Jakob Arjouni’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TURK! is a hard-boiled crime story set in Frankfurt’s red light district. It is also the March Book of the Month pick from the German Book Office. Want to win a free copy? Send your name and mailing address to gregg (at) newyork.gbo.org. (Contest open to residents of the continental US only, while supplies last.)

From the press release:

When a Turkish laborer is stabbed to death in Frankfurt’s red light district, the local police see no need to work overtime. But private detective Kemel Kayankaya, the son of a Turkish immigrant himself, smells a rat. The dead man wasn’t the kind of guy who spent time with prostitutes. What gives?

The deeper he digs, the more Kayankaya finds that the victim was a good guy, a poor immigrant just trying to look out for his family. So who wanted him dead, and why? On the way to finding out, Kayankaya has run-ins with prostitutes and drug addicts, gets beaten up by anonymous thugs, survives a gas attack, and suffers several close encounters with a Fiat.

And then there’s the police cover-up he stumbles upon . . .