Chastity Riley and her new sidekick Ivo investigate the case of newspaper executives who have been caged and tortured outside their offices ... on a trail that leads them to the hothouse world of boarding schools and some harrowing secrets...

You loved Dark ... now meet Chastity Riley

`Caustic, incisive prose. A street-smart, gutsy heroine. A timely and staggeringly stylish thriller' Will Carver

`With plenty of dry humour and a good old dash of despair, Simone Buchholz is an unconventional, refreshing new voice' Crime Fiction Lover

`Lyrical and pithy' Sunday Times Crime Club

On a warm September morning, an unconscious man is found in a cage at the entrance to the offices of one of Germany's biggest magazines. He's soon identified as a manager of the company, and he's been tortured. Three days later, another manager appears in a similar way.

Chastity Riley and her new colleague Ivo Stepanovic are tasked with uncovering the truth behind the attacks, an investigation that goes far beyond the revenge they first suspect ... to the dubious past shared by both victims. Travelling to the south of Germany, they step into the hothouse world of boarding schools, where secrets are currency, and monsters are bred ... monsters who will stop at nothing to protect themselves.

A smart, dark, probing thriller, full of all the hard-boiled poetry and acerbic wit of the very best noir, Beton Rouge is both a classic whodunit and a scintillating expose of society, by one of the most exciting names in crime fiction.

`Stripped back in style and deadpan in voice, this is a scintillating romp' Doug Johnstone, Big Issue

`A touch of class, a superb noir' New Books Magazine

`With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation' Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time

`There is a fantastic pace to the story which keeps you hooked from the first