etc. Another, a description of clothes falling to the floor, is really powerful. And I loved her enjoying a halloumi wrap because warm cheese holds together her cuts on the inside for a while. But there are many other fine examples. So, this seems a good point to thank Rachel Ward for the excellent translation which enabled me to enjoy this text.
I whizzed through this little book with its short, snappy chapters. And it would be remiss of me not to mention the chapter headings - some of the best titles ever! Favourites were 'Loneliness is like a jacket that's too tight, but without the jacket you freeze', 'Stand by me, because of the frogs and because of all the very different shit too' and 'A face to match the taste in my mouth', which I had highlighted in the text. These headings added to my enjoyment, wondering where they would fit in.
It took me a wee while, but I loved this book. Actually it's grown on me. It's very dark even though the cars are burning bright. It could be depressing but for the wonderful characters Buchholz has created, especially in Chastity Riley and Ivo Stepanovic, but the others too, and the humour shot through the writing. The whole thing brought to mind an old black and white film - in fact, I would love to see this on screen! Simone, you have a new fan!
This is the third book featuring prosecutor Chastity Riley but the first one I've read. I didn't feel particularly disadvantaged and enjoyed this as a standalone, but there are various incidents and relationships alluded to here that I want to investigate further so I will be seeking out the previous books.
Hamburg is being set on fire. Well, cars in Hamburg are being set on fire. Public prosecutor Chastity Riley isn't that bothered about those, but when a car set alight in Mexico Street with a man locked inside she's interested. The man is Nouri Saroukhan, an estranged member of an extensive, strict and closed off criminal clan from Bremen. His death leads Riley and her colleagues into the murky world of the Mhallami criminals, clan wars and uncovers an intense, illicit love affair.
Written in the first person, mainly present tense and mainly from Riley's point of view, although we do visit the past with Nouri and Aliza, Buchholz's style is not one I'm used to. So it took me a while to get used to it. The world she presents is dark, noirish, intense and pretty bleak. However, Riley and her team provide a counterpoint to that with their humour, sarcasm and camaraderie.
Chastity is such an interesting, layered and flawed character. She drinks too much, smokes too much and tells it like it is. She doesn't like mornings - 'The pilot-policeman tries to focus on me. It won't work. I'm fundamentally out of focus at this time in the morning.' and used phrases like 'gets on my tits'. I like her! But she doesn't do soft or emotional. There seems to be much heartache in Riley's past and she has tried to close herself off. But there is a definite frisson between her and colleague Stepanovic - I loved their exchanges - and she is completely thrown when an old face turns up.
The extended Saroukhan clan are cruel, vicious and deadly with absolutely no respect for the law. Their treatment of women is eye watering and anger fizzles off the page every time the Mhallami men meet with the police. This feels authentic - Buchholz has clearly done her research. And in the face of all this anger, fear and hostility, love affairs must all be doomed.
Once used to it, the author's style is often surreal, frequently poetic. There is a wonderful moment when Chastity mentally throws a question out into the room and Buchholz describes the route it takes on its way back to Chastity, bouncing off walls etc. Another, a description of clothes falling to the floor, is really powerful. And I loved her enjoying a halloumi wrap because warm cheese holds together her cuts on the inside for a while. But there are many other fine examples. So, this seems a good point to thank Rachel Ward for the excellent translation which enabled me to enjoy this text.
I whizzed through this little book with its short, snappy chapters. And it would be remiss of me not to mention the chapter headings - some of the best titles ever! Favourites were 'Loneliness is like a jacket that's too tight, but without the jacket you freeze', 'Stand by me, because of the frogs and because of all the very different shit too' and 'A face to match the taste in my mouth', which I had highlighted in the text. These headings added to my enjoyment, wondering where they would fit in.
It took me a wee while, but I loved this book. Actually it's grown on me. It's very dark even though the cars are burning bright. It could be depressing but for the wonderful characters Buchholz has created, especially in Chastity Riley and Ivo Stepanovic, but the others too, and the humour shot through the writing. The whole thing brought to mind an old black and white film - in fact, I would love to see this on screen! Simone, you have a new fan!
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 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.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
ReplyDeleteAlways a pleasure. x
Delete