Berlin Heat

Berlin is boiling hot in the first summer after the pandemic. The tourists are back in Party City, there are excessive parties everywhere, people are enjoying the time after the lockdown. Good business for Tom Lohoff, the facilitator, who has apartments, all kinds of drugs, sex and access to top clubs on offer for the party crowd from all over the world. And he has large gambling debts with a local gangster who runs a brutal gang. Tom, a gambling addict since his teens, needs money, no matter where from, even if he has to lie and cheat and steal from his last remaining friend and his father.

The city is also politically hot. Federal elections are going to be held in a few weeks and the neo-Nazis are staging the kidnapping of one of their politicians as a false flag operation to catch back votes – and Tom has unwittingly let them one of his flats for the purpose. Things quickly spin out of control. Breathlessly, Tom has to rush through Berlin, always under pressure, always in danger, always in desperate search of money – if only there wasn’t this psychotic neo-Nazi he is unable to shake. 

Berlin Heat imitates the beat of the city. Fast-paced, pulpy, full of action and witty, wisecracking dialogue, sex, drugs and sudden violence. A dance on the volcano where disaster can happen at any moment. The ultimate Berlin thriller, with its very own sound and groove. Award-winning author Johannes Groschupf tells the dark secrets of Berlin like no other contemporary author because he knows every inch of his turf – and the people of Berlin.

»This book is the bomb. Must read.« Elmar Krekeler, Welt am Sonntag

»Berlin Heat has an infectious drive, it's often quite funny, and the dialogue has high entertainment value.« Katharina Granzin, taz. die tageszeitung

»A hot Berlin novel.« Tobias Gohlis, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»A feverish and gripping urban thriller without equal in the German-language genre.« Die Presse, Wien

»A wild, shimmering and very black-humoured, funny Berlin novel.« Ulrich Noller, WDR 1

»Groschupf‘s thriller is more farsighted than we might like. This is justified by a breath-taking read. Reading the book allows for no interruptions.« Hans Huett, culturmag.de

»A book with fast-paced laconic dialogues à l’Elmore Leonard. A rhapsody of noir, atmospheric like James Ellroy, and deprived of any hope that Berlin has never seen before.« Alexander Kluy, Buchkultur Krimi on Berlin Preppers

»An urban novel with a sound grasp of contemporary developments.« Peter Körte, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Berlin Preppers

»A breath-taking horror trip through a dismal Berlin. […] Groschupf tells the gloomy story tough and directly, but at the same time with dry humour and a sure sense for situational comedy.« Hanspeter Eggenberger, Tages-Anzeiger on Berlin Preppers