Hello! Welcome to JuliaPalooza for my stop on the Blog Tour for The Kitchen by Simone Buchholz, translated by Rachel Ward, which will be published by Orenda Books on 11 April 2024.
About the book
When neatly packed male body parts wash up by the River Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues begin a perplexing investigation.
As the murdered men are identified, it becomes clear that they all had a history of abuse towards women, leading Riley to wonder if it would actually be in society’s best interests to catch the killers.
But when her best friend Carla is attacked, and the police show little interest in tracking down the offender, Chastity takes matters into her own hands and as a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity’s own moral compass … and put everything at risk.
The award-winning, critically acclaimed Chastity Riley series returns with a slick, hard-boiled, darkly funny thriller that tackles issues of violence and the difference between law and justice with devastating insight, and an ending you will never see coming…
Shelve on Goodreads | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Waterstones
Blimey, this was my first read from Simone Buchholz but it won’t be my last!
After a curiosity-piquing prologue, a brutal opening chapter introduces us to no-nonsense State Prosecutor Chastity Riley. We find Chastity preparing for court during a sticky, smoky Hamburg heatwave and there are no punches pulled in describing her latest case, leaving us in no doubt that this is a dark, hard-boiled book. If you were inclined to forget, the regular italicised snippets of anonymous sexual assaults suffered by women would certainly remind you.
The story has a very matter of fact style of narration -realistic for a State Prosecutor – and the short choppy chapters make the story fly by. I liked the way they were punctuated with sometimes bleak and sometimes humorous headings. There were some funny moments throughout the book between Chastity and her colleagues which add lightness to the dark subject matter. I particularly enjoyed the hypnotic, almost dreamlike passages that described Chastity’s downtime, enjoying the local neighbourhood and nightlife.
I did feel I’d missed out on some of the character relationships already in place so I would like to go back and read the earlier books. This did not spoil my understanding or enjoyment of The Kitchen.
Chastity is a great lead character, this is a humdinger of a thriller and I did not guess the ending. I recommend this to all fans of the genre who don’t mind a walk on the dark side.
With huge thanks to Orenda Books for my copy of The Kitchen and to Random Things Tours for my spot on the blog tour.
If you enjoyed my review, please consider liking and/or sharing and, of course, buying the book:
Shelve on Goodreads | Buy from Amazon | Buy from Waterstones
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 in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. The critically acclaimed Beton Rouge, Mexico Street, Hotel Cartagena and River Clyde all followed in the Chastity Riley series. Hotel Cartagena won the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger in 2022. The Acapulco (2023) marked the beginning of the Chastity Reloaded series, with The Kitchen out in 2024. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.
About the Blog Tour
Please check out the rest of the great posts on the tour for The Kitchen:
juliapalooza.com 