Author: Eva Dolan
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: 19th June 2014
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9780099584391
Source: Goodreads Book Club
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon
A man is burnt alive in a suburban garden shed.
DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to investigate the murder. Their victim is quickly identified as a migrant worker and a man several people might have had good reason to see dead. A convicted arsonist and member of a far-right movement has just been released from prison, while witnesses claim to have seen the dead man fighting with one of the town's most prominent slum landlords.
Zigic and Ferreira know all too well the problems that come with dealing with a community that has more reason than most not to trust the police, but when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly begin to rise as they search for their killer.
Having read and enjoyed Tell No Tales by Eva Dolan, I was thrilled to receive Long Way Home as part of the Goodreads book club from Dead Good Books. Tell No Tales is probably one of the best crime fiction books I have read so far this year, so I was very excited to read the first in the Zigic and Ferreira series and see how it all began.
A man is found burnt alive in a suburban garden shed. DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Hate Crimes Unit to investigate the murder. The victim is quickly identified as a migrant worker, and a man that several people might have wanted to see dead. Zigic and Ferreira are no strangers to discrimination themselves, and when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly begin to rise as they search for the killer. The story gets going very quickly, but it took me a while to properly get into the story.
Eva Dolan does write what the reader takes to be a realistic and believable story, one that is all too easy to imagine as it's something we could wake up and see on the news or in the newspaper. It's a controversial read, and always thought-provoking until the final page is turned, and Eva doesn't hold back in her writing or with the strong opinions of some of her characters. The only thing I didn't like about Long Way Home was being right about certain characters and their roles in the story. I have to be ambiguous for fear of giving away spoilers but I was very rarely surprised or shocked reading this, and as I neared the final pages I was disappointed to see that there wasn't some big fantastic twist being kept from the reader until the very last minute.
All that said, Eva Dolan is definitely one of the most unique and exciting new voices in crime fiction, and the future certainly looks bright for this author. I do wonder though just what book three will bring to deliver something that is different to Long Way Home and Tell No Tales, but I can't wait to find out.
4/5
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