Hotel Cartagena #SimoneBuchholz #HotelCartagena

By Simone Buchholz https://simonebuchholz.com/

Translated by Rachel Ward

Published by Orenda Books https://orendabooks.co.uk/

276 pages ISBN 978193193553

Publication date 4 January 2021

This is book 4 in the Chastity Riley series

I purchased an eBook direct from the publisher using the Glassboxx app.

From the blurb

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’

Synopsis

Henning is a young man whose life is drifting and he leaves Hamburg on a freighter to work his passage. He stops off in Cartagena, Columbia, and works in a beach bar. His life improves when he sets up the local drugs cartel with contacts back home. He eventually is given a bar to run as his own. However all good things must come to an end.

It is Faller’s 65^th birthday and he decides to hold his party in a spectacular 20^th floor hotel bar overlooking Hamburg dockland. The friends comprise mainly police officers or former police officers and the public prosecutor Chastity Riley. There are some other customers in the bar including the hotel’s owner Konrad Hoogsmart. Their enjoyment of the evening is interrupted by 12 armed men who hold them hostage.

The police on the ground are concerned, none more so than Ivo Stepanovic who cares for Riley. Although he doesn’t know it, he should be concerned as Riley is developing sepsis from an infected cut.

The hostage takers then start livestreaming from the bar. Their leader appears intent on humiliating Hoogsmart and making him confess his sins.

My thoughts

I was invited to take part in a book tour for the 5^th book in the series and after reading it I found I needed to go and read book 4 in the series to get some context and better understand it, but more of that book when the time comes.

There are two main threads to the book, Henning in South America and the action taking place in Hamburg. Henning’s thread starts in St Pauli district of Hamburg in 1984 and follows his life to Columbia and then Curacao. The Hamburg one takes place over one night and switches its attention between Riley and Stepanovic.

Chastity Riley is our Heroine and what a character she is. Independent, intelligent, sassy and strong, a woman taking on men in a tough profession and succeeding. Chastity by name but not chaste by nature, even managing to flirt with the chief kidnapper, she has a modern and liberal attitude to sex and relationships. Very much the epitome of a modern professional woman, but with some insecurities below the surface.

Henning is cast in the role as an anti-hero rather than an all-out villain. By following his story from the age of 19 we see him develop as someone fleeing the gangs of home but being drawn into one in Columbia. Unlike many though he doesn’t see gang life as being family and wants one of his own, a wife and child. Ultimately it is his sense of loss which provides the catalyst for the action set piece, and I developed a such degree of empathy I wanted Henning to succeed. A case of a small criminal sticking it to the main criminal. It is clear the venal and callous Hoogsmart is the true intended hate figure.

The structure is unusual mixing up mainly short chapters with longer ones. The longer ones which cover Henning’s life in Columbia and activities within the bar slow the pace down and almost give a sense of time dragging. Counterpoint to these are the short chapters, some as short as a sentence or two speed the reader up with a sense of urgency.

Similarly, the prose style changes too, often being terse and direct in the short paragraphs, but at other times it becomes playful and joyous. In one scene Riley who has already been drinking and is developing sepsis starts to hallucinate, creating a dreamscape where a ‘chairoplane’ is imagined from the nearby fairground and the people in the bar are riding on it. Even the author is name dropped at this point, all quite surreal but beautifully executed.

The violence is very much downplayed, the most graphic being when Hoogsmart is required the eat large quantities of disgustingly described sausage which is rather gross but also quite amusing in a just deserts way. There’s some great dialogue and amusing throwaway lines such as knowing more swear words than a Scottish steelworker. That this is a translated work would surely surprise any reader not aware.

The author has a very distinct and individual style of writing which brings a refreshingly different slant to standard noir. This is smart, carefully crafted and condensed to produce a real punchy package of a novel.

My review of book 5 of the series River Clyde will go live on 1 March 2022

The book can be purchased from the publisher here

56 Days

By Catherine Ryan Howard https://catherineryanhoward.com/

Published by Corvus (an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd) https://atlantic-books.co.uk/corvus/

428 pages ISBN 9781838951658 Publication date 3 March 2022

I was forwarded a paperback proof copy in exchange for a fair review. I would like to thank the author and publisher for this kind offer. I also love that it was timed to be with me 56 days before publication (allowing for the vagaries of the UK postal service).

From the blurb

No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead.

Synopsis

A bad smell is reported at the prestigious The Crossings apartment development. When the police investigate, a body is discovered in the bathroom of no.1 with a the glass shower screen shattered. Detectives Leah (Lee) Riordan and Karl Connolly investigate but they are struggling to determine whether it is an unfortunate accident or foul play.

56 days ago, Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue and connect over a shared love of NASA and space exploration. They start to date.

Their romance blossoms quickly, even though they both hold apprehensions, and it seems destined to be something serious. Then 35 days ago Ireland succumbs to Covid 19 which threatens to put a brake on things until Oliver suggests that Ciara moves in with him. Just for the two weeks of lockdown. Oliver hopes that their relationship will flourish without outside scrutiny and his real identity being revealed.

What is Oliver so keen to hide?

My thoughts

I suspect that many readers want to put the Covid 19 restrictions of 2019 behind them. Even if no personal loss was suffered these were difficult and unprecedented days for most of us. For thriller writers it is an opportunity too good to miss, the chance for a variation of the ‘locked room’ mystery which nobody can disparage as too far-fetched. 56 Days is one such novel, probably not the first, certainly not the last but in my estimation, it will be one of the standout examples.

It is set in Dublin which is a nice change from London and gives a slightly different view of the Lockdown we experienced in the United Kingdom.

In essence the plot is straightforward, is it a case of murder or just an accident?  It is in the structuring and reveal where the real craft is to be found. This is a book where the reader believes they understand the characters motives but time and again there is an unanticipated twist.

The story narrative is in the third person and switches between the police officers Lee and Karl, and the lovers Ciara and Oliver. The timeline is the 56 days of the title, between Oliver meeting Ciara and the body being found, but the progression is far from linear. There is the current day investigation strand, but the historic strand moves backwards and forwards along its timeline as we see incidents from the view of either Oliver or Ciara and then later from the other. This allows the character’s motivations and intent to be revealed piece by piece, leaving the reader feeling one step behind, confused and then surprised in turn. This is beautifully executed.

The combination of the length of the novel and the relative lack of action allows the characters to develop and tell the story. The banter between of police officers Lee and Karl is good and whilst being on the ‘buddy cop’ level I hope that there is more to come from them in the future. The characters of Ciara and Oliver are the true essence of the novel though. Oliver has a past that he is keen to hide (which is understandable when it is revealed) but leaves the reader considering whether he should have a chance of true redemption. Ciara appears to be a vulnerable innocent but of course nothing is quite what it seems. The progression of their relationship is nicely judged from its seemingly innocent beginnings to feelings being overcome. Throughout you are wondering if it can survive and even this old unromantic curmudgeon wondering if love could find forgiveness even though there is a dead body there.

The lockdown set up allows a myriad of feelings to develop in the characters. Oliver appears to be obsessive, almost to a level obsessive compulsive disorder, although his cleanliness habit is due to more that just his supposed asthma. Ciara can’t be seen by Oliver’s boss and so he can be controlling and limit her movements. Its also claustrophobic and they are cooped up in such proximity that they are unused to and as they both have secrets to keep hidden a sense of paranoia develops. In the end it’s a case of can they survive the truth?

A taut and intricately constructed thriller set during Lockdown in Ireland, that works on the feelings and emotions of the main characters rather than violence or an act of criminality. A book that had my mind running down so many blind alleys looking for the answer that I’m sure to look out for her next novel. It will have much to live up to.

A New Dark Age #RossPatrick #ANewDarkAge

By Ross Patrick

Published by Brown Dog Books (Self-Publishing Partnership)

327 pages ISBN 9781839523823

Publication date 27 January 2022

I was sent an electronic copy of the novel to participate in its Blog Tour. Many thanks to Brown Dog Books, Ross Patrick and Team LitPR for allowing me to participate in the tour.

From the blurb

This is rebel fiction…

Synopsis

It’s the future and life has changed from what we know it. “Everything is ruined.” New technologies and the financial systems have failed and so people are retreating to the old ways. Much of the world has entered a New Dark Age.

The rich have retreated to walled city states leaving the rest to fend for themselves in an outlaw wilderness where bands of ‘roamers’ operate. Much of the apparatus of state is no more and big corporations have taken over in this vacuum and formed militarised police. Even though they receive nothing from the state the countryside poor are still highly taxed and there is a regular census of assets to determine what tax should be paid.

However, rebellion is fomenting. There is Hereward an outlaw like a modern-day Robin Hood with his own militia. Then there are the Hermits, the messengers and conduits for those in resistance. The Woke are the organised opposition who believe the day of reckoning is coming. Scotland and the North are ready to act.

In Fenby young Esme is due to be wed but feels her destiny is elsewhere. She can choose between a quiet life in The Fens or join the exodus to London and risk everything.

My thoughts

Novels and films set in a post-apocalyptic future were very popular in the 1970s. Most focused on the world following a nuclear war but as the nuclear arms proliferation receded and such a war became unlikely then they ran out of steam as a genre. A New Dark Age is set in a dystopian near future, a novel for the twenty first century with warnings of what may be to come based upon the world as it is today. It covers themes of wealth and income distribution, the haves and have nots, state control over the individual and even Brexit rears its ugly head with Eastern Europeans being exiled.

The novel is set in 2061 in a Britain that has suffered immense social breakdown, like much of the globe; China and India have grown into new world powerhouses. The decline was brought on by wars over natural resources like oil and cobalt and exasperated by financial meltdown over debt and mismanagement of finances. This is all too worryingly credible.  Already the world is under pressure over energy security and whilst wind and solar may be the future for mankind we will be reliant upon oil and gas for some years ahead. Rare earth metals are vital to our modern way of life with electronic and computers relying upon them. China is investing heavily in mining operations in Africa in exchange for infrastructure development and the future could be one where the power is held by the holders of raw materials rather than those who exploit it. Much of the West would then be left with inflation, financial speculation and risk taking. The world is changing ever more rapidly.

Life in this new world is well imagined by the author, naturally he has a blank canvas to create what he wishes, and he has pitched it nicely with a mix of the current and the modern past. Cars are useless and rotting as there is no fuel, transport is by electric vehicles where the batteries still work and you can find a place to charge them. The internet has largely gone, what computers and technology there is suffer from a lack of components and spare parts.

The novel is narrated in the third person and switches from person to person. There is a large cast of characters involved and some crop up again when least expected. The pacing is slow, as the backdrop of the fens is described, then about a third of the way through there is an unexpected urgency of a battle scene and then the pace slows again. As the characters must rely on old technology of rowing boats, rafts and busses then this slow pace is probably appropriate. This is not a traditional action thriller it is much more observational and to me reads as if setting up the boundaries for a series of novels.

With so many characters one cannot expect too many to be well fleshed out. In Esme we have a heroine who is likeable and at the beginnings of adulthood. We see her in her sheltered life on The Fens facing an arranged marriage to the mayor’s son but unsure if that is the life for her with rebellion in the air. We see her facing this dilemma, coping with violation and then stepping out into the danger of the wider world. All of this is nicely judged and sensitively handled.  Esme’s childhood friend Big Davey is slow witted but is caring, helpful and loyal, just the sort it is impossible not to like. Esme’s father warns her about turning down marriage that she might end up with Davey and the reader thinks would that be such a bad thing. He also gets his moment to play with big boys’ toys which is quite apt.

In the State Agents Miller and McCain, we have two thoroughly unpleasant and sinister authority figures. They abuse their positions and enjoy the harm they cause. Men in black who work as census officers and revel in being bullies. This is a perfect big man and little man, brains and brawn double act.

With social breakdown comes a breakdown in trust. There is no common cause or common good. Can bin Salah with his London fiefdom or the mysterious Doc be trusted even when the bait of the fabled Maltese Falcon? This leads to a real sense of mistrust and paranoia running through the second half of the novel even when the characters see it as being destiny. Best summarised by the rebel leader Wat Tyler when he approaches Prime Minister King, “if the Government don’t kill me for treason our followers will for betrayal.”

A New Dark Age is a creatively imagined dystopian future which could await mankind. Very much a novel for the new century with its very real and urgent problems. A thought provoking and entertaining read.