Firstly, thank you to the publishers for allowing me an early review copy. Having read his first two books I was very keen to get my hands on the third! My verdict: Brilliant! Kept me hooked in with all the twists and turns and leaves a couple of questions buzzing in your mind to ensure book 4 is now very much needed!! A very dangerous opening in this book for Waterstones Book Sellers beware of this.. However, there is certainly going to be a BUZZ about it! One of the best thrillers I have read this year!

City Of Sinners by AA Dhand is another compulsive crime thriller in the Harry Virdee series that had me hooked from the start. Once more the reader returns to Bradford to join Harry Virdee in his fight against crime. Harry Virdee is a policeman fighting to clean up the streets of Bradford. He does what needs to be done to keep those he loves safe and to clean up the streets of the city he inhabits. All the characters were well drawn, eliciting various emotional responses from the reader. We ‘see’ the action through the eyes of Harry Virdee but we also ‘hear’ the voice of the killer from the start. We have to work out who it is… I failed miserably at that – again! Honor runs throughout the families and hate runs deep. “Forgiving is much harder than carrying hate.” Some characters work hard at forgiving. Others cling to hate but this only serves to destroy them from the inside out. Stereotypes loom large in the mind of some. “He cannot see me for who I am. Only for what I am.” Family is important. Family rifts have gone on for far too long. Is it time to work at reconciliation now? The past collides with the present as events in the past link to present crimes. I absolutely love this Harry Virdee Thriller series. I am always engrossed from the start. Harry Virdee is a very likable main character who gets things done. I think each book would make a fabulous Netflix series.

AA Dhand once again uses his knowledge of Bradford, racism to take the reader on a tour de force of a thriller. As an author Dhand has the wonderful ability of being able to draw in the reader, and in what seems five minutes you are one hundred pages in and cannot book the down. As someone that lives on the correct side of the Pennines, he actually makes Bradford, on the wrong side of the Pennines sound interesting. Harry Virdee is called out to a case in the middle of Bradford, when he arrives, he asks his inspector what the call is about. Entering the bookshop dangling from the roof is a dead woman, it could be suicide he thinks, when he gets closer things take a turn. He notices there has been a struggle and that the victim besides being Asian has been hung with barbed wire. It is during the autopsy that things take a turn for the weird, as they eyelids are moving while on the table, and they all know she is dead. When then unpick and open the eyelids a wasp flies out of each eye socket, where the eyes once were. These wasps were definitely not the common sort of wasp that is seen in Britain. When a message is also pulled out of the window socket addressed to Harry, he has no idea what he is about to embark on. As another dead body turns up, it appears that Harry is being taunted by the murderer, who is accusing him of knowing the reason why the murders are happening. Pity Harry cannot see it just yet, but when it comes closer to home, he starts to ask the right questions, but then he may need to go beyond the law. Once again AA Dhand has crafted a brilliant thriller which leaves you questioning all the time. It also shows that every family in every community, no matter the heritage can be dysfunctional. He tackles issues that where others fear to tread and does it brilliantly. An excellent thriller and Harry Virdee as a character continues to develop and I cannot wait for his next outing.

I actually discovered A. A. Dhand whilst in a bookshop scouring the shelves for more books to purchase to add to my frankly ridiculous library. I am just as bad as one of those you see on a programme such as Hoarders From Hell! But like many of you bibliophiles out there and on this site, I can't help myself. I live by the mantra that you can never have too many novels, never. The A. A. Dhand I came across in the shop was "Streets of Darkness", the first in the Harry Virdee series which I bought and swiftly read. Superb and exactly what I look for from the crime genre - gritty and gripping. However, I have not had the chance to turn my attention to the second - "Girl Zero". I did in fact naively assume that this was the sequel to SoD. I don't feel that having not read the second in the series made me any worse off or made any difference to my level of enjoyment. That said, although the story is wholly contained within this book and could easily pass as a standalone, I think it is best to have read the first two in chronological order. I say this because I particularly appreciate how the characters develop through the series and also hearing their background. I may have missed some of that information that was set out in "Girl Zero". So although not essential I would say it is preferable as it would be with regards to other series too. The plot is action packed from beginning to end which holds your attention very well. There are a couple of threads to the story, one of the issues the book raises is just how prevalent rascism is and how bad it can get for some people who are victims of it. This was an eye-opener to say the least - I cannot stand any form of discrimination and am an opened-minded person about a lot of things so this upset me a little. Unfortunately, this is our reality right now and it may get progressively worse with the likes of Trump in power. I also appreciated that Harry's family also have quite a significant role in the plot. All in all, this is an exhilarating and exciting series that I will definitely continue with. I can't wait to immerse myself once more in the murky world that Harry Virdee has to deal with. There aren't many thrillers I can think of who use the setting of Yorkshire to explore and investigate crime. Dhand is another writer who illustrates exactly why British crime fiction is some of the best in the world. Many thanks to Bantam Press for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

A book which opens with a dead body in the actual shop I work in? One where I am actually name-checked as a character? Of course I loved it! The fact that it also has a killer sting in its tail and is twistier than barbed wire helps too...