The Kitchen by Simone Buchholz
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...
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.
Review
‘The Kitchen’ is the second book in the ‘Chastity Riley Reloaded’ series and I am thoroughly loving getting to know about the beginning of her story! All of these books can be read as a standalone very easily but I thoroughly recommend reading everything you can get your hands on as Chastity is one of my favourite characters in crime fiction and every book has been cracking. These ar seriously some of the best crime fiction out there!
When the gruesome discovery of a neatly packaged of body parts is washed up on the Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley is called upon to lead the investigation. Along with Calabretta and Bruckner, they look into who the victim was and soon learn he might have a history of abuse towards women. It's a perplexing case and Riley’s attention is pulled in another direction when her best friend Carla suffers a horrible attack.
Gosh, every time I read one of Simone’s books I am reminded of how surprising and talented a writer she is. From the stripped-back chapters and their emotive headings to the rich and vibrant descriptions of Hamburg and its people. It's the small observations of people having coffee to the banter between Riley and the other characters. It is writing that makes the reader feel alive and excited to pick up her books every single damn time! Kudos, once again to the Orenda translators who really do make Simone’s words sing in the English language.
Despite its darkness, I was engrossed in this book and read as soon as I could! The short chapters mean you just carry on reading and even though I want to savour and take my time over it I can't help but carry on reading. Really, there should be a Simone Buchholz Anonymous as it is addictive reading. There are a number of depressingly familiar topics in this book and the attack against Carla is particularly brutal. But it's the parts in italics that are outwith the normal chapters that really drive home the point of this narrative and how many women suffer every day in modern society.
Thoroughly recommend - let me know WHEN you pick this one up!
