Simone Buchholz – River Clyde[Translated by Rachel Ward] |@OrendaBooks|@RandomTTours

I am so happy to be bringing you an Orenda book tour review for River Clyde by Simone Buchholz. Thank you to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for the invitation and my gifted copy of the book.

Mired in grief after tragic recent events, State prosecutor Chastity Riley escapes to Scotland, lured to the birthplace of her great-greatgrandfather by a mysterious letter suggesting she has inherited a house. In Glasgow, she meets Tom, the ex-lover of Chastity’s great aunt, who holds the keys to her own family secrets – painful stories of unexpected cruelty and loss that she’s never dared to confront.

In Hamburg, Stepanovic and Calabretta investigate a major arson attack, while a group of property investors kicks off an explosion of violence that threatens everyone. As events in these two countries collide, Chastity prepares to face the inevitable, battling the ghosts of her past and the lost souls that could be her future and, perhaps, finally finding redemption for them all.

Nail-bitingly tense and breathtakingly emotive, River Clyde is both an electrifying thriller and a poignant, powerful story of damage and hope, and one woman’s fight for survival.

The fifth instalment of the Chastity Riley series, and I am still as awed with this series as I was when I read my first Chastity Riley book. I will say that if anyone is thinking of picking this book up, read Hotel Cartagena the one before this. It will help you to understand the state of mind of the characters in this book.

At the end of Hotel Cartagena, Chastity was  a world away from her normal life. This book takes us with Chastity to Glasgow. I was hooked again; Chastity Riley has that power. Simone Buchholz spins such an excellent, woven story time and time again.

River Clyde is not just a straight crime story, no, this book is more unexpected than that. We see her colleagues in Hamburg discovering new ways to deal with their own grief as well as still dealing with crime in the city. Chastity herself is out of her comfort zone, uprooted, and finding her way through her heritage. Getting to know the different people she comes across as she travels streets she doesn’t know in a strange city.

It makes for a truly different read than the other books in the series. Chastity is still, of course, the Chastity we all know and love but it’s not a book that can be pigeonholed. There is crime, but it’s more than that. It is a journey through grief and loss. The River Clyde itself has its own voice in this superb story. One that brings quite surreal moments as well as moving ones.

The translation is marvellous by Rachel Ward; nothing is left out every thought, and feeling is there. The interweaving of all the stories is perfect. The realism of grief and the trauma it brings is so cleverly written. This is a book that I know I will need to reread to try to find threads, tiny ones, that I missed.

Another Simone Buchholz book I adore and one I am so pleased I have the honour to take part today.