4.5 ⭐️ out of 5.

This is a powerhouse of a book! I had to sit and think about it for a couple of days before giving my feedback. It’s an incredibly detailed book, covering some very complex issues , which I found to be very interesting and informative, but, I had to really concentrate and keep flipping back and forward to keep the events straight in my mind. I also didn’t understand some of the slang & vernacular (but that could be my age). Loved the main character and her Mother and Grandmother.
Overall a great read and I felt I learned a lot about a culture and times I previously knew very little about. Would make important and extraordinary TV.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Underneath it all is a very good story. In the acknowledgements, the author informs her readers that the manuscript was originally over 155000 words and was later cut to 90000. There should have been a further sizeable cut in my view. It was hard going for me, and I considered giving up on it a number of times.

There is a very good story here of a female black Police Officer dealing with some dreadful crimes with nothing but hindrance from all but one of her colleagues except one. There's little cooperation from the community nor from her family. It's an often used format in police procedural that works well here. The author has come up with a gem of a character in Diana Walker. The problem for me is that she has thrown in so many other issues around that story that overcomplicate and slow down the pace of the book.

For the basic story, I'd have rated this worth 4 stars, but the other things in there drag it down. They would perhaps be better used in one or possibly two sequels involving some of those character.

I, sadly, found this a bit of a trek to get through....I didn't feel the main crime was of sufficient interest initially and, apart from a nice twist towards the end, found very little else to inspire. The author tried to build up the cultural background of the main character but I felt this actually hampered the progress... and I'm afraid I see little, if any, point of the mention of FGM....it added nothing and was nothing to do with the main plot. Some things seemed to be fixated in the author's mind, for example the filing cabinet key...I've no idea why?

On a positive note, it was well written...just didn't really do it for me. Many thanks for Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC in Schengen for an honest review

Too many characters, plots and subplots, alternating dialect for the narrator, and unnecessary scenes. I was confused and bored with the story from quite early on and did not finish the book. In the end, I skipped to the final 20% of the book and even then, I struggled through it. The pace remained a dawdle and the investigation was going nowhere fast.

I could not connect with any of the characters and struggled to stay awake whilst reading it. Not a book for me.

Thanks to netgalley and Nina Bhadreshwar for this ARC. Due to be published 30/01/25.

This is a medium-paced story. There's a switch between characters at various points which doesn't disrupt the story at all. It gives an interesting change without us losing the story.

Diana is a strong character and you can't help but feel for her as she tries to work through their investigation with challenges from all sides. You can feel her frustration and determination throughout. I think she gets it from her MaMa who is also a strong character with a desperately sad backstory.

The content is a mix of police procedural who dunnit along with themes around cultural differences, gender imbalance and inequality and FGM. Diana is eager to do right by all victims in her case and unearth the truth the best she can. It isn't easy for her but things do come out in the open. I think the tricky part in this is the person charged with murders in the end. You can understand their actions and reasoning behind it but still, things should have been different!!

I enjoyed reading this and felt that it gave insight into practices(FGM) that a lot of people are either unaware of or ignorant to. Most assume that it's not something that happens in the UK or that it happens nowadays.

There are some great characters in this and you do get wrapped up in their individual stories, wanting to know more about them and wanting better outcomes for some of them.

Nina Bhadreshwar's debut is a down-the l;ine police p[rocedural set in Sheffield in 2010. For a police procedural to be successful, readers have to either engage with the police investigator or be interested in the crime. In this case, the crime, of a former school headmaster found in a filing cabinet on the site of the old school is just not that engaging or interesting. Which means the book has to rely on the draw of its main character DI Diana Walker (or chartacters as a second character Bruno gets point of view chapters). And while Bhadreshwar gives Walker an interesting family history (going back to Kenyan revolutionaries, she stuggles to make her a character that readers should care about or want to stick with.
Without a strong crime hook or an engaging main character and full of hard to read dialect, The Day of the Roaring becomes a slog through the underbelly of Sheffield.

It took me a while to get into this story and to understand the character of DI Diana Walker. It felt as if there were many plot lines alongside the expected misogyny and racism in walker’s work environment. It took a lot of effort to keep all the story threads and associated characters separated. Lots of good subject matter that is at times overwhelming.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A gritty crime thriller set in the north of England which is shines a light on a number of social problems there. However, the thread of the murder mystery itself got dissipated into far too many separate issues, and it became difficult to follow. It felt as though the author was completing a tick list of social problems to include and these were forced to fit the story rather than emerging naturally. Over-contrived.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me. I found it slow and confusing and by 25% I had no desire to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. From the blurb, I think I expected something with more pace.

A former school in Sheffield is being torn down, and in an abandoned filing cabinet on the site, dismembered body parts are found. DI Diana Walker picks up the case and is tasked with trying to figure out what has happened. After determining that the severed head found belongs to the former school headmaster, Diana is faced with a line of enquiry investigating the past teachers and school finances. However she encounters missing teachers, witnesses who won't talk, and people who haven't reported violent crimes.

Her colleagues insist that the murder is gang violence, over drugs or guns. Diana however insists there is something much more going on. Something that is being hidden, that nobody will talk about, and that she becomes determined to get to the bottom of, no matter the cost, personal or professional.

This story is complex. The case that DI Walker is working on is intriguing, and by itself could have been a really interesting story. However I found that it got a bit lost in the amount of themes being almost shoehorned into this one. Diana is facing a lot of racial and sexual discrimination at work, and that alone, along with the case she is struggling to solve is enough of a challenge. The only support she has in the department is from her partner, the rest of the team are set on it being an organised crime hit.

For me personally, the added themes of FGM, her grandmothers case against the British government from an atrocity carried out by British soldiers in Kenya in the 1950s, domestic violence, drug running, fraud and more, made for a lot of sub plots to keep track of. There was a lot going on, which detracted from the central storyline. Some of the themes felt rushed, or half addressed, because they were being fit into the story, where if they had been out in a stand alone they could have made for a great new story and not detracted.

Overall, a good read, showing good insights into challenges faced by a biracial, female detective, trying to make a place for herself, and trying to make a difference in the place she works. Diana is a strong character, she just needs to be let shine and not be overwhelmed by so much else happening around her. I enjoyed the story, once I shifted through to the key components, but I would have enjoyed it more had it been a bit more streamlined, and more saved for future books perhaps.

*I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

It's autumn 2010 and DI Diana Walker of the Sheffield police is leading the investigation into the murder of a former headteacher, whose severed head is found in a filing cabinet on the grounds of his demolished former school. During her investigation Diana is faced with racial and cultural tensions and divisions as she encounters missing teachers, pupils failed and let down by their school, the illegal practice of FGM, the legacy of an uprising in Kenya in the 1950s, and her mother's book club.

This book promised so much but it didn't manage to deliver. The mystery part was good, with enough twists and revelations to keep it interesting. However I felt that the book and its themes were too numerous, far-reaching and ambitious, and by putting so much in it ended up so that very little could be covered satisfactorily from a reader's point of view. It would have been better if some of it could have been saved for another book, as I would be interested in reading about some of the storylines in greater detail and with more attention given to them. I also felt that the pacing didn't work either, with lots of excessively long chapters, and some very short ones.

I think that the author has some great ideas and shows promise, but should save some of it up for another time. I would be interested in reading some more from Bhadreshwar, because I definitely think she has more to give.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book, it was very gripping at the beginning but fast became very confusing & slow.

Loved this one. A bit of a slow burn after the introduction but it did keep me gripped. It has a lot of underlying themes and narrative threads. An enjoyable thriller overall.

Thank you HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

The book started off with a lot of promise for a thrilling read but I was left a bit disappointed. There were too many sub plots and a host of characters to get to grips with. I did like Diana as a character though, although no one seemed willing to listen to her thoughts. I lost interest in the story around halfway through due to the multiple plot lines and was left feeling frustrated with the ending. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

The Day of the Roaring is a captivating debut crime thriller that introduces DI Diana Walker, a determined and fearless detective, as she unravels a chilling case in the heart of Sheffield. When the dismembered body of a headmaster is discovered at the site of a former school, Diana is thrust into an investigation that seems to spiral into more questions than answers.

At first glance, the murder appears to be another instance of gang violence, but Diana quickly realises there's something far darker at play. With missing teachers, unreported crimes, and terrified witnesses, she finds herself chasing shadows. As her colleagues dismiss the case as routine violence, Diana knows there’s more beneath the surface, something everyone is too scared to confront.

Her relentless pursuit of the truth leads her deep into the neglected underbelly of Sheffield, uncovering a world of distrust, horrifying secrets, and a new understanding of justice. The story doesn’t shy away from serious and sensitive topics, tackling themes of silence, fear, and the lengths people will go to protect themselves. These subjects are handled with care and respect, making the book both gripping and thought-provoking. While the content may be distressing to some, the author’s approach ensures these important issues are given the attention they deserve.

DI Diana Walker is a complex, multi-dimensional character whose personal stakes in the case make her investigation feel deeply resonant. The Day of the Roaring is not just a crime thriller but a sharp exploration of the silence that often surrounds crimes and the power of uncovering uncomfortable truths.

This book is a thrilling and emotional ride, offering readers an exciting start to what promises to be an excellent series. For fans of hard-hitting crime fiction with a strong emotional core, The Day of the Roaring is an unmissable read.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I did struggle with this book. I found the plot to be quite slow and it covered (I felt) too many 'heavy' topics, including FMG, drug dealing, financial crimes and sexual crimes. DI Diana Daniels is a black detective, tenacious but basically overlooked by her male colleagues. With so many 'lines of enquiry' the plot became more confusing than it need to be.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book.

Police procedural and a lot more besides - very good.

Diana is a Afro-Caribbean detective inspector called in to investigate a gruesome murder. Struggling against unhelpful colleagues, she encounters a heap of issues surrounding women and Afro-Caribbean women in particular. With an insight into all sorts of criminal activity, the novel is very much about the plight of women - then and now. The characters are particularly well-drawn and the plot moves along well, with added poetic descriptions at times. It's a very good detective novel. Recommended. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The premise of this one sounded so good. The severed head of the former headmaster of a school that is being demolished is found in a locked filing cabinet on site. Add on to this a female DI - Diana Walker, a Black woman who has moved from Sheffield for reasons that aren’t apparent at the beginning and who is having to contend with racism and sexism from her colleagues and whose relationship with her mother is strained. However, thread after thread seemed to be added to the mix - organised crime, drug running over county lines, fraud and even female genital mutilation (FGM). For me it was almost too much, Walker was trying to tie everything together and going against her superiors. Not only that but there was her mother’s book club and the women involved in that and her MaMa - her grandmother - who had come over from Kenya and was part of an action against British soldiers in the 1950s. So many threads and characters and I feel that there was too much going on. It was a dark read at times and the sections about FGM were hard reading. As for DI Walker, she was up against it, no one believed that this case was not about organised crime and she was out on her own a lot of the time, aided by Robertson who she was able to rely on. For me this fell short and I felt the tension was lacking and the use of dialect and jargon did not help. It was slow going at times but the way that everything tied up at the end was quite clever, even if it seemed a bit rushed. Any one of these threads would have worked perfectly on their own and I feel that pushing them all together diluted some of the themes which was a pity.

I have mixed feelings about this book as I felt it wasn’t quite sure about itself. It seemed like too many crimes being linked in tenuous ways. Was the book about fgm, drug dealing, financial crimes or sexual crimes? They were all in the book but linked in a rather tenuous way.

I won’t say I enjoyed the book but nor did I not enjoy it.

I wasn't a fan of this one. The setting wasn't nearly enough, being from near Sheffield, and it felt rather predictable.