Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
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 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.
"For Alan Rickman".
The dedication preceding the latest novel in bestselling Queen of Krimi Simone Buchholz's excellent series is short and simple. Seeing it there on the page a single day after social media had been abuzz with tributes to the late, great British actor on the anniversary of his death was strange, and poignant.
As I turned the pages and began to devour HOTEL CARTAGENA it became clear the simple dedication wasn't just a nod to a fine career ended to soon, but a wink towards what was to come.
For this ninth adventure for Hamburg prosecutor Chastity Riley (fourth in English; the translations began with book six) has echoes of one of Rickman’s most iconic roles: Hans Gruber.
Rather than the Nakatomi Plaza, however, in HOTEL CARTAGENA it is the 20th-storey hotel bar perched above the Hamburg docks that comes under siege from a dozen heavily armed men. Unfortunately for Chastity Riley, she was in the bar when the guns came out. Celebrating her friend Faller's birthday with their circle of friends, minus Ivo Stepanovic. Bleeding badly from a cut hand.
Why are the hostage-takers waiting so long before making any demands? Can the police outside – including Chastity’s sometimes-bedmate Ivo - stop whatever the armed men have planned?
Is the hard-living public prosecutor going to go all John McClane, or find another way to defuse the volatile situation? As a livestream begins, it becomes apparent the armed men have a specific purpose...
Buchholz writes like the noir equivalent of a jazz musician. There are familiar crime elements, but with a twist. Some distinctiveness and quirky originality. Plenty of style. Everything flows while being unpredictable, the reader never sure where she may take her melody. HOTEL CARTAGENA oscillates between past and present: from the (mis)adventures of a young German in Latin America to the peril faced by Chastity and her friends in the hotel bar. There's a verse-chorus, verse-chorus effect, building smoothly to a memorable crescendo, and creating an unforgettable song.
There's so much to like and love about this book, about Buchholz's storytelling and about the great translation of Rachel Ward that delivers plenty of personality through the prose.
The one blip for long-time series fans may be that Chastity Riley is not such a strong centrepiece in this novel. She's important, key, and our viewpoint in many of the chapters, but there's a lot going on away from her too, with the numerous passages from the past detailing the key journeys of others that may have led to the hostage situation. Yet at the same time, HOTEL CARTAGENA reads like a key phase in the arc Chastity has undergone throughout the series.
Relationships and lives are coming to a crossroads, or an end. If Chastity can survive her injury, and her troublesome attraction to the ringleader of the armed men, what will follow?
Overall, Buchholz has delivered another very fine crime thriller that blends plenty of action with thought-provoking moments and explorations of character. There's poetry to Buchholz's writing, figuratively and literally. A crackle, zing, or zest that pulses through. Recommended.
Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His first non-fiction book, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020. You can heckle him on Twitter.
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