One Way Out – A.A. Dhand

A bomb detonates in Bradford’s City Park.

When the alert sounds, DCI Harry Virdee has just enough time to get his son and his mother to safety before the bomb blows. But this is merely a stunt.

The worst is yet to come.

A new and aggressive nationalist group, the Patriots, have hidden a second device under one of the city’s mosques. In exchange for the safe release of those at Friday prayers, the Patriots want custody of the leaders of radical Islamist group Almukhtareen – the chosen ones.

The government does not negotiate with terrorists. Even when thousands of lives are at risk.

There is only one way out.

But Harry’s wife is in one of those mosques. Left with no choice, Harry must find the Almukhtareen, to offer the Patriots his own deal.

Because sometimes the only way to save lives, is to take them.

One Way Out is the fourth in A.A. Dhand’s Harry Virdee series of books, but my first introduction to the character. Set just down the road from me in Bradford, the story kicks of with a bomb alert in City Park and the pace doesn’t let up for a moment from that point on. Early books were billed as Luther meets The Wire and I think that’s pretty fair – Harry Virdee is a great character who takes a… creative approach to police work, even moreso when his wife is in danger!

I loved this book – great characters, superbly atmospheric with a real sense of place (something regular readers of this blog know that I find irresistible). And the plot is superbly taut, with the author ratchetting up the stakes and tension as we go. It’s not just the conflict between the terrorist demands and the police though, there’s also the very current and real danger between radical elements – here the so-called Patriots, and the equally radical Almukhtareen. Oh, and then there’s Harry’s parents, divided over their son’s marriage to his Muslim wife.

Faced with the choice of sacrificing four people to save a thousand, what would you do?

The plot is splendidly twisty – just when you think you’ve worked out what’s going on and what Harry is prepared to do, the author will flip the switch and send you off down another track, all the while hurtling towards a great final act.

It might be my first DCI Harry Virdee thriller, but it won’t be my last. Looking forward to picking up the rest of the series, and to what A. A. Dhand has in store for him next.

One Way Out by A.A. Dhand is published by Bantam Press in June 2019. Many thanks to Bantam Press and Anne Cater for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.

You can find A.A. Dhand on twitter @aadhand or his website www.aadhand.com