Blurb:

A serial killer is on the loose in Hamburg, targeting dancers from The Acapulco, a club in the city’s red-light district, taking their scalps as gruesome trophies and replacing them with plastic wigs.

Chastity Riley is the state prosecutor responsible for crimes in the district, and she’s working alongside the police as they investigate. Can she get inside the mind of the killer?

Her strength is thinking like a criminal; her weaknesses are pubs, bars and destructive relationships, but as Chastity searches for love and a flamboyant killer – battling her demons and the dark, foggy Hamburg weather – she hits dead end after dead end.

As panic sets in and the death toll rises, it becomes increasingly clear that it may already be too late. For everyone…

Review:

I’ve been very slow to catch up with Chastity Riley, but as The Acapulco is a prequel to the series, I’ve been advised that it’s the perfect place to start to get up to speed. I’d agree with that, as Simone Buchholz gives us some brilliant insight into Chastity’s character, which stands us in very good stead for future instalments. Chastity has a very distinctive voice and I loved her first person narration, which is sprinkled with humour alongside her emotional response to some terrible crimes.

Simone Buchholz is a fabulous writer and I felt as though she was giving me a guided tour of Hamburg.  The story is incredibly fast paced and the author creates a really tense atmosphere. It was impossible not to be pulled into the plot. I also enjoyed the opportunity to get into the head of another character in between the chapters where there are some quite poetic sections.

The Acapulco is quite a short novel, so there aren’t too many twists and red herrings, but I loved how intense it became towards the end and there was definitely danger in the air!

I will now go into the rest of the series and see what I’ve been missing!

The Acapulco is available from Amazon.