Mexico Street Blog Tour

Today I'm thrilled to share my blog tour spot of another great Orenda Books publication!

TITLE: Mexico Street (Chaz Riley #8)

AUTHOR: Simone Buchholz

PUBLISHER: Orenda Books

PUBLISHING DATE: March 5, 2020

FROM GOODREADS: 

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… 

MY THOUGHTS: I have really enjoyed the recent titles I've read from Orenda Books but the problem I seem to have is that they have me wanting to go back and start several series from the beginning.  Such is the case with the Chaz Riley series.

This novel finds Chaz Riley, a public prosecutor in Germany, investigating the suspicious death of an important son of the Bremen clan.  As she investigates, she finds herself falling deeper and deeper into a criminal underground and she soon discovers the violence will not end with Nouri's death. 

I loved Chaz as a character. She is kind of a take-no-prisoners person who shoots straight from the hip.  She is strong and resilient and isn't afraid of being too much like one of the guys.  She is diligent in her investigations and I was totally enthralled with the novel and what would happen next.  I also really liked Chaz's interaction with her partner, Detective Stepanovic.  They clearly have honed their skills together over the years and it shows.

There was a very suspenseful and intriguing mystery at the root of Mexico Street and I'm excited to go back and meet Chaz from the beginning.  This book has it all - darkness, sarcasm, wit and humor.  There is also a touch of love woven into the tale of Nouri's death.  It was interesting to read a mystery set in Germany because I can't recall the last time I read something set in that country.  Orenda Books is really getting me to branch out with some locales and I'm loving every minute of it!

RATING: 4 PAWS

ABOUT 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. She
lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.