Title: Watch Her Disappear
Author: Eva Dolan
Publisher: Vintage (Penguin)

[Synopsis]

YOU CAN RUN FROM YOUR PAST. BUT YOU CAN’T RUN FROM MURDER.
The body is found by the river, near a spot popular with runners.
With a serial rapist at work in the area, DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are initially confused when the Hate Crimes Unit is summoned to the scene. Until they discover that the victim, Corinne Sawyer, was born Colin Sawyer.
Police records reveal there have been violent attacks on trans women in the local area. Was Corinne a victim of mistaken identity? Or has the person who has been targeting trans women stepped up their campaign of violence? With tensions running high, and the force coming under national scrutiny, this is a complex case and any mistake made could be fatal…

[My Review]

Watch Her Disappear, the fourth in the DI Zigic and DS Ferreira series, is another great Detective novel by Eva Dolan She’s an author I’ve only read one other book by (After You Die – read my review here) so far, which I also hugely enjoyed!
DS Ferreira is back, and still a really cool character – strong, opinionated and fiery – which makes you want to read more about her and her working relationship with Detective Inspector Zigic, who I also really like. Together they make a great team heading up Peterborough’s Hate Crimes unit, and it’s quite refreshing to read a crime novel that isn’t strictly set in the CID department, but instead Hate Crimes, and in my home city of Peterborough (strange to read about murders and such in Ferry Meadows, somewhere I used to go a lot when I lived in Peterborough!)
I found the subject matter really interesting, and learning more about men or women transitioning to a different gender. It’s not something I personally know a huge amount about, but from reading Watch Her Disappear it feels like the author has done her research, and presented it all in a convincing, reasoned way. She has approached a difficult subject really well, in my opinion; it’s just a shame more people (such as some of those in the novel) don’t treat the subject with a bit more compassion and understanding.
There’s plenty of shocking moments and grit in this novel, but it never feels superfluous or overexaggerated, and I like her writing style. The characters involved – for example Corrinne and Nina – aren’t black and white ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and the narrative really makes you think about whether someone is as bad as they’re made out to be, or whether someone else (who everyone might put on a pedestal) might be at fault too. I really hate when characters are oversimplified – it makes me feel insulted as a reader, but I know I’m never in danger of feeling like that with a well-written crime novel – and this certainly falls into that category!
I am so pleased that Watch Her Disappear is as well written and intriguing as After You Die, with twists and turns leading the reader skillfully to the final conclusion, and I certainly will be reading more by Eva Dolan!

[Rating: 5/5]

Watch Her Disappear is out in the UK on 28 February.

Many thanks to Vintage Books for providing a copy of this novel, on which I chose to write an unbiased and honest review