River Clyde by Simone Buchholz (tr. by Rachel Ward) #BookReview #BlogTour

 

Mired in grief after tragic recent events, state prosecutor Chastity Riley escapes to Scotland, lured to the birthplace of her great-great-grandfather 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.

I'm thrilled to be hosting the blog tour for River Clyde today, many thanks to Simone Buchholz, Orenda Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.

The previous book in Simone Buchholz's Chastity Riley series, Hotel Cartagena was easily one of my favourite books of 2021 and I have been eagerly wondering how on earth she would follow such a stunning, cataclysmic novel. River Clyde is my answer and while I would usually say that these books can be read as standalones, I'm going to suggest here that Hotel Cartagena really should be read first. The two stories are indelibly linked and here we have the implosion that follows the explosive tragedy that has blown apart the lives of Chastity and her dysfunctional group of friends.
It's been obvious from Blue Night, the first book in the series to be translated into English, that these friends are all damaged to a greater or lesser extent but now their collective grief has left them floundering; Stepanovic has recently returned to work but the others are still on a leave of absence and trying to figure out how to bear the horror of their loss. The answer has come for Chastity in the form of a letter from Glasgow informing her she has inherited a house from her aunt and so she heads to Scotland where she may finally start to face the painful ghosts of her past.
This series isn't like any other I've read; it exudes hardboiled noir, with its staccato chapters and acerbic wit in a gritty contemporary setting. River Clyde still has all the elements I love and yet it's also a vastly different novel with Simone Buchholz doing exactly what I love in fiction by blindsiding me with a move away from the bleak urban reality of the previous books into what I can only describe as magical realism noir. It shouldn't work and yet it does; this is a surreal, poetic story featuring talking deer and ice mermaids but it isn't a fantasy and remarkably manages to explore grief, healing and hope in a way that feels piercingly honest and starkly real.
While Chastity is in Glasgow, Stepanovic is called to investigate a major arson attack and with Calabretta called back to duty, the pair ostensibly have the suspects under observation. However, as they bond over Fortnite and find themselves drawn back to the Blue Night bar, the crime in River Clyde is only really a backdrop to the confused, hedonistic coming together of these lost souls as they react to the holes left by their loss and now by Chastity's absence. 
Meanwhile, Chastity herself is discovering a taste for whisky in the welcoming pubs of Glasgow and perhaps, finally, confronting the pain that seeps from her. It's often said that the setting becomes another character in a novel and Glasgow is indeed keenly brought to life but again, Simone Buchholz pushes the boundaries of the genre and the Clyde itself becomes personified, with chapters actually written from the river's perspective.
A novel as linguistically and structurally complex as this has to be a challenge to translate but as always Rachel Ward's understanding of what is required to keep all the wit, insight and artistry of the original is magnificent. River Clyde startles and consoles as this multi-layered, astute, redemptive story flows with a whip-smart lyricism which examines despair and survival, grief and hope, longing and belonging. The novels that preceded Blue Night are going to be translated into English which means this won't be the last time I have the pleasure of reading about Chastity Riley but I don't know if this is where we leave her. It's a fitting finale but also promises more and that has to be the perfect way to end a book as outstanding as River Clyde. 

River Clyde is published by Orenda Books and can be purchased directly from their website or from bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon and Kobo but please support independent bookshops whenever possible.

Don't miss the rest of the blog tour, details are below.

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.

About the Translator
Rachel Ward translates from German and French to English. Having always been an avid reader and enjoyed word games and puzzles, she discovered a flair for languages at school and went on to study Modern Languages at the University of East Anglia. She spent the third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saarbrücken, Germany. During her final year, she realised that she wanted to put these skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA's MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. Her published translations include the Nea Fox series of crime novels by Amelia Ellis, and books for young people such as Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel.



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