The setting of the Jan Fabel series of thrillers is Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg is a fascinating, varied city with a unique character. It is a city of contrasts: Germany's richest city: an elegant, cultured and cosmopolitan centre, yet known worldwide for its notorious Reeperbahn. One of Europe's most important seaports, yet located 150 kilometres inland. A German city, yet the most "British" city outside the UK.

And Hamburg is more than a city. It is also a state within the German Federal Republic, one of only three city states. The people of Hamburg are proudly, defiantly different.

Hamburg's history is one of commerce and competition. It was a Hanseatic League city, building trading links with Scandinavia, Russia, the Baltic States and Britain. Today, Hamburg remains not only a thriving trading port, but a 21st Century business centre with a real buzz about it.

Hamburg is also a beautiful city. It has more waterways than Amsterdam and Venice put together and the Alster, in the heart of Hamburg, is Europe's largest city centre lake. So big, in fact, that the entire Principality of Monaco could fit into it. And Hamburg is green, full of wide expanses of park and woodland.