This is billed as an award winning debut, and it begins well, with a grizzly find on the derelict site of a former school. The former headmaster is the victim, and two other members of staff are missing. DI Diana Walker is the investigating officer and finds herself chasing multiple leads, most of which see her coming up against brick walls.
As well as the investigation, the story becomes involved in her personal life - her relationship with her mother, and the visit of her grandmother MaMa from Kenya.
I enjoyed the read. It was well written but I found at times the many threads brought together in the story a little distracting. This had great potential, but personally I would have preferred to have concentrated on the investigation. Each thread introduced us to new people and I found myself keeping a note of who was who in order to remember characters.

I would like to thank Harper Collins, the author and Netgalley for an ARC of The Day of the Roaring in exchange for an honest review.

A mutilated body is found in a filing cabinet of a school being demolished. It is that of the headmaster and another teacher is missing.
DI Diana Walker is convinced this is more than gang violence but has to work hard to make her colleagues agree.
This is a well written book with distressing chapters about real life which is happening now.
It also looks at the role of the police towards women.

Nina Bhadreshwar blows away all the cobwebs clinging to police procedurals in a brave, innovative crime fiction debut. As a curtain raiser to a literary career this is pitch perfect.
The author uses fiction to shine a spotlight on some of the cultural and racial tensions of modern day Sheffield and uncovers a battery of heinous crimes, including female genital mutilation.
This is a novel full of strong female characters, challenging generational stereotypes, and a complex plot that spans continents and centuries without ever losing its focus. The narrative is evocative and compelling reading and littered with unexpected twists and turns.
The author writes with honesty and integrity enthusing hope amidst the darkness of a cruel world.

To be honest I went with this book by the cover and description and I though it would be a good crime story, but it didn't work out for me that way. This debut novel is an ambitious, multiple storylines that juggles numerous leads and crimes, at times feeling as though it could be split into multiple books. With all that and with shifting narrators, and changing dialects, while reflective of cultural and subculture nuances, it created slow-moving and disjointed reading rather than the snappy murder mystery.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Unfortunately too slow paced for me too many sub plots that made it confusing. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

I read some of the reviews prior to reading this book and many said it was hard to get into, had difficult to understand dialogue and different storylines. I didn’t find this at all and was glad I read it. Yes, it was quite long and yes, the Yorkshire and African accents had to be thought about at times but overall it was a very well told story that highlighted the problems of some African women from different cultures to our own and also of the deprived youngsters in British communities. The story begins with the dismembered body of a headmaster being found in a filing cabinet on the site of his now demolished school. A colleague is also missing. What message is this sending? As DI Diana Walker begins the lengthy investigation there are many more questions than answers. As she delves deeper, do those close to her know more than they are willing to disclose? This story does have many levels, is quite involved and details horrific events that stay with people their whole lives but is well worth a read if only to understand some of the real issues that we tend to gloss over if they don’t affect us. It is of course a story of fiction but highlights very real problems of FGM, drug use, violence and murder. I found it absorbing and while I had my suspicions about one person in particular it didn’t detract from my continued interest throughout this well written and researched book. I do recommend this and strongly suggest persevering with the dialogue as it is, in my opinion, worth a read.

DNF because I just could not get into the story and found some sections a little confusing.

I really wanted to like this as the setting is relatively local to me and I really did enjoy the slang/accented dialogue. I was intrigued by the mystery but quickly confused by some of the dialogue and range of characters.

This is the sort of story I would absolutely watch as a tv drama but just found didn’t work for me on the page.

DI Diane Walker is based at Sheffield HQ as a part of the Major Crimes Team. She is brought in to investigate a body part found in a filing cabinet on an old site for Legley Road High School. Where is the rest of the body? Who is the person missing their head? The discovery that the head is the Head Teacher for the closed school leads Diana down a rabbit warren of clues and how they connect. Diana is a determined character and gets to the truth by searching through the lies and deceptions told by the various people she investigates.

DI Diana Walker is faced with a whole lot more than she expected when tasked with investigating the death of a headmaster on a derelict site of a former school. Not everyone is forthcoming with information or help, but she knows that, despite her colleagues’ opinions, there’s something deeper behind the crime. Cue an almost one woman mission to search out the truth from the lies. Clever, and gripping equally.

I found the writing didn't flow for me. And it might just be me. And to be far it's a new writer for me and I definitely wouldn't say it's a bad book at all. It often takes a while to get to know an authors way of writing and how they structure a book. But it in reading sense the equivalent of being jittery. I was finding myself squaring back for repeat info too which meant I wasn't taking in important bits.
And yet it's not a awrite off so that in itself is telling.

This started off well and I was invested in the story straight away. However, the slow pace and multiple storylines just felt a bit messy and unfortunately this format just didn’t work for me.

I really wanted to like this book and indeed I did enjoy the walks and drives round an area that is local to me, the drive from The Peak District to Sheffield is one that I have done regularly and Pond Street bus station reminds me of my childhood but there it stops.
The story started well but then I just couldn't get into it and by half way through it was really dragging. The concept was very good but I think that the author has tried to address too many emotive subjects in too many sub plots that the story gets lost, I found myself forgetting who the characters were because there were so many of them.
I think that the author is good, she has excellent descriptive powers but this story was just too chaotic for me.
Thank you Net Gallery for this ARC, my review is voluntary

This book was not for me - although the aspects around FGM and Nigeria were interesting I found it predictable. I also have a particular irritation with poorly-written teenage dialogue, and in this book the younger characters read as damaging stereotypes of lower class marginalised people.

I will not be sharing a full review on my social media at present, but have posted this to both Goodreads and Storygraph

This was such a difficult read. I found the writing style hard going and couldn't keep up with what was going on.

This book sounded amazing and to hear it was award winning, I went into this full of excitement. Whilst this ended up being a good book, there were times when I was ready to give up as SO much was going on. My brain can cope with a lot going on at once, including twists and turns, but trying to figure out what the main focus of the book was at the beginning was hard.

That being said, I stuck with it and things all started connecting about 3/4 of the way through. So many important issues were covered in this book, but I did feel that added to the confusion at the beginning as I wasn’t sure what was being deemed most important to investigate.

I think the author had good intentions with this book, and it ultimately all came together to a satisfying ending, but I think a lot of readers may give up before then.

Although this is an award winning book it is a difficult book to provide a high rating for. It touches on many well researched topics but for me is a tough read that did not either grip of entertain me. Some excellent advisors acknowledged and some tricky subjects tackled well. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

I would so love to be able to be freely-spoken about this book but there are just so many people who will deliberately misunderstand what I would say.

Expletives are largely unnecessary in any book, including this one, and concatenating the four letter word to just the first and last letters changes nothing.

What can be said freely is that I will read anything else that Nina Bhadreshwar writes and has published and I found The Day of the Roaring a very interesting read on many different levels.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. Some great ideas for storylines but I just felt that the author was trying to put all her ideas into one book. Too many characters to keep track of and build relationships with. Also did not enjoy the sections of dialect used in some parts.
The author definitely has potential but I would like to see her working with a good editor and concentrating on one storyline

I enjoyed this book but it took a while to get into it. Interesting storytelling but the didn’t always understand what the characters were saying.

A gripping start.

When a dismembered body is found in an abandoned school, our main character, Diane, needs to solve the murder.

Meeting family members and their friends along the way, this book picks up pace.

Note to author, took me a little while to get back into around midway.....Then full pelt to a finish.

Definitely want to read the next in the series.