Hamburg state prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a series of arson attacks on cars across the city, which leads her to a startling
and life-threatening discovery involving criminal gangs and a very illicit love story...
Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect.
Until, one night, on Mexico Street, a ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, a Fiat is torched. Only this car isn’t empty.
The body of Nouri Saroukhan – prodigal son of the Bremen clan – is soon discovered, and the case becomes a homicide.
Public prosecutor Chastity Riley is handed the investigation, which takes her deep into a criminal underground that snakes beneath
the whole of Germany. And as details of Nouri’s background, including an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza, emerge, it
becomes clear that these are not random attacks, and there are more on the cards...
Reviews and praise for Mexico Street:
… translated with surety by Rachel Ward. As usual Simone Buchholz snared my
attention from the get-go. The words stormed my senses, falling like a sword and I found myself on full alert. Short, sharp, shocks of
chapters hit, with the chapter headings almost creating their own story. Mexico Street, full of sparks and quirks, is 227 pages of wonderful.
- Lovereading.co.uk- Rachel Ward has now translated all three of Simone Buchholz’s Chastity Riley novels,
she has brilliantly captured the spirit of the original for the English language reader. Mexico Street is loaded with sadness and tragedy,
it has echoes of Romeo and Juliet and the epic duelling clans of The Big Country. This is order reduced to chaos. Themes include the pernicious
nature of patriarchy and male entitlement, Mexico Street is a powerful voice for those who can’t speak for themselves. This novel screams
read me, enjoy me, but think about me too.
- NB magazine - In Rachel Ward’s sharp and idiomatic translation, this is further proof that
Simone Buchholz is a writer to watch – a fact that is becoming clear to more and more readers. The influences here are not of German crime
writers of the past (or present), but lean and stripped-down American models, which are echoed in the economy of the prose – which means
that the 200-odd pages fly by at speed.
- Barry Forshaw, European Literature Network - However, despite being a darkly realistic novel, the black humour and poetic
writing is actually rather beautiful and credit must be given here to Rachel Ward for a translation which captures the vibrant spirit
of Simone Buchholz's original words.
- Karen, Crime Fiction Blogger, Hair Past a Freckle blog