This book is compelling not because it's a murder mystery but because it incorporates a high school, the same as everyone he in their town. It also has a good dose of different religious themes in it and a school that is suddenly in middle of the murder of their headteacher, but was she hiding secrets too?
It is an amazing that this book covers so many current affairs and answers questions you are constantly asking it was very informative with regard to how different religions react to certain situations i.e.,forced marriages and suicides
I just couldn't put the book down until I knew who dunnit??? Not who I thought !!!

A very promising start to what is apparently a new series starring DI Maya Rahman.

I've read a lot of crime novels, and this one stands out. It's a multi-layered plot, weaving together the lives of the detectives, the teachers and supporting cast (family, friends) - with more than one red herring to throw the unwary reader off the trail!

I like the character of Maya - she's a strong person who's been through hard times and come through - and look forward to reading more in this series.

My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for my advance copy.

This has the makings of a really interesting series with a DI from a Bangladeshi background working in multi-cultural East London. It is well written with strong characters and background information coming through to round these out. A strong storyline set in a school made it compulsive reading and I was engrossed. I found the ending a bit contrived, hence 4 not 5 stars, but then I often do with crime/thrillers.

Turn A Blind Eye is a well-paced, well-researched, well-written and well-plotted police procedural.

The plot focuses on a multi-cultural school in Tower Hamlets, when a headmistress is found strangled in her office alongside a note featuring an ancient Buddhist principle. DI Maya Rahman is struggling to investigate, as many of the locals seem reluctant to help and there's a lot of tension bubbling under the surface within the community.

Author Vicky Newham has constructed a multi-layered and complex plot, with realistic characters and believable dialogue. She feeds titbits of information throughout her book, providing enough intrigue to keep her plot moving along steadily, but not so fast that you can't take it all in. There are twists, turns and surprises right until the end.

Turn A Blind Eye brings the East End of London to life, with a great sense of place and an emphasis on location. The book highlights local community spirit, cultural diversity and work ethic, and also isn't afraid to touch on racial tension, cultural clashes and educational issues. It felt fresh and authentic and in keeping with modern times.

I felt that I got to know DI Maya Rahman and her team well, yet the book left enough mystery for me to want to know more. I definitely want to read more Maya Rahman books.

This is a fantastic debut and a very promising start to what will hopefully be a great series.

Turn a Blind Eye is a solid and exquisitely crafted debut police procedural featuring a DI like no other. Maya is a complex and human character, and the tension in the narrative builds up nicely with a tempting array of clues. With an authentic cast of characters, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing to the end. It's an addictive read. My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

With crime and domestic noir being so popular at the moment, I am always looking for books that do something different to set themselves apart. This is it. Newham's debut had me hooked from the first page, and in today's times, where the demand for diversity to be reflected in TV and books, this hits the spot. Often I see characters, race and religion shoe horned into entertainment to tick a box, but in this book, it's natural. It's how the world is, and should be everywhere. People from all different walks of life and cultures, working together, loving each other, united in life. It's natural in this book, and it's a breath of fresh air. A stunning, culturally diverse debut from an author to watch.

I wanted to like this - but sadly it didn’t deliver much apart from some lessons in multi cultural Britain and an insight into today’s schooling. I found it difficult to follow at times, with me not really getting to grips with the characters. There are much better thrillers out there.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked the style it was written in and helped to move the story forward but by seeing it through different eyes. Nice characters too and an very engrossing book to read.

Turn A Blind Eye is definitely worth reading. It is about murders in a school in London. There is a lot written about multi cultural Britain and how it affects schools. I found this really interesting. Dan and Maya are both interesting characters with their own fascinating backgrounds. I enjoy reading books where you feel part of everything happening. I like knowing a lot about characters. This story is well written and interesting. I liked the pace of the book and I hope there are more in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I had not encountered Ms Newham’s work previously and enjoyed the book to a surprising degree, although - for me after a lifetime working in schools and local authorities - the setting for the first murder (a secondary school in Tower Hamlets) lacked an authentic feel in terms of the various procedures and actions of key players. On a more positive note, the author’s commendable interest in the difficulties experienced by the various cultural groups she has encountered in her professional work enabled her to provide a strong sense of the communities served by the school, which will be helpful to readers unfamiliar with multi-cultural London boroughs. Alongside a fairly conventional police procedural plot (bullying incompetent boss; false leads; and plenty of suspects) the book entertained and engaged interest to a high degree; some of the descriptive writing, in particular, was beautifully crafted to evoke a sense of being there in the moment with the lead character in the reader’s mind. Highly recommended.

I really loved this book, it was so much more than your usual detective novel and more of a social commentary on today's multicultural Britain. The investigation into the the murder at Mile End High School was more realistic than many without the usual American chase to catch the killer ending.

Delivers insight into modern policing in a multicultural society - and keeps the suspense going to the end.

It's a refreshing change to meet a police officer who is not an angst ridden angry depressive alcoholic male - a stereotype I for one am so very over.

This is a good story with more depth to it than simply the account of a crime spree and the resolution of the case: modern Britain is faced with diverse and ever-changing issues and today's police officers need more awareness, sensibility and diplomacy than ever before...and DI Rahman shows us just how it might be done.

Wanted to love this book but it just wasn’t for me.

Turn a Blind Eye was my second book of 2018. Based in the east end of London DI Rahman is in charge of investigating the death of the Head Mistress of her childhood school. You get to know DI Rahman quite well early in the book, which I think aids you to sink into the story.
The murderer has left a cryptic clue of a white card with a Buddhist precept, Rahman has to unravel this and the secrets of the schools staff and failings.
This is the first in a series of DI Rahman books by the looks of it and I would be more than happy to pick up another one.
I was given this as an advance copy by Netgalley and HQ in exchange for an honest review. I liked this book it was a gripping easy read, I give this 4/5.

This book had me hooked from the first chapter. Full of twists and turns, the story moved along at a pace with a surprise at the end that I did not see. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

A very interesting thriller about a Bangladeshi police officer investigating murders at a school in London. Very good to read and if more books were written ,I would definitely recommend them.

Well written, enjoyable psychological thriller. A 'keep on reading even though I am tired' kind of book. Guessed some but not all of the ending. Look forward to future books by this author.

Vicky Newham’s debut novel was not your typical detective thriller. We are introduced to DI Maya Rahman, a woman with deep personal tragedy trying to forge a career where other’s plight seems to rub fresh salt in to her wounds. Whether this forms a part of future books in the series, we’ll have to wait and see. Set in an inner city school where it’s open season on senior management, Maya tries to uncover the motives of the murderer and in so doing, exposes issues, which seemingly have been glossed over with tragic consequences. She draws parallels with her own grief and questions if lives could have been saved by sensitive intervention. Interesting, refreshing, reasonably paced and thought provoking.

A different take on the usual detective story.

A dead girl. A wall of silence. DI Maya Rahman is running out of time. A headmistress is found strangled in her East London school, her death the result of a brutal and ritualistic act of violence. Found at the scene is a single piece of card, written upon which is an ancient Buddhist precept.

At first, DI Maya Rahman can’t help but hope this is a tragic but isolated murder. Then, the second body is found. Faced with a community steeped in secrets and prejudice, Maya must untangle the cryptic messages left at the crime scenes to solve the deadly riddle behind the murders – before the killer takes another victim.
Turn a Blind Eye is the first book in a brand-new series set in East London and starring DI Maya Rahman, A female, Bangladeshi police officer

DI Maya Rahman, who mourns the sudden loss of her brother, then turns her attention to a murder case in the school she once attended. Filled with cryptic clues, this well-plotted story will keep you entertained throughout. There enough twists and turns to keep the most avid crime fan happy.

Many thanks to Netgalley and HQ for providing me with a copy this book in return for a fair and honest review

The book is set in East London and embraces the diverse multi-cultural aspects of the communities there. When the body of a head teacher is discovered in her office by a colleague at Mile End High School Detective Inspector, and former pupil, Maya Rahman is keen to lead the investigation, even though this means cutting short her leave to do so. Found at the scene is a single piece of card, written upon which is an ancient Buddhist precept, suggesting, if nothing else, that the murder was premeditated.

Like any good police procedural the book follows the pattern of increasing body count, increasing pressure on the team and a number of possible suspects. The setting of the school provides quite an enclosed environment which narrows down those potentially involved to a rather limited pool. With her own history at the school Maya takes on a determination to solve the murder and to protect the reputation of the school – two things which don’t always require the same action!

The pace varies through the book to give some fast-paced and intense scenes, balanced by the necessarily slower parts of the investigation and more introspective scenes for the main characters. Of the characters it’s Maya that we come to know best with a number of scenes taking place in the past, filling in important aspects of her backstory. Maya’s scenes are told in the first person, making them seem more immediate and bringing the reader closer to the character. She is a Muslim (although seemingly not a particularly devout one) of Bangladeshi origin, at the beginning of the book she suffered a loss but she’s anything but the traditional dysfunctional detective.

There are two other points of view used in the book – Steve, the teacher who finds the body at the beginning of the book, and Dan, a new DS unexpectedly thrust on Maya as a new colleague, who is an Aussie and has left his young family behind to work in the UK. There’s quite a lot of police detail and although I’m a fan of police procedurals I am tempted to think that this might be a case where the reader doesn’t need to know too much about different systems and acronyms.

Drawing on her own experiences teaching in the area the author paints a vivid picture of live in an inner-city school and some of the issues that they face – whether that be from dealing with the multi-cultural aspects of the students and their families or the wider pressure on performance and reputation. The book touches on a number of social issues, both specific (such as forced marriage) and the more general issue of what happens when different cultures collide in the same environment and how it can feel to be an outsider.

Vicky has set herself a huge challenge in writing in such personal detail from the perspective of a character from another culture. Authors are obviously doing this all the time, after all their job is to make things up, but there are going to be some people who will be able to read this with a much more informed eye that I can. I think the shame is that there aren’t many authors bringing a range of cultural experience to the genre. It will be interesting to see how the series develops in the future and which characters make it into the second book.