Edda Green concludes Peter Sarda’s Hamburg Noir trilogy featuring detectives Ritter and Beck, though the pair who first appeared in One Way Ticket take a backseat here. This is very much Edda Green’s story. It’s a violent, gritty tale steeped in the left-wing politics and counterculture synonymous with the German port city, which has more to it than the Reeperbahn and the Beatles. In fact, Hamburg is a great place to set a political thriller based around a murder investigation.
Former soldier Edda Green’s chaotic life has paradoxically made her useful as an undercover agent – a job no cop can do. However, her new bosses have no idea what they’ve unleashed by putting Edda in the field. For a start, Edda intends to break a few laws proving her credentials to the bad guys she’s going to be spying on.
She will sorely test her new masters’ resolve. Edda served in Afghanistan in bomb disposal and got her hand blown off by an IED in Kandahar. In hospital she discovered the joys of morphine, so today the next hit is never far from her mind. Inevitably, Edda wound up in prison before this shot at redemption came along.
The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), Germany’s federal police, pluck her out of jail for a special job. Tough as nails and always in attack mode, Edda does everything with gusto including becoming a counter culture subversive. She brutally takes out a narcotics bureau cop as he’s about to bust her drug dealer in the car park outside the FC St Pauli stadium. Her job is to infiltrate a revolutionary cell that is planning a riot on May Day. They’re a top priority for the BKA.
Winning credibility with her dealer and his crowd by stomping on a cop is Edda’s in. That’s when she meets Ingrid – young, sexy and surprisingly, into Edda too – who might be a complication Edda can do without. What the BKA don’t know is that Edda isn’t just looking to play snitch for the law; she has her own agenda. Once she’s in with the faction, she starts encouraging the group toward even more extreme action, but when her best pal is killed, revenge is added to this story’s heady mix.
Then a body washes up in the harbour, bringing Ritter and Beck into the picture along with female colleague Meike and dock worker Dieter. Suffice to say it’s connected with drugs moving through the port, but also the Chinese community in the city and a couple of players who have yet to show their hand. So Edda is working with the cell and mounting her own campaign against her friend’s killers. The question is: has Edda gone over to the dark side completely? The action and the political intrigue soon ramp up.
If you know Hamburg, and particularly the unique St Pauli district, you’ll know why a novel of subversives, drugs and alternative culture, crime and political dissent fits so well with the location. For me, Sarda lays on the detail a little too heavily to start with, setting the scene well but slowing the story, but he certainly knows his locale. Some of the slang and cultural references are clearly for an American audience, which probably ground it for the majority of readers. Personally, less would have improved the flow of the novel but I get it.
Edda’s kick-ass persona is unforgettable and she’s got a smart mouth that’ll raise a laugh or two. Meike and Deiter are strong supporting characters with a side story that plays well and there are a few twists that spice up the ending. This is a hardboiled read that is certainly unusual and will appeal to readers looking for something a bit different. Pulpy but with serious themes, Edda Green is a quick, even light, read – and no need to worry, the politics never gets deep or confusing. Could be tighter and a little more intense but it’s definitely fun.
Also see the Chastity Riley series by Simone Buchholz, set in Hamburg.
Highway 99 Press
Print/Kindle
£2.99
CFL Rating: 3 Stars
