Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her friends are held hostage in a hotel bar by twelve armed men set on revenge, in a searing, breathtakingly original, and unexpectedly moving new thriller from the ' Queen of Krimi' ***WINNER of the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger 2022*** ***WINNER of the German Crime Book of the Year Award*** ' Simone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-ish sense of time and space ... a palpable hit' Independent ' Reading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers ... a truly unique voice in crime fiction' Graeme Macrae Burnet ' [A] nerve-racking narrative ... [with] a cunning climax that is shocking and deeply romantic' The Times ____________________ Twenty floors above the shimmering lights of the Hamburg docks, Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley is celebrating a birthday with friends in a hotel bar when twelve heavily armed men pull out guns, and take everyone hostage. Among the hostages is Konrad Hoogsmart, the hotel owner, who is being targeted by a young man whose life and family have been destroyed by Hoogsmart' s actions. With the police looking on from outside their colleagues' lives at stake and Chastity on the inside, increasingly ill from an unexpected case of sepsis, the stage is set for a dramatic confrontation and a devastating outcome for the team all live streamed in a terrifying bid for revenge. Crackling with energy and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Hotel Cartagena is a searing, relevant thriller that will leave you breathless. _____________________ 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 ' Modern noir, with taut storytelling, a hard-bitten heroine, and underlying melancholy peppered with wry humour ... there' s a fizz, a poetry and a sense of coolness' New Zealand Listener ' The coolest character in crime fiction ... Darkly funny and written with a huge heart' Big Issue ' Fierce enough to stab the heart' Spectator ' A stylish, whip-smart thriller' Herald Scotland ' Combines slick storytelling with substance' Mystery Scene ' 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 ' With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation' Maxim Jakubowski ' There is a fantastic pace to the story which keeps you hooked from the first sentence all the way to the end a unique voice that delivers a stylish story' NB Magazine ' 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' Goethe Institute ' Lyrical and pithy ... Lots of fun' Sunday Times ' Great sparkling energy, humour and stylistic verve and the story itself is gripping and pacey' Rosie Goldsmith ' A must-read, stylish and highly original take on the detective novel, written with great skill and popping with great characters' Judith O' Reilly ' Constantly surprising an original, firecracker of a read' LoveReading