Hamburg Noir

When Homicide Detective Thomas Ritter transfers to Hamburg, he has no idea he has stepped into the biggest police scandal in the city's history. No one told Ritter that his new partner, Motz Beck, is a moody biker with family ties to local mob boss Willi Kaiser, who controls the red-light district. Or that Kaiser is fighting a hostile takeover from the head of the Albanian mafia, the silent real estate partner of a prominent senator. After Hamburg's top cop is found dead in a Kaiser whorehouse, Ritter and Beck conclude that the only people they trust less than each other are their bosses in City Hall.

After putting away the head of the Albanian mafia in Hamburg, Homicide Detectives Thomas Ritter and Motz Beck are confronted with a bloody war to control the local drug trade in the mobster's absence. First an Albanian courier is shotgunned to death at the edge of Hamburg Harbor. Then a Hells Angel gets the same treatment on the Alster River. As the bodies pile up, Ritter and Beck are forced to work with an organized crime expert, a burned-out narcotics agent with his own drug issues. Before long, they suspect that their new partner is working for one of the rival gangs.

Edda Green is the third book in Peter Sarda's crime thriller series, Hamburg Noir, which Publishers Weekly recommends for fans of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Philip Kerr, Jakob Arjouni, and Simone Buchholz. It is cited in The Strand Mystery Magazine's spring 2025 list of "Books you need to read." "Sarda's brutal modern thriller ... explodes like a Molotov cocktail ... culminating in the kind of engaging, street-level crime fiction noir fans crave." (Publishers Weekly) "Propelled forward by tense drama and startling twists, this bold and timely thriller is marked by significant character depth, and a story about the rise of virulent movements that needs to be told." (SPR) "Sarda's attention to detail ... draws readers into a noir world where every interaction crackles with danger and consequence." (Kirkus Reviews) Edda Green is a walking time bomb. Three years ago, she lost a hand to an IED outside Kandahar and gained a taste for oxy and extreme violence. Now, she's been released from prison by BKA to infiltrate the revolutionary cell behind the May Day riots in Hamburg. Instead of following orders, she encourages more mayhem to cover her hunt for the people who killed her blood brother. Along the way, she meets the love of her life, a hacker named Indigo. Together, the two outsiders make enemies who don't forgive or forget.