What Doesn't Kill Us
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What Doesn't Kill Us
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Narrated by:
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Molly Hannan
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By:
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Ajay Close
About this listen
'This book is a must read ... a uniquely raw and authentic voice.' Maxine Peake
A killer stalks the streets of Leeds. Every man is a suspect. Every woman is at risk. But in a house on Cleopatra Street, women are fighting back.
It’s the eve of the 1980s. PC Liz Seeley joins the squad investigating the murders. With a violent boyfriend at home and male chauvinist pigs at work, she is drawn to a feminist collective led by the militant and uncompromising Rowena. There she meets Charmaine – young, Black, artistic, and fighting discrimination on two fronts.
As the list of victims grows and police fail to catch the killer, women across the north are too terrified to go out after dark. To the feminists, the Butcher is a symptom of wider misogyny. Their anger finds an outlet in violence and Liz is torn between loyalty to them and her duty as a police officer. Which way will she jump?
Ajay Close combines the tension of a police procedural with the power and passion of the women’s lib movement. By turns emotional, action-packed and darkly funny, What Doesn’t Kill Us reveals just how much the world has changed since the 1970s – and how much it hasn’t.
©2024 Ajay Close (P)2024 SarabandCritic reviews
“Vivid and visceral.” Val McDermid
“Taut, atmospheric and beautifully observed.” Brian Groom
"Immensely humane, a book of huge themes and minutely observed characters … with a warm intelligence, compassion and wit.” Ewan Morrison
“Beautifully written, stark and relevant.” Caro Ramsay
What listeners say about What Doesn't Kill Us
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jennifer Coldwell
- 30-04-24
Brilliant book
Another terrific book from Ajay Close. She captures the atmosphere of that horrifying time when the Yorkshire Ripper had us all on tenterhooks. Every detail (macrame, Izal, eiderdowns), the way men spoke about and to women, conjured up that appalling time. I was gripped. The characters are vivid and familiar and I miss them.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- W. R. O'Neill
- 05-04-24
Vivid, intelligent historical novel
What an amazing book! When you are reading truly great historical novels, like Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, you feel like you have been inside the minds of the leading character. When you finish one, like Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong, you feel, not that you have read a fine book, but that you have lived through the times and experienced the lives of the protagonists; they are now part of you. This brilliantly written book combines both qualities. We live alongside the vivid inner lives of the main character, Liz, an ambitious young WPC, and Charmaine a young art student of colour, as they seek to shape their lives against the grain of sexist institutions in Leeds during the time of the Yorkshire Ripper. The everyday life of the period is evoked with loving, cinematic accuracy. Those who lived through it will nod with recognition as the music of the period rings in their ears. For younger listeners it will be a voyage of discovery into a strange land of people smoking indoors and telephone boxes - though they will also wonder how much has really changed.
Like the protagonists of Close’s earlier novels, Liz is fully embodied; we don’t just listen in on her stream of consciousness, we experience her physical sensations of being in pubs and at crime scenes, of being intruded upon by self-regarding sexist policemen and of discovering an intimacy that is more than sex. We experience her relief at the support she finds from a women’s liberation collective and her growing confidence as she explores her working class as well as her gender identity. We feel the energy and excitement of the fierce debates about how best to respond to the whole spectrum of male domination, from casual catcalls to sadistic murder. All of this is carried along by a thrilling narrative, written with a sparkling intelligence and a sharp wit. The reading by Molly Hannan is compelling, distinguishing the individual characters clearly, so that it is easy to follow. She captures the range of Leeds accents brilliantly, and revels in Liz’s deadpan humour. Highly recommended.
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