A refreshing voice, a great read.

For complete review, please click on the link below:

https://onerightword.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/girl-zero-aadhand.html ( )

I really like this series, and not just because of the Bradford setting (even the village where I live got a mention in this instalment!) - but I was a tad confused by the plot, I must confess. Human trafficking/white slave trade, check. 'Girl Zero' of the title out for revenge, nice twist. But what was all the weirdness with the bleach-bathing weirdo about - and did he go after Harry's wife or not? I felt like I missed a chapter. The characters are all great and I'l definitely keep reading, but - eh? ( )

Girl Zero – Hard not to sit in judgement

Detective Inspector Harry Virdee is a senior officer based in the city of his birth, Bradford. He believes there is nothing much that can really shock him about the City’s dark underbelly, but Girl Zero and this case will shake him to the core. When he is called out in the middle of the night, little does he know that he will be standing over the body of his murdered niece.

His boss tells him that he is far too close to work the case, and that a detective that he mentored will head up the murder inquiry. He does ask to break the news to his family, which is agreed too, little do his colleagues know that he is estranged from his Sikh family. When he tells his family, he knows that he will have to be careful how to tell his family and even more so his brother Ronnie. It does not help that Ronnie controls the drug supply for the city and could cause all sorts of problems for the investigation.

Harry must run his investigation off the books and keeps his brother informed about what he finds. What Harry had not expected was that his niece had been tracking single mothers who had gone missing with their female child, and the mother turning up dead. A victim nobody would miss, and a child nobody would give a second thought about. As he digs deep, he finds that some men of Pakistani origin are involved in trafficking children around Bradford so that they may be abused.

Harry realises that he will somehow have to not only find the murderer of his niece but he will also do as much as he can to prevent another murder. Only at the end does Harry realise what he is up against and he will fight for truth and shine a light on this dark episode.

This is a tense thriller that makes you want to question how much do you really know about the darkest part of your city. This is a frighteningly relevant city about a divided northern city, and it could be any city, not just Bradford, that makes you want to ask, are you willing to ask a sub-set of men some tough questions about their attitudes towards people of another religion, another sex. This really an exposition of people’s morals and how fear of offending has allowed some people to offend without little challenge.

AA Dhand really challenges the reader and their misconceptions of people and places, and delivers a story that terrifies while being compelling. This is not a standard police procedural thriller, this is one that asks the question what would you do? Harry Virdee is destined to come to the small screen, I just hope TV can do justice to this fabulous character, and challenge the prejudices we all hold.

This is a sombre, tense slice of the deepest darkest parts of Bradford’s underbelly, and it is one that will keep the reader hooked. ( )

Harry Virdee is looking forward to celebrating Diwali with his wife and son but gets called out to a murder scene. He is shocked to find that the victim is his niece, Tara. Breaking the news to Ronnie he is aware that Ronnie will be out for revenge and Ronnie operates on the other side of the law. However as Harry investigates he realises that Tara was involved in something much bigger and more serious that any issues to do with family. Young white girls have been going missing, undetected, and another one is set to 'disappear' in a couple of days.

I really enjoyed Dhand's first novel and this one is even better. In fact I can forgive the rather rushed ending because what makes this book so good is the understanding of a multicultural setting such as Bradford. I know the area well and Hand obviously does because it is not a case of white versus asian, the tensions between Sikh and Muslim are put centre stage. Whilst the plot is a little far-fetched, it does draw on the well-documented concerns about grooming and child abuse at its heart. Harry Virdee is a complex character and this story is very much about him, the police force barely figures. The ending leaves the way open to a next book in the series and I look forward to it. ( )