The Kitchen (Chastity Reloaded Book Two) by Simone Buchholz

 

The Kitchen (Chastity Reloaded Book Two) by Simone Buchholz.

Translated by Rachel Ward.

Published 11th April 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of 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 offenders, Chastity takes matters into her own hands. As a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity’s own moral compass, and put everything at risk…

Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues investigate the murders of men with a history of abuse towards women … as a startling, horrifying series of revelations emerge. Germany’s Queen of Krimi returns with the darkly funny, mesmerizingly dark next instalment in an addictive series…

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Hamburg State Prosecutor, Chastity Riley, and her team, are faced with a troubling investigation when carefully packaged body parts are found in the River Elbe. It transpires that the gory remains belong to men who have a track record of violence towards women, opening up the possibility that the killer might be doing Hamburg a favour.

When Chastity's best friend is attacked by two men, and the police do not seem concerned about catching the offenders, she begins to ponder whether the legal process she holds so dear is doing all it can to protect women, and it gives her pause for thought about whether she really wants to catch the serial killer she has been hunting...

Chastity Riley is back with a timely investigation that delves into violence towards women, and disturbing aspects of predatory male behaviour that are all too easily dismissed as something that comes as part of being a woman in a man's world.

The story plays out in classic, punchy Simone Buchholz style, with catchily entitled chapters that cut between Chastity's first-person narrative; tantalising perspectives on the work of the story's serial killer; and vignettes of gut-wrenching, predatory male behaviour from the points of view of the women involved. It is a clever format that immerses you in the story with a fierce intensity, and allows Buchholz to explore multiple aspects of her subject of choice at the same time. 

As a state prosecutor, Chastity believes that the law will protect women who have suffered abuse, but she finds her faith in the tenets she upholds profoundly shaken by the events in this story. Inevitably, this leads to her questioning her moral stance on the investigation into the gruesome murders that have been occupying her and her team. There is quite a lot going on in Chastity's personal life too, embroiling her in a tangle of conflicting emotions that feed into the crisis of conscience she faces.  

I love the way Hamburg comes alive in the Chastity books, through the many faces of the city that our unapologetically forthright prosecutor both loves and loathes. Once again, Buchholz takes us deep into the dark side of both her characters and the city, with an inherent feeling of danger at every turn, and the knife-edge tension is enhanced beautifully by the sweltering temperatures of a hot summer. The truth behind the murders is hinted at early on in the game, but this is essentially a character-led piece and that does not spoil the enjoyment a jot. Lashings of deliciously dark plotting, threaded with thought provoking themes, drive you on to Buchholz's tricksy ending - which works perfectly in her Queen of Krimi noir world.

There is quite a lot in this novel that will trouble your nightmares, much of it related to the cracking title The Kitchen, and the disquieting feelings evoked by the abuse story line. But it is not all murder, mayhem and menace, as there is so much pitch black humour that arises from Chastity's irreverent attitude. Her conversations with her colleagues (especially retired former colleague Faller) are often as funny as they are enlightening, and her sardonic observations are comedy gold, which lightens the mood amidst all the gritty realism.

This is the perfect opportunity to heap praise upon translator Rachel Ward. She clearly chooses her words with care, using expression and idiom to make the story flow, while preserving the cynicism and moral ambiguity that characterises noir fiction like this. She really understands the assignment in Buchholz's books, maintaining pace, and atmosphere to perfection, which makes reading them eminently satisfying.

I consumed this book in one tasty gulp, despite the shocking (and nauseating) references that are integral to the story, and which may well have you looking askance at a particular kind of trendy establishment. Fresh and exciting, Simone Buchholz's Chastity Riley books really are a literary palate cleanser, especially if you enjoy a walk on the noir dark side.

The Kitchen is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support the best of independent publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

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 Krimi ZEIT 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 translator:

Rachel Ward is a freelance translator of literary and creative texts from German and French to English. 

Having always been an avid reader and enjoyed word games and puzzles, she discovered a flair for languages at school and went on to study modern languages at the University of East Anglia. She spent the third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saaebrücken, Germany. During her final year, she realised that she wanted to put these skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA’s MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. 

Her published translations include Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel, and she is a Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.