Extract Post: Sharks, by Simone Buchholz

In Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg’s so-called ‘problem area’, an American couple is found brutally murdered in a derelict house.

Prosecutor Chastity Riley is assigned the case and quickly finds herself waist-deep in a murky tangle of city planners, shady investors and vanishing officials. The gentrification machine is rolling on, and someone is sending a very clear message.

As November fog settles over the city, Chastity is coughing up blood, her personal life is a slow-motion disaster, and her former colleague, Faller, won’t stop interfering. But nothing’s going to stop her from cutting through the lies – not even the sharks circling ever closer…

Extract

PUSH THE SACK ASIDE AND WALK IN

This is no entry-level cough. Every few minutes, a dirty old farm dog comes crawling out of my lungs and barks so hard its chain rattles. I should be lying in bed, drinking tea. But instead, I’m standing around in a south-Hamburg suburb, looking at two old people’s mangled heads, and smoking. I hold my forearm over my mouth.

‘You’re not well,’ says Calabretta, taking my cigarette off me.

‘It’s about time you went to see the doctor about it,’ says Brückner, his voice as severe as a side-parting.

‘She won’t listen,’ says Schulle. ‘Which is just plain rude.’ He looks at me, grasps his voice box and makes old-man noises. ‘I’ve been struck down by the plague

too.’

Yeah, yeah, I think, getting to the end of my cough. It tastes a bit like blood. Once the barking dog has let go of my voice again, I say: ‘You’re free to put in a complaint against me, boys. Can I have my cigarette back, please?’

‘No,’ says Calabretta. He walks into the room next door to speak to the new head of forensics. Hollerieth and his perpetual slipped disc have taken early retirement – hallelujah. The new bloke’s called Kessler. Talented kid, modern and laid back. If his haircut was a tad less ambitious, I’d have a lot of time for him.

Walt and Lorraine Tucker’s flat is a bit like coming home – it looks just as shit as Auntie Grace and Uncle Luke’s place in Bellehaven, North Carolina. The wooden floorboards are stained dark, and are topped by a chaotic series of deep-pile rugs in allegedly homey colours, such as rust red and mint green. The wallpaper is yellowing; it might once have been white, or then again, it might not. The ceiling is panelled with a grid of hazelnut-brown, wooden boxes. In the very centre of the room, directly in front of the gigantic plasma TV, there’s a massive sofa with massive flowers in every possible pastel shade, all over its upholstery. In the corner, to the right of the screen, there’s an old brown gun cupboard, its door open.

The cupboard is lined with a Confederate flag.

‘Is that allowed?’ I ask

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About Simone Buchholz

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau. 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 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 (winner of the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger) and River Clyde all followed suit, with 2023’s The Acapulco and 2024’s The Kitchen reloading the series. She is on the board
of PEN Berlin, and is at the forefront of the lobbying movement for fair pay for authors. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her son.

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