JUSTICE FOR ALL

If you like your crime writing cosy and nostalgic, step away now. But if Iyo your idea of a cracking contemporary crime novel is one that interrogates the wrongs society commits against the overlooked and underprivileged, then check out Eva Dolan – outstanding crime writer as social justice warrior.

For example, the issue of land contamination doesn’t sound a promising premise to base a novel on, let alone one as gripping as Eva’s latest, One Half Truth, the latest in her DI Zigic and DS Ferreira series. But in her hands, investigating the murder of a young journalist exploring the web of crime and corruption that spins out from a shady property deal creates a propulsively thrilling read that illuminates the ripple effects social injustice has on people who’ve already been clobbered by profiteers.

‘The crime on the surface is representative of the deeper narrative in society,’ explains Eva. ‘Looking at deeper levels of crime is exactly what I want to do. You can write about anything you want in crime fiction as long as you get to a murder. I’m thinking, someone will kill over this. We have literally book after book where a woman is killed – so how to get people to understand that land contamination is something people could kill about? That’s very different. Yeah, we’re living on contaminated land, breathing contaminated air – you need to get people to see how high the stakes are.’

is Eva’s seventh novel, and the sixth in the Zigic and Ferreira series. She