City of Sinners by A. A. Dhand

This is the third novel in the author’s series of Bradford set crime thrillers, and once more we’re in the company of Detective Inspector Harry Virdee. Harry is a Sikh officer married to a Muslim; a love match that has led both to be estranged from their respective families. He has a complicated relationship with his brother, a crime lord who controls much of the city’s narcotics trade. He’s not averse to bending the rules when a case calls for it. 

All of these ingredients come into play in the plot of City of Sinners which opens with Harry being called to the scene of a murder where a young woman has been suspended by a noose fashioned from barbed wire. Cutting her down, it’s discovered in autopsy that in fact she died from massive anaphylactic shock. Worse still, it soon transpires that the killer meant this murder for Harry himself, that he or she is taunting Harry and meant it as a message.  It isn’t long before there are further killings and the ensures that Harry knows that he himself is being targeted. 

City of Sinners is a departure of sorts for the author and his protagonist. The crimes at the centre of the previous two Harry Virdee novels have included homicides, but they’ve been much more political, much more linked to organised crime. This third outing is Harry’s first brush with a serial killer, and this gives the book a different feel. Similarly, a strong element of Dhand’s writing style has been the sense of place, the sense that his stories couldn’t be told anywhere but Bradford. While this book is geographically very Bradford - for example, that first murder is set in the city’s Waterstones bookstore, which is sited in a converted gothic wool exchange - the sociological aspect is missing in that strip away the landmarks and this tale could be set elsewhere. This isn’t a criticism, City of Sinners is still an extremely good book, and if anything demonstrates the author’s versatility.

There are wider political elements to the story, one’s that are clearly set to reappear in future Harry Virdee novels. The Home Secretary, Tariq Islam, and his dubious past in an off-the-books special forces outfit is one. As is Harry’s brother’s continuing relationship with the narcotics trade. While the convoluted relationship Harry and his wife Saima have with their respective families has a large impact on the plot.

Overall, City of Sinners is yet another brilliant crime novel in A A Dhand’s Harry Virdee crime thrillers, and is with the others, I can’t recommend this book enough.

5 out of 5 stars