‘Novels that illuminate contemporary issues while sticking to a stellar plot are rare enough to stand out. Nina Bhadreshwar’s debut set around a disused school in Sheffield does it triumphantly. The book opens with the discovery of the dismembered body of the school’s former headmaster. DI Diana Walker hears whispers about the dead man’s involvement in a financial fraud that contributed to the school’s closure, but her colleagues insist the murder was gang-related. There’s also an uncomfortable connection to her family: another teacher, who died in mysterious circumstances, a couple of years earlier, attended a black women’s book club that was founded by Walker’s mother.
Bhadreshwar, who grew up in Yorkshire and once worked in Los Angeles as a press officer for the hip hop label Death Row Records moves with ease between an inquiry into the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya where her mother was born, and a murder investigation in Sheffield that is obstructed by racism and sexism.
‘Bhadreshwar’s debut novel is set in and around Sheffield, where DI Diana Walker is investigating the case of a dismembered headteacher whose head has been found on the site of his now-closed school. Walker’s colleagues think it’s the work of an organised crime group, but she’s not so sure, particularly as another former staff member is missing and the body of a third was discovered, two years after death, in a bedsit run by a charity for victims of domestic violence. There’s a great deal going on here, with a very large cast, multiple points of view, and topics ranging from county lines drug running and corporate corruption to the horrors of female genital mutilation and the Mau Mau rebellion in colonial-era Kenya. While this can make for an airless, and somewhat disjointed, reading experience, there’s no doubting the authenticity of Bhadreshwar’s portrayal of people who, with no reason to trust authority, choose to take matters into their own hands.
‘Black* DI Diana Walker, daughter of Kenyan parents* and working in Sheffield, lies at the heart of this ambitious debut by a former journalist.
A dismembered head is found in a locked filing cabinet on the derelict site of what was once a failed secondary school. It turns out to belong to the former headmaster. But there is no apparent motive for the crime and some of Walker’s colleagues put it down to county lines violence. She is not so sure and starts to delve into the school’s background. It transpires that another teacher is missing while a second has been found dead. Add into the plot the coercion of black women and female genital mutilation, not to mention Britain’s colonial past and organised crime. The result is a fine story that is all but lost in other issues.’
*. it states clearly in the novel Diana is mixed race and her father is Scottish.
‘A new female detective is in town, investigating a grisly murder while facing racism and misogyny among her colleagues. The detective is DI Diana Walker, the town is Sheffield, and the murder is of a headmaster whose dismembered body is found on the derelict site of a recently closed school. The debut novel from former jouirnalist and teacher Nina Bhadreshwar delves into the fast moving multi-cultural world of Sheffield, taking on the different communities affected by the crime. The so-called Operation Kestrel flies off at pace, uncovering missing teachers, unreported crimes and silent witnesses. The death of another teacher complicates the investigation as well as the involvement of a book club which DI Walker’s mother belongs to. DI Walker is a worthy addition to the band of fictional female detectives and is set to become a firm favourtie for crime fans.’
'Prepare to have your expectations expanded for what the British police procedural can be and say and do. Not since David Peace's “RED RIDING” quartet has a homegrown policer shattered the ceiling and raised the whole genre to the skies. And Nina Bhadreshwar takes things higher still: adroitly “THE DAY OF THE ROARING” voices the too-often silenced, unearths buried histories both local and transnational to expose the crimes behind the crimes. This is a grimly gorgeous novel, never less than gripping and meticulous in its plotting and literary ventriloquisms. It gifts, not just a defiant future to the lives and legacies of those denied justice and agency, but also a defiant future to the British crime novel itself.'
‘”THE DAY OF THE ROARING” is one of the most startling and compelling debuts I’ve read, and heralds the arrival of Nina Bhadreshwar as one of the most original and exciting new voices in fiction.’
‘I loved “THE DAY OF THE ROARING”, and especially the character of Diana. Such a warm and humane book without straying into sentiment. This terrific first novel has everything I love in a crime novel – passion, interesting and rooted characters and a great story.’