By Simone Buchholz @ohneKlippo
Translated by Rachel Ward http://www.forwardtranslations.co.uk/ @FwdTranslations
Published by Orenda Books https://orendabooks.co.uk/ @OrendaBooks
276 pages ISBN 9781916788077
Publication date 11 April 2024
The Kitchen is the seventh Chastity Riley novel published by Orenda Books and the second of the Chastity Reloaded series. Click on the link to read my earlier reviews of Blue Night, Hotel Cartegena, River Clyde and The Acapulco.
I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.
The cover
Once again, the neon sign style, this time against the backdrop of Hamburg and a lovely variant of the skull and crossbones motif. A great cover.
My review
Chastity Riley is busy preparing for a case against a gang of human traffickers, men recruiting young Romanian women and girls with promises of legitimate work, but which of course ends up as prostitution. After their spirit is broken by rape, they are effectively prisoners expected to service ten men a day. The evidence is strong, but Chastity is determined that the case must be watertight; these men must pay for what they have done.
Hamburg is suffering from a heat wave, with no respite on the dusty streets, conjuring up images of spaghetti westerns to Chastity. Here she imagines she strides like Clint Eastwood, cigarette in mouth rather than a cigar as she brings law and order…
When neatly packaged male body parts are washed up on the river Elbe the police are stumped, they have head, hands and feet but no torso. A policewoman remarks to Chastity that the parcels are too well wrapped to have been done by a man. Then parts of a second body wash up. A pattern developed; both victims were men who treated women abominably.
Klatsche finds Chastity’s best friend Carla in a terrible state, she’s been brutally attacked by two men. Chastity persuades Carla to report the attack to the police, but she discovers that to them it’s just another case number added to a log jammed system. Progress is slow, almost to a state of callous disregard.
Another scorching addition to a fabulous series, one that slices to the heart of the matter, the ill treatment of women by some men. I’m sure it’s happened throughout human history, but in our modern civilised world it is still far too common. A timely novel as women’s hard-fought rights are under threat.
The author has a very individual style, with pared back prose where all superfluous words and actions are excised, leaving a story with laser like focus. What the reader is left with is a series of remarkable character vignettes, some weird, some funny, whilst others are touching, interspaced with events ranging from bizarre to the mundane. This slightly staccato form may not be to every reader’s taste but it’s never dull or boring. The prose is sharp, concise and at times very witty; the chapters are short and punchy, one being merely a single sentence, but somehow they seem just right. A perfect example where less is actually more, the reader focusing on every single word. Once again Rachel Ward does a wonderful job of translating from German but keeping all these characteristics within a text that flows almost rhythmically at times.
There are elements of the hard-boiled, but there are no detailed descriptions of how characters are dress or a cigarette is rolled, instead there is more of a delve into the character and motivation of the key players. The events of this story having a profound effect upon Chastity who is very much a woman of justice, one who believes in the sanctity of the law. Instead, she is first ambivalent and then seriously conflicted, as can be expected when events affect a loved one or someone close. It’s almost as if we can see her moral compass wilding spinning as events unfold and we are presented with a very different Chastity. A bit of moral ambiguity to be faced up to, the obviously question being what we would do in just such a situation.
It is left to Chastity’s former boss Faller to provide the wisdom of the ages. Every day he sits by the old lighthouse with a fishing rod, though he appears to have little interest in catching anything. Like The Buddha masquerading as a garden gnome as he contemplates long-term retirement, it is Faller who provides the equilibrium Chastity so desperately needs.
The story arc may well become apparent, I certainly had more than an inkling, but dare I say may be more enjoyable because of this. In the way that Oliver Hardy comes crashing through a roof or chimney and is hit by a cascade of bricks, we know there will be one final one a couple of seconds later and still we wait and that’s the biggest laugh. Here we have a serious, painful subject suffused with a some very dark and macabre humour that enhances the message rather than diluting it. The balance is perfection.
The dialogue is a joy, succinct and punchy, buzzing along with a sense of energy. Chastity is a whip smart wit with a knack for the well timed put down or withering rebuke, even when they are not vocalised.
The imagery of life in kitchens and butchery figure throughout, amongst the short diversions are how to eviscerate and prepare a pig along with a recipe for black pudding, actions necessary for the diner to experience sumptuous meals. It also proves to be something of a metaphor for aspects of humanity we try to ignore.
In The Kitchen violence against women is spatchcocked for all to see and served with a piquant sauce of macabre humour. As they say if you can’t stand the heat…
The Kitchen can be purchased direct from the publisher here
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, with The Acapulco out in 2023. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.
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.
Don’t forget to check out the other great reviews on this blog tour:
Peter turns the page 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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