One-Way Ticket

One-Way Ticket is the first book in Peter Sarda's hardboiled crime thriller series, Hamburg Noir, which Publishers Weekly recommends for fans of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Philip Kerr, Jakob Arjouni, and Simone Buchholz. "Fans of noir fiction will revel in this twisty story of tough cops, brutal gangsters and other denizens of Hamburg's underworld." - Publishers Weekly "Any reader who loves a hardboiled mystery and a tenacious sleuth will be quickly drawn in by this subtle but savage work of crime fiction." - SPR "The absorbing story will keep readers guessing until the final pages." - Kirkus Reviews 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. Peter Sarda (www.peter-sarda.com) is a third-generation Californian who has lived and worked in Hamburg, Germany, for over two decades. His hardboiled crime thriller series, Hamburg Noir, is set in his adoptive home, a rugged harbor town with lots of old trading money, a "sinful mile" devoted to the world's oldest profession, and a robust and colorful criminal underworld. Edda Green, the third book in the series, is cited in The Strand Mystery Magazine's spring 2025 list of "Books you need to read." As a member of the Crime Writers' Association, Sarda contributes to Red Herrings magazine and CWA Readers' News. He is a "shamus" of the Film Noir Foundation and the primary source for "Crime and the City: Hamburg" on CrimeReads.