Reviews and praise for Blue Night:
Part of the success of this crime thriller lies in the beautiful, almost poetic writing which contrasts well with the deadly subject matter.
Here language is so important and I must pay tribute to Rachel Ward’s translation which captures Buchholz’s intentions so well.
- Live and Deadly (blog)- Then there’s the interplay of author and translator, like musicians in the same band. Rachel Ward performs her riffs and responses in perfect harmony with
bandleader Simone Buchholz, creating an all-female tour de force, the English expressions perfectly matching the rhythm and blues of the German.
- European Literature Network - By turns lyrical and pithy, this adventure set in the melting pot of contemporary Hamburg has a plot and a sensibility that both owe something to mind-altering substances.
Disgraced state prosecutor Chastity Riley chases round the dive bars of the port city pursuing and being pursued by a beguiling cast of cops, criminals and chums, delivering scalding one-liners as she goes.
Lots of fun.
- Crime Club, The Sunday Times, 25 January 2018 - This is the first of Buchholz’s thrillers to be translated into English, in some style by Rachel Ward, and it centres on the wonderful character
of Chastity Riley, a state prosecutor based in Hamburg.
- The Big Issue