After You Die
"..a crime fiction novel of the highest standard. "
Synopsis:
A gas leak in a picturesque Fenlands village leads to the discovery of two bodies - a mother brutally murdered and her severely disabled teenage daughter left to die of neglect.
Dawn Prentice was already known to the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit. The previous summer she had logged a number of calls detailing the harassment she and her daughter were undergoing. Now she is dead - stabbed to death whilst Holly Prentice has been left to starve upstairs. DS Ferreira, only recently back serving on the force after being severely injured in the line of duty, had met with Dawn that summer. Was she negligent in not taking Dawn's accusations more seriously? Did the murderer even know that Holly was helpless upstairs while her mother bled to death?
Whilst Ferreira battles her demons, determined to prove she's up to the frontline, DI Zigic is drawn into conflict with an official seemingly resolved to hide the truth about one of his main suspects. Can either officer unpick the truth about mother and daughter and bring their killer to justice?
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Review:
A new novel by Eva Dolan is always one to look forward to and put straight to the top of the reading pile. She has carved a new niche in the crime fiction genre, focussing on a Hate Crime Unit and created two leading detectives the reader instantly cares about. Dolan is a crime writer of literary prowess. Her prose is smooth and elegant, her descriptive powers deftly rich and exciting. The crime is brutal and shocking - one can hardly expect anything else for a Hate Crimes Unit. Yet Dolan never gives in to sensationalism and treats the victims with the respect they deserve. This is why the reader is drawn into the story. With the flow of the story and the detailed scenes you believe you're amongst the characters and you feel what they feel. Zigic and Ferreira are a wonderful partnership. They're well-rounded, intelligent, and dedicated to their job. It is difficult to believe this is only the third novel to feature the pair. I feel like I've been reading them for years. As the story progresses and the plot unfolds, we're teasingly drip-fed nuggets of information and left on cliff-hangers to entice is to read long into the night. Dolan doesn't just know her characters, she knows her readers too. I'm sure she delights in the knowledge we'll be screaming at the pages when we're left on a knife-edge at the end of each chapter. 'After You Die' is a crime fiction novel of the highest standard. If you haven't discovered Zigic and Ferreira yet, then I urge you to do so immediately. You're missing out on a real gem.