Transworld signs 'gritty' crime series set in Bradford

Transworld has bought a debut thriller series by A. A. Dhand, promising "to do for Bradford what ‘The Wire’ has done for Baltimore".

Publishers bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to the title from Simon Trewin at WME, with Dhand's debut Streets of Darkness coming out in June 2016.

First in the series, Streets of Darkness features suspended detective inspector, British Asian man Harry Virdee, who finds himself "walking a moral tightrope" to prevent Bradford from tumbling into anarchy after a seemingly race-motivated murder.

Transworld publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said: "A. A. Dhand evokes a Yorkshire landscape like you've never seen before. It is gritty, visceral and dark among these satanic mills, with a central character D.I. Harry Virdee who burns off the page with compellingly authentic force and whose voice gives an insight into the life of a city which is at once familiar and terrifyingly unknown."

Author and qualified pharmacist Dhand was raised in Bradford, and, after extensive travels and a stint working in London, returned there to set up his own business and to write. "The history, diversity and darkness of the city" is said to have inspired his Harry Virdee novels.

Dhand said: "Harry Virdee is a character who mirrors the city of Bradford; troubled by his past but determined to overcome it. I wanted a strong British-Asian detective who understands his heritage but puts his city and country before anything else. Harry is a man who will not put traditions and culture ahead of people; he is an obsessive justice-seeker who does what he has to in order to protect a city he loves."

Agent Simon Trewin said: "Dhand is the real deal – a grippingly authentic voice taking the reader by the throat and rarely letting go."

Streets of Darkness will be published in hardback on 16th June 2016, and Transworld will be producing three special editions of their early proof copy.