The Kitchen

The Times crime fiction book of the month, April 2024

When neatly packed male body parts wash up by the River Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues begin a perplexing investigation.
As the murdered men are identified, it becomes clear that they all had a history of abuse towards women, leading Riley to wonder if it would actually be in society’s best interests to catch the killers.
But when her best friend Carla is attacked, and the police show little interest in tracking down the offenders, Chastity takes matters into her own hands. As a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity’s own moral compass, and put everything at risk…
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‘Beautifully written in cool, witty prose’ N.J. Cooper,Literary Review

‘A distinctive voice, and a flawed but compelling protagonist. This is vintage Buchholz – style and sass and St Pauli’ Will Carver

‘While reading this, I feel a sense of the injustice, the pain, the anger of victims, of women just trying to live their lives without feeling a threat from the men around them.

I also love the humour, the wry eye, skilfully woven into the narrative. Time with Chastity Riley is well spent, Buchholz novels – never long – speak volumes.’ Paul Burke, European Literature Network, Riveting Reviews

‘The Kitchen blends black comedy with real anger to produce a serious indictment of the male gaze. Simone Buchholz can make you grin, gasp or gag at will.’ Mark Sanderon, The Times

‘Beautifully concise, with commendably sparse prose, dark humour and an appealing protagonist, this is an uncompromising, provocative and righteously fierce examination of the ways in which law and society repeatedly fail 50% of the population.’ Laura Wilson, The Guardian