BAD COP

German detectives Thomas Ritter and Motz Beck return in Sarda’s second crime novel in a series.

The murder of Mustafa Hasani, a drug dealer and nephew of an Albanian mob boss, leads the two homicide investigators into the labyrinthine criminal underworld of Hamburg. A dangerous new drug, Rainbow, has hit the streets; it combines fentanyl and meth in a candy-colored pill that’s all the rage with university students. An overdose of this “chemical yo-yo” can send the user into a coma from which they never recover, forcing their families to choose whether to remove them from life support. Sarda’s mystery zigzags through a turf war between rival Rainbow-slinging gangs, and the narration nimbly jumps between perspectives, creating a captivating journey into the worlds of the Hasanis, the Hells Angels, the cops, and a secret hacker group called the Chaos Computer Club. The details feel cinematic, and the action is finely tuned and fast-paced. One exception is the ultraviolence of cop killer Laura Wesselmann, which feels a bit hackneyed: “Laura emptied the rest of the magazine into his dripping mouth. Bloody skull fragments splattered clover.” Readers will enjoy the wide-ranging cast of characters whom Ritter and Motz encounter, including Meike Voss, a young detective with expertise in computer forensics; Klaus Ebeling, Ritter’s boss with a penchant for blackmail; Hans-Dieter Althaus, the new “top cop” installed by the shady state senate; and Wolf, a chief narcotics officer with a dark side. As superiors hound Ritter, Motz teams up with Wolf who, like many police—and like Motz himself—rages about political corruption eating away at his beloved city. It’s a theme that Sarda explored in his previous novel One-Way Ticket (2020), but he expertly spins it in an unexpected direction in these pages.

A brisk thriller that features vivid storytelling, committed heroes, and modern political intrigue.