Tag Archives: eva dolan

April 3, 2017 · 5:10 pm

First thrills

This weekend I was very excited to write my first ever guest post which was featured on the wonderful cleopatra loves books site.

My post was part of a series she runs called put a book on the map. I was discussing Eva Dolan’s series of books which are set in my home town of Peterborough.

I really enjoyed writing the post, however it is very nerve wracking to see your own words on someone else’s blog. I knew when it was going to be published but I was almost too scared to look. When the comments started coming in I had to turn my tablet off and didn’t dare read them until I had a couple of wines in me. This was absurd as I don’t worry about posting on my own blog in the same way. I usually type them out and post after a quick spell check. For my guest post I wrote it and read it and rewrote it and read it and rewrote it again. I know Cleo has a much bigger following than my blog does, but honestly I spent more time on this than I ever did on any of my university essays’. Mind you this was much more interesting than anything I ever did at University.

This series is a great way of finding out about new books and brings to life the places where the novels are set. I think I even managed to make Peterborough sound like a place you should visit. Judge for yourself here. https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/put-a-book-on-the-map-bookonthemap-peterborough/

Whilst this was my first guest post I hope it’s not the last, and next time I might not be quite so worried about the response!

 

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February 1, 2017 · 4:51 pm

Watch Her Disappear by Eva Dolan – a review BLOG TOUR

watchI was lucky enough to be invited to join the blog tour for one of my favourite authors, Eva Dolan. Her latest novel is called Watch Her Disappear. When I read the first of Dolan’s series I was drawn to it because of the setting around the area where I grew up but that soon became a secondary motive for my interest. The series is superb and her latest novel is no exception.

Watch Her Disappear begins with the murder of Corrinne who was attacked whilst out jogging.  When DI Zigic and his colleague DS Ferreira from the Peterborough Hate Crimes division are called out they are unsure why. There have been a series of rapes in the area and they assume this is the latest one.  It soon becomes clear why they are involved.  Corrinne is transitioning from Colin and the murder could be linked to other attacks that have been taking place against the transgender community.

Watch Her Disappear is a fascinating novel, dealing as Dolan’s stories do with social issues, prejudice and hatred. The quality of writing is, as always, excellent and deals well with sensitive issues such as transphobia. Eva manages to write about it perceptively without sensationalising the issues, despite focusing as it does on murder.

The characters are well rounded, and just like in real life there are sides to all of them, some good and some bad. Personally I think that one of the things that makes these novels stand out are the two main characters. Zigic is the sensible family man who in Watch her Disappear is leading the team through an investigation whilst struggling with the demands of a new baby. Whereas Ferreira is the wild one sleeping with a senior officer and running off with her own line of investigation. They make a great team despite their differences and both draw on each other to move the investigation forward.

Lots of the locations such as Ferry Meadows where the crimes take place are familiar as places I went to as a child, which does add another element to the story.  I was delighted to get the chance to ask Eva what makes the area stand out for her:

‘Back in 2012, when I started the first book in the series, Long Way Home, Peterborough felt like the natural choice. It’s a city with a history of 20th century immigration, with a large influx of workers coming from southern and eastern Europe after WW2, to take up jobs in food processing and at the local brickyards. Later they were joined by people from India and Pakistan. Then the 90s saw the arrival of many Portuguese and Polish migrant workers, drawn to the agricultural jobs available on the fenland surrounding Peterborough. It’s the perfect melting pot, small enough for each wave of immigration to feel distinct but large enough to contain all manner of criminality. Peterborough has also become something of a magnet for media coverage of issues of immigration, social cohesion, and the recent rise of ultra right political parties, a subject I explored in the second book, Tell No Tales, so even readers who haven’t been there will recognise it as a place where these issues are in play.’

I also wanted to find out where in Peterborough Eva goes when she is researching.

‘I try to keep it all about the work while I’m on a research trip but Peterborough has a really great shopping centre that I can’t resist and I was happy to stumble across Clarkes, an amazing restaurant on Cathedral Square; it has a lovely intimate atmosphere and a small but frequently changing menu focusing on local, seasonal produce. It’s the kind of place Zigic would probably book for Anna’s birthday. But I think Ferreira would take issue with their slim selection of rum.’

Watch Her Disappear is an excellent novel that I would definitely recommend. It works well as a standalone, and you won’t lose anything by not having read her others. However if you haven’t read the rest of the series I would highly suggest you do.

If you want to find out more about the Zigic and Ferreira series, and Eva’s thoughts on Peterborough and the fens, then pop over to Cleopatralovesbooks on the 1st April where I will be taking part in her  feature Put A Book On The Map and talking all things Peterborough.

In the meantime to find out more about Eva Dolan and her series head over to some other stops on the blog tour:

http://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Biblio/Detail.aspx?blogId=1578

http://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/introducing-zigic-and-ferreira/

http://lizlovesbooks.com/lizlovesbooks/ones-to-watch-in-2017-watch-her-disappear-eva-dolan/

https://forwinternights.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/watch-her-disappear-by-eva-dolan/

You can also find out what novels Eva herself is looking forward to in 2017 at her column

http://wwwshotsmagcouk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/eva-dolan-on-her-most-highly.html

Thanks to Eva for her time and to netgalley for my copy of the novel.

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June 23, 2014 · 8:41 am

Win a copy of Eva Dolan’s novel – Long Way Home

Long Way Home pbkI’m delighted to announce that the lovely people at Vintage, to celebrate the release of Eva Dolan’s novel ‘Long Way Home’ in paperback last week, have offered 3 copies of the book as prizes to UK readers of acrimereadersblog. This was an excellent book and a review can be found here.

 

 

If you would like to win a copy all you have to do is answer the three questions below,

1) The founder of which high street pizza chain was born in Peterborough in 1929?

2) At what hotel was Agatha Christie found after her mysterious disappearance in 1926?

3) What session will Eva Dolan be speaking in at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writers Festival 2014?

To be entered into the draw to win a copy of the book email your answers along with your name and address to candic13@yahoo.co.uk. Winners will be picked at random on the 11th July and the details will be passed onto Vintage publishing who will be sending out the prizes.

Keep your eye’s peeled for a Q and A session with Eva Dolan appearing on this blog soon too!

Long Way Home by Eva Dolan

The start of a major new crime series from a CWA Debut Dagger shortlisted author featuring a detective duo from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit. A man is burnt alive in a suburban garden shed. DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to investigate the murder. Their victim is quickly identified as a migrant worker and a man several people might have had good reason to see dead.

Zigic and Ferreira know all too well the problems that come with dealing with a community that has more reason than most not to trust the police, but when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly begin to rise as they search for their killer.

is an Essex-based copywriter and intermittently successful poker player.

Shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger for unpublished authors when she

was just a teenager,

Long Way Home is her debut novel and the start of a major new

series. The second instalment will be published in hardback in January 2015.

 

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May 11, 2014 · 5:26 pm

Long way home by Eva Dolan – a review

Long Way Home is Eva Dolan’s debut novel. I ordered this book a while ago after seeing it mentioned on twitter. The story sounded good and the setting was interesting. It wasn’t until the book had arrived that I saw the author was appearing at the festival in my favourite New Blood panel. It’s not often I’m ahead of the crowd so I was definitely looking forward to reading this.
Long Way Home begins as is often the case with crime novels, with the discovery of a body. The victim has been burnt alive and left in the shed in the back garden of a couple. He is soon identified as a local immigrant who was quite unpopular amongst certain groups. DI Zigic and DS Ferreira work in the Hate Crimes Unit and are called to investigate. Alongside this there are other people being murdered and plenty of hidden secrets.
I really enjoyed this book. The story itself was good, although not the most complicated of plots; however the actual writing and the background made this fascinating. The story is based in Peterborough and is almost unrecognisable from the place I lived 20 years ago (and where my family still live although some members prefer to say they live in Stamford!)
Eva Dolan’s novel gives a graphic insight into the world of both legal and illegal migrant workers who flock to the fenlands around Peterborough in order to get work as labourers and farm hands. The story highlights the treatment that they get at the hands of landlords. Men are crammed 20 into one small room, whilst local residents rent out sheds and garages with no running water or heating. It was reminiscent of the slum lords of the Victorian Age. 
This novel will certainly never be a favourite amongst Peterborough Tourist Board (Is there one? I don’t remember being overrun with tourist attractions when I was a child) however the description of the places and surrounding countryside certainly add to the atmosphere of the book.
I wasn’t overly keen on the two main characters, I found Ferreira’s chainsmoking ‘one of the boys’ attitude a bit annoying, and I’m pretty certain that nowadays smoking has been banned almost everywhere a fact she seemed to ignore. Yet I suspect that they will both grow on me pretty quickly. Which leads me to my main bugbear with the book. The fact that it was advertised everywhere as the start of a series. Personally I felt this did slightly ruin the tension when one of the main characters got into trouble, which otherwise could have been a nail biting scene. However by the time I got to the end I had it enjoyed it so much I’m very glad there is going to be a second instalment. It was a fascinating read and I’m looking forward to seeing Eva Dolan at the festival.

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