How refreshing to get through four hundred pages in a day, after struggling for two weeks to finish five! A A Dhand has written a fast-paced, gritty novel with sympathetic characters which Mr Rushdie would do well to send to his editor!

Bradford, the 'shit hole' setting of the DI Virdee series, is my home town, so how could I not read a novel where the murder takes place at a local grammar school and the town centre features prominently at the climax of the story? But I was almost immediately drawn in by the life of the detective, Hardeep 'Harry' Virdee, currently on suspension, and his very pregnant and strong-willed Muslim wife Saima, and carried swiftly along by the murder investigation. Asked to help solve the violent death of an Asian MP, before the city descends into race riots once again, Harry is thrown into an unlikely partnership with an ex-con drug addict called Lucas. Not knowing who to trust and facing constant danger, Harry and Lucas must work against the short fuse of racial tension in the city.

The only part that didn't work for me - and it's perhaps a crucial part - was the ending. Too many twists in the tale for me, especially with Harry's boss. I just lost interest, after powering through most of the book, because the various threads of the story coming together seemed too hammy, like a Hollywood blockbuster. Overall, though, a cracking good read on local turf, and I will definitely read the next instalment. ( )

Harry (Hardeep) Virdee is a Sikh man married to a Muslim woman and is estranged from his parents because of this. His wife is close to giving birth to their first child and Harry has to tell her that he has been suspended from his job as a detective because he hit someone in an unprovoked attack. Meanwhile as Eid dawns on Bradford and the Asian communities get ready for the Bradford Mela, a newly elected Asian MP is found murdered. All clues lead to the former leader of local BNP, recently released from prison. Harry is tasked by his boss with investigating unofficially but as he starts to dig into the crime he discovers that race is a smokescreen and that the answer lies a little closer to home.


Bradford is not the most obvious setting for a crime novel but here it works very well. Dhand knows Bradford intimately and writes with love as well as honesty, as someone who lives near Bradford and knows it well, I recognised the settings and understood the politics. Bradford is gritty and crime-ridden, drugs and racial tension are rampant and this novel taps into both. I loved most of the story, the plot was clever and made sense, but I did feel that the final riot was a little over the top and the revenge scene involving Bashir was a little contrived. ( )