AA Dhand: noir meets family in Bradford, the city of big ideas By James Collingwood
Writer AA Dhand has just published his third crime novel featuring the detective Harry Virdee. City of Sinners along with his previous two books Streets of Darkness and Girl Zero feature detective Harry and his family and the streets of this city. The books are brilliantly written page turners that also explore Harry’s family and his mixed religion marriage to his Muslim wife Saima.
Hi Amit. City of Sinners has just been published. It must have been a busy week for you. It was a busy launch at Waterstones last Friday I must say. People were queuing round the building which was quite exciting. It’s also been an exciting Bradford Festival this year. It just gets busier and busier every year. It’s good for the city It’s also really good to be part of and working at the Literature Festival. With City of Sinners I get the impression the Bradford locations are important. And there’s also a scene in Saltaire. City of Sinners starts off with the killer sitting in City Park by the fountains. The opening chapter starts with the dead body of an Asian girl who is found hanging about 100ft from the ceiling of Bradford Waterstones. Harry pulls her down lies her on the ground and finds her eyes are stitched shut. Then she does what a dead body should never do – her eyes start twitching. I really like using locations. I use the City Park a lot. This book also uses upper Leeds Road, Barkerend Road and Mumtaz restaurant. I also bring back to life the old Maestro’s nightclub. I went there a lot as a kid and I wanted to bring it back to life in fiction and it was lovely to do that. It’s a bit sad that it’s been allowed to decay the way it has. I’ve got a lot of good memories of that place. With the scenes located in Saltaire when I’m plotting I like to walk looking for locations and if a place is peaceful and tranquil what better place to add a bit of darkness! It’s about getting the best location for what’s about to happen. Waterstones is the most beautiful bookshop in the world but if you’ve got a body hanging from the ceiling it adds to impending doom (Waterstones staff loved that scene by the way).
Without giving away spoilers Harry’s family is obviously important throughout the book. The relationship with Harry and Saima and their family and in laws (particularly Harry’s father) is a major theme? I’ve always got two or three things going on in the book, so it never gets stagnant. Speaking a bit about Bradford we’ve got a large Asian community and within the community we have discrimination. Putting a light to Saima, well, she’s just a really nice Yorkshire girl. She’s just trying to win the battle of hearts and minds. I feel in life your perception of people and the reality are two different things. Especially in the times we live in now with identity, with Brexit and the far right. These types of stories are normally written in nonfiction, which I find quite depressing. Saima is never going to quit. Harry and Saima have that in common. The family story was just a story that hasn’t been explored in fiction before. It’s an attempt to break down stereotypes and clichés with the type of character Saima is. With a Muslim woman it’s normally very nuanced in the way they are viewed. I wanted to break stereotypes. Most Muslim woman I know are just cool Yorkshire women! The other thing is, Harry can be dark and edgy away from the home but whilst at home he pulls it back with Saima and his son Aaron. It creates balance in the piece rather than have the characters as too one dimensional. And without spoilers again things are kept open at the end. There’s going to be other books? I’m planning to do one book a year. I have the next one in my head. It’s not the end of Harry and I enjoyed introducing a few new characters which could develop.
