Having recently been a wee bit disillusioned with British crime thrillers and some of their failures in presenting a realistic picture of multicultural Britain, Turn A Blind Eye proved to be a refreshing new thriller from debut author Vicky Newham.

Rooting the book in the East End of London in a comprehensive school, Newham, drawing heavily on her own experience of teaching in this environment. From the outset, we bear witness to a singularly authentic depiction of the daily grind and small moments of achievement that teachers experience in this most challenging of educational environments. With such a disparate array of cultures, differing educational achievement, and the often difficult family backgrounds of the pupils, Newham balances perfectly the everyday experiences of the both the teachers and pupils, the good and the bad, the challenges and the rewards. Giving nothing away, the series of murders that then begin to happen within the school, allows Newham to dig deeper into the teachers’ and pupils’ lives, and puts front and centre the question of the degree of responsibility teachers hold when their pupils school and family life begin to impact on each other, and to what extent their intervention can lead to harmful results. The suicide of a female pupil plays an integral role in the plot, and Newham never fails to treat this issue, and the reasons for it in both a sensitive, and balanced way. Equally, she applies this same degree of balance to the characters of the teachers involved, and their contrary responses, both sympathetic and less so, to the everyday troubles and pressures that the pupils experience, when cultural and familial conflict arise.

The multicultural tensions and difficulties of the schools and society are expanded in the book in the characters of DI Maya Rahman, and her partner DS Dan Maguire. Rahman is Bangladeshi, and Maguire is a resident of Australia where his Aborigine wife and children live. Rahman has recently lost her brother, having just returned from his funeral in Bangladesh, and the book is punctuated with a shifting of timelines showing the problems she has experienced in relation to her family, and the cultural demands that have so sadly resulted in her brother’s death. Although she is still in a state of grief, she is a determined and professional detective, unafraid to confront the stupidity of her superiors, and to ask uncomfortable questions to ascertain the truth. Maguire proves an interesting sidekick with the references to his life in Australia, and the challenges he and his family face, and the natural bonhomie and good humour that he injects in to his and Rahman’s working relationship. I liked the way that Newham portrays them both as inching their way to a comfortable working relationship, and the strength of this gradually grows as the book progresses, leading to a solid base for hopefully further investigations in the future.

As I have mentioned, their is a particular onus in the book on cultural and religious experience, and Newham deftly addresses the beliefs and tenets of Buddhism, Islam and so on. This undercurrent of religious and cultural tension is thought provoking and informative throughout, and the authorial voice is detectable but not overly obtrusive, as Newham seeks to balance her own first hand experience and knowledge within the boundaries of the story. As well as being entertained and engaged with the book as a crime thriller, I enjoyed this extra level of detail, which I found both informative, enlightening, and at times incredibly poignant too.

All in all, I found Turn A Blind Eye a well-plotted and compelling thriller throughout, and despite the fact that the reveal of the guilty party felt slightly disjointed in the depleted cast of characters in the overall narrative, I still felt that this was an assured and well written debut. Am looking forward to my next entanglement with Rahman and Maguire. Recommended.

I got this book because I like police proceduals and I thought the main character sounded interesting - a traumatic past adds interest and depth. However I have tried on a few occasions to read this but found it dull and meandering. The plot seemed unbelievable. I don't finish if I am not enjoying a book so gave this one up as a bad job.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my e-copy preview in exchange for this honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book as it appeared to be different from my normal reading. However, unfortunately, it just wasn’t to be as I found it difficult to follow, slow and laborious and the writing style just didn’t suit me.

I’ve become quite strict with myself regarding how much time I give a book and with this one I found myself flicking through after I’d got about 25% in.

I wish the writer every future success and I’m sure there will be fans out there for this new detective, but, I’m not one of them.

Turn a Blind Eye is a police procedural set in the Tower Hamlets district of London. This is a debut novel and features DI Maya Rahman, who was born in Bangladesh. A school headmaster is murdered and Maya is on the hunt to find the killer.

I found this novel different to most police procedural crime thrillers. Although it is Maya’s day job to catch the killer, most of this story is focused on the politics of school governance. It will appeal to readers of the Guardian newspaper but I found the droning on about diversity and minority ethnic groups rather dull. I think Vicky overplayed the race card in her novel. Exploring at great length her mother’s use of the regional language of Sylheti quickly became a bore.

The characterization of Maya is good but the focus of the story gets confused when a number of chapters are from the point of view of the teacher who found the dead headmaster. This interrupts the flow of the story and reduced my enjoyment of this book.

The plot was okay but somewhat unrealistic. It was regular “lets point the finger at every character” as they all could have a motive. The police investigation was routine with no surprises. There was the usual obsession with computers, mobile devices and social media.

I think Turn a Blind Eye is an okay, 3 star read. It has a social message but is not an entertaining or thrilling read. It was like spending the day at the Labour Party conference, although Jeremy Corbyn tells a far better tale than Vicky Newham. For lovers of regular crime fiction, Turn a Blind Eye is a disappointment. I feel that Vicky has exaggerated the differences between people of different ethnic backgrounds living in London and that irritated me as her story went on. But it does give you something to ponder, rather than the hunt for the killer.

I just didn't get into this one, due mainly to the style. This is a modern crime story set around a school in multicultural Tower Hamlets and Stepney, with no scenic tours and with a continous rollcall of anyone-but-English characters. Though no doubt the folks from Bangladesh, Somalia, Jamaica and Australia would say they are English now. I like that the lead character is a female detective.

We get a few paragraphs of conversation explaining the shift in the makeup of docklands London population. Some debates about school hiring policies arise, and how to cater for everyone when half the staff want halal and no alcohol and the rest want the opposite, but more so we hear of student suicides, stabbings and the like. Most recently the headmistress - thought it was principal nowadays - is killed during a power cut. This is quickly seen, by means of a cryptic message left, to be the first of a few killings.

Dislikes: 'the room honked of warm fat' would be acceptable in a quote, not so from the omniescent narrator. Writing is casual and doesn't attempt beauty. The police work is disjointed. Chapters vary from a half page to five pages in length, averaging three; sign of a short attention span. This doesn't give us time to get into the tale, especially as it frequently reverts to the childhood of the main police lead, relevant only to defining her character. The ambiguous messages left with the bodies are cliched and the author would have been better, I feel, to make something unique. Also the autopsy isn't really required to be shown, we just need the results.

Other readers may of course enjoy this book more than I did. This is an adult book with strong language and gruesome scenes.

I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

Turn a Blind Eye is the first book in a brand-new series set in East London and starring DI Maya Rahman. I found it addictive and got through it rather quickly. I did have a problem with the amount of errors in grammar and sentences that didn't completely make sense and I hope these will be ironed out before publication.

There have been a plethora of debuts out of late that are truly exceptional - this novel fits into that category perfectly. It's written as an intelligent thriller with lots of clever goings on and an engrossing story that is full of twisty surprises. The characters are well rounded and develop as you go deeper into the book. I especially liked DI Maya Rahman, she is such a super main character. There are also a few peripheral figures. Sensitive issues such as cultural practices e.g. arranged marriage, are deat with in a thoughtful and careful manner.

I am looking forward to further titles from Newham and will definitely continue reading this series when further books are published. Recommended for those who enjoy their thrillers with added intelligence and cultural intricacies.

I would like to thank Vicky Newham, HQ and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

This is a debut novel starring DI Maya Rahman investigating a serial killer. She has to investigate the significance of the messages left before the killer can strike again. A chilling psycholgical thriller which keeps you guessing. It's nice to find a new author with a great series starting. I will be keen to read more.

Set in London, DI Rahman investigates the death of A Head Teacher. The story looks at inner city problems and how communities have to work together to gt anything done. As a debut writer, Vicky has a great knack of describing the inner city workings and I certainly felt involved in the story. Recommended.

When D.I.Rahman is called in to deal with a murder at her old school she finds herself reflecting on her years there. But, although multiculturalism is clearly now much more established than it was in her day, tensions still exist. Rahman finds herself dealing with multiple killings and struggles to find that all important link that shall identify the killer. Vicky Newman, although writing a murder novel, sets it in a London where, although tensions still remain, multi-ethnicity is increasingly accepted. The characters in her novel range from Latvian to Polish to Bangladeshi but all work and socialise together. But nonetheless family tensions, never mind the ethnicity, prove as always to be the source of the problems that Rahman has to resolve. A creditable and feisty first novel.

Turn A Blind Eye takes a cold hard look at exactly that, the wrongs that go unchallenged in today’s too politically correct society. A police DI Maya-Rahman originally from Bangladesh but brought up in London knows only too well how prejudice, race and religion can get in the way of right and wrong. With lots of interesting characters in her team I hope this is the first of many in a series which offers a wealth of possibilities for great subplot development

Written by Vicky Newham — Mile End High is a secondary school in the heart of the East End of London. It’s had its problems in the past, but thanks to the leadership of headmistress Linda Gibson the school is now seen as a shining example of how multicultural education can succeed.

There are just a couple of blips in that record. One is the suicide of a pupil just before Christmas, the second is about to occur as this book begins. It’s the day before spring term starts at Mile End High and new substitute teacher Steve Rowe is at a staff meeting with the rest of his colleagues. The heating is on the blink, then a power cut plunges them into darkness and Mrs Gibson hurries off to find out what’s going on. It’s the last time she will be seen alive – and it’s poor Steve who finds her strangled body.

Enter DI Maya Rahman, freshly returned from Sylhet, Bangladesh, where she has been attending the funeral of her brother, Sabbir, who committed suicide. If that’s not enough to contend with, she is a former pupil of Mile End High and has a great fondness for the place. Rahman has a boss who is racist and misogynist and has little time for her, and she’s also got a new partner, DS Dan Maguire, freshly arrived from Australia.

It’s a great start to a debut novel from an author who herself used to teach at a secondary school in the East End. Vicky Newham obviously knows the area and her subject well, and she translates that into a book that quickly draws you in. Her depictions of a melting pot of cultures and religions are bang on target, and Rahman’s struggles with the twin pulls of her family and her job garner sympathy.

It’s a brilliant idea to feature characters who are all a little out of synch with the rest of the world. Rahman has spent most of her life living in the East End, yet still feels somewhat adrift from the people she lives among, while Dan, newly arrived from Australia, is struggling to settle in and has a great deal to learn about English ways before he can properly assimilate. They are still finding their feet as a team and we are there on the sidelines as a tentative trust begins to develop.

As Rahman and Maguire begin to investigate Linda Gibson’s death, a card found near her body gives them pause. It contains one of the five precepts of Buddhism: ‘I shall abstain from taking the ungiven’. It’s a cryptic message that bears little relevance to the victim, a woman universally well liked and respected. But that perfect picture begins to blur a little as the pair dig deeper. And when another member of staff dies too, another Buddhist saying at his side, it looks like someone is on a killing spree. Who has been earmarked as the next victim and can the police capture the perpetrator before he or she manages to strike again?

This is an engrossing psychological thriller cum police procedural with a twist of the whodunit, made all the more interesting by debut author Newham’s choice of setting and context. Forced marriage, child abuse, race and racism are all tackled head on in a novel that is both relevant and riveting at the same time.

Vicky Newham is definitely an author to watch. I particularly like Maya Rahman, a woman who sits astride two cultures and somehow doesn’t fit happily into either of them. This is the first in a series featuring Maya and I look forward to following her, and DS Maguire, as they develop further.

If Turn a Blind Eye sounds interesting to you, you might also like Western Fringes by Amer Anwar, a crime story set on the other side of London.

HarperCollins
Print/Kindle/iBook
£5.99

DI Maya Rahman is still dealing with the death of her beloved brother when she’s called in to investigate the suspicious death of the head teacher of her old school. When a second body shows up, it’s obvious they are connected, and they need to find the killer before it’s too late for the next person on the list.

Turn a Blind Eye was a really quick read which was great because it was what I wanted, and was lovely for a day out enjoying the sun. This is going to be an ongoing detective series following Maya Rahman so we immediately get a lot of glimpses into her personal life from the prologue where she is attending her brother’s burial (one we could have skipped in my opinion as I don’t think it added anything).

This book is not own voices but really represents how multi-cultural the UK, and particularly London is, and it contained a huge amount of characters of colours with different backgrounds and belief systems. Many of these beliefs come into play in the novel from arranged marriages, Muslim clothing, societal expectations within different cultures and religions, and then we also see a lot of sexism and misogyny - some of it stemming from archaic cultural beliefs - aimed at Rahman and other women in the book. There are characters in this book that definitely drove me mad because of how they acted to Rahman but also just in general like Asad Farnam who was just a horrible person and shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near children, or people, in general.

There are a lot of POVs in this book - we have Maya’s chapters, her assisting detective Dan and then we also saw chapters in the POV of a teacher called Steve who found the original body. While I liked Steve, I don’t think his chapters were altogether necessary bar the first one. It may have even heightened the suspense if we didn’t have some of his chapters and suspected him as the killer.

I definitely didn’t guess who the killer was but this book had such a large cast of characters, it was always going to be a hard one but that’s a good thing. I will most likely pick up the next book in this series to follow along with Rahman, and see what she has to investigate next.

A thrilling police proceedural about a serial killer targeting students and staff at an east London school, I really enjoyed Turn A Blind Eye for several reasons. Firstly I just couldn't put it down, from the opening scene at Maya's brother's funeral, straight through to the end, I was hooked. I particularly enjoyed the interplay of different voices and cultures, particularly the flash backs and the personal life of DI Maya Rahman.. As the narrative builds to its conclusion, I was also intrigued as to what really happened to Maya's father. I'm very much looking forward to reading the next novel with Maya Rahman in.

Thanks to netgalley and Harpercollins for this electronic ARC.

An addictive and well-written debut novel. Based in East London this novel is current and topical.Many twists and turns along the way. A definite page-turner. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

An okay read - and the cultural issues put a different perspective on what would otherwise be a fairly standard police procedural novel. Well written - although I did keep forgetting who some of the more minor characters were when they were mentioned later in the book and had to keep referring back. Overall, however, I didn't feel there was much new about this novel from what has gone before.

A new writer for me to watch for. I enjoyed this book from the getgo till the end. A nice mix of personal and work. I would recommend this book and definitely read the next in this new series. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review it.

Definitely recommended and a fascinating story which will keep you involved right up to the conclusion. Definitely recommended.

Thanks Netgalley and HQ for allowing my request for ‘Turn a blind eye’ by Vicky Newham, here’s an honest and unbiased review.

So....a really good read, a believable character. She is not rich, famous, beautiful etc., just a very real police detective who is a great role model for any female. She is honest, honourable and working through the normal day to day psychological stuff we all have to deal with in a way that is understandable and relatable.

It is a pleasure to read a story that has been written by someone with a real and working knowledge of the subject matter, not just research but from a background that truly understands the issues written about.

This is not only a really good read, well paced and written, but a help to the understanding of those issues that our modern multi cultural society deals with on a daily basis. As a college librarian I would like to wave a magic wand and get every student to read and discuss the issues brilliantly dealt with by this novel. I am a great believer in the way in which fiction, well written and researched or experienced can help with the psychological development of young people...and many older ones!

Thank you Vicky for writing this and please write a very long series featuring D.I. Rahman

Turn a Blind Eye is the first book in a new series and the debut novel by Vicky Newham. DI Maya Rahman is a interesting character and the glimpses in to her youth shows that her life has not been easy. Fast paced and action filled, this book made me sitting glued to my kindle, unable to stop reading. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and HQ!

This book could have been interesting if it wasn't for the incredible amount of logical errors, try-hard verbiage and bad grammar. Time is precious and I don't read to be annoyed by something stupid in every paragraph.

DNF at 4%.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.