Simone Buchholz Books In Order

Publication Order of Chas Riley Books

Publication Order of Chastity Reloaded Books

Simone Buchholz
Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau, Germany in 1972. While she was at university, she studied Literature and Philosophy, worked as a columnist and waitress, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg.

In 2016, she was awarded the Crime Cologne Award and Second Place of the German Crime Fiction Prize for “Blue Night”, which was number 1 on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months.

“Blue Night” is the first novel in the “Chastity Riley” series and was released in 2017. Chastity Riley (state prosecutor) has just been sidelined to keep her from causing any trouble, however her new job winds up being anything but dull when she finds herself involved in taking an Albanian mafia kingpin down.

Chastity Riley’s career as the most hard-bitten state prosecutor has taken a nose dive, as she has just gotten transferred to the tedium of witness protection to keep her from making any further trouble. But when she’s assigned to the case of this anonymous man lying under police guard in hospital, her instinct for the exciting and big case kicks in.

Using all of her powers of persuasion, she quickly gains the confidence of her charge, and finds she’s on the trail to trouble.

Fiendishly fast paced, fresh, and filled with devious twists and all of the hardboiled poetry and acerbic wit of the best noir, Simone delivers a novel that is the stunning start of a brilliant new crime series.

“Boston Rouge” is the second novel in the “Chastity Riley” series and was released in 2018. Chastity and her new sidekick investigate the case of newspaper executives that have been caged and tortured outside of their offices, on this trail which leads them to the hothouse world of boarding schools and they find some harrowing secrets.

On a warm September morning, this unconscious man is discovered in a cage at the entrance to the offices of one of the biggest magazines in Germany. He quickly gets identified as a manager of the company, and he was tortured. Three days later, another of the managers appears in a similar way.

Chastity and Ivo Stepanovic (her new colleague) are handed the task of uncovering the full truth behind these attacks, an investigation which goes far beyond the revenge that they first suspect, to the dubious past that’s shared by both victims. Traveling to the south of Germany, they step into the hothouse world of boarding schools, where secrets are currency, and monsters are bred, monsters that will stop at nothing in order to protect themselves.

This is a probing and smart thriller that is both a classic whodunit as well as a scintillating expose of society, written by one of the most exciting names in all of crime fiction.

“Mexico Street” is the third novel in the “Chastity Riley” series and was released in 2020. Chastity investigates a series of arson attacks on cars all across the city, which leads her to this startling and life-threatening discovery that involves criminal gangs and one very illicit love story.

Each night, cars are set on fire across the city of Hamburg, Germany, without any explanation, any obvious pattern, and no suspect.

Until this one night, on Mexico Street, this ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, one Fiat gets torched. But this car is not empty. Nouri Saroukhan, the prodigal son of the Bremen clan, is quickly found, and the case is now a homicide.

Chastity Riley gets the case, which takes her deep into this criminal underground which snakes underneath all of Germany. And while details of Nouri’s background, which includes an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza start emerging, it becomes more clear that these aren’t just random attacks, and there are even more coming.

This is another brilliant adventure in Chastity’s company, who is the coolest character in crime fiction. This is darkly funny and written with a huge heart. Reading Simone’s writing is like walking on firecrackers, she is truly a unique voice in crime fiction.

“Hotel Cartagena” is the fourth novel in the “Chastity Riley” series and was released in 2020. Twenty floors above the shimmering lights of the Hamburg docks, Chastity is celebrating a birthday with some friends in this hotel bar when twelve heavily armed guys pull their guns out, and take everybody hostage. Among these hostages is Konrad Hoogsmart, the owner of the hotel, who’s being targeted by this young man whose life (and family) have been ruined by Hoogsmart’s actions.

With the cops looking on from outside, their colleagues’ lives at stake, Chastity still inside, and increasingly ill from an unexpected case of sepsis, the stage has been set for a dramatic confrontation. And a devastating outcome for the team, all of which is being live streamed in a horrifying bid for revenge.

“Hotel Cartagena” won the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger in 2022.

this is populated by a cast of unforgettable characters and crackles with such energy, this is a relevant and searing thriller sure to leave you breathless.

“River Clyde” is the fifth novel in the “Chastity Riley” series and was released in 2021. Chastity goes to Scotland in order to confront demons of her past, while Hamburg gets hit by a major arson attack. This time things are personal.

Mired in grief after tragic events, Chastity heads to Scotland, having been lured to the birthplace of her great-great-grandpa by this mysterious letter that suggests she’s inherited a house.

While in Glasgow, she meets Tom (her great aunt’s former lover) who holds the keys to her own family secrets, some painful tales of unexpected cruelty and loss that she has never dared to face.

In Hamburg, Calabretta and Stepanovic investigate this major arson attack, as a group of property investors set off this explosion of violence which threatens everybody.

While events in these two countries collide, Chastity prepares to face the inevitable, as she battles the ghosts from her past and the lost souls which could very well be her future and, possibly, finally finding some redemption for all of them.