I Was Dora Suarez

LoveReading Says

Like Derek Raymond; read Cathi Unsworth

Raymond was the man who turned British crime fiction upside down and stole it away from Agatha Christie and her heirs and injected a much-needed dose of cruel realism into his harrowing London novels. His influence has been immense and is recognized by a whole new generation of young new writers. Unsworth is one of the most promising new talents around and a self-acknowledged disciple of Raymond’s whose tradition she continues in contemporary settings familiar to us all.

Recommended:

Derek Raymond - I WAS DORA SUAREZ. A prostitute is assassinated in sordid circumstances and the cop in charge of the investigation makes it his duty to redeem her wasted life by solving a murder no one is much bothered about. A chilling book, though full of humanity and compassion.

Cathi Unsworth - BAD PENNY BLUES. A beautiful and painstaking recreation of the dark side of London’s swinging 60s; the bright lights, the music, the clash between rich and poor, migrants and hippies, all wrapped around the twisted and painstaking search by a policewoman for a young woman’s killer.

Reviewed by Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor.
More reviews by Maxim Jakubowski

About I Was Dora Suarez

An axe-wielding psychopath carves young Dora Suarez into pieces and smashes the head of Suarez's friend, an elderly woman. On the same night, in the West End, a firearm blows the top off the head of Felix Roatta, part-owner of the seedy Parallel Club. The unnamed narrator, a sergeant in the Metropolitan Police's Unexplained Deaths division, develops a fixation on the young woman whose murder he investigates.

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