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One good thing I’ve found about not having to write blogs every day, is that the addiction gets broken and I actually read more books. Mark Edwards is one of my favourite authors. He writes psychological thrillers, where scary things happen to ordinary people. I pre-ordered and have just read his latest novel ‘The Darkest Water‘:

Description:

Calvin finally owns the bakery of his dreams, in an idyllic village in the Lake District. After reluctantly following his wife Vicky’s advice to promote it on social media, he’s thrilled when a viral clip makes him a legend overnight. But then the creepy DMs start flooding in—all from a stranger who claims she’s his biggest fan.

Meanwhile, a local recluse is found on a nearby beach, buried to his neck and left to drown, and the community goes into shock. Why would anyone want him dead? And who exactly was he? Detective Imogen Evans, new to the Lake District, is under pressure to find out before the killer strikes again.

As the murder hunt gathers pace, Calvin’s obsessive admirer turns up right on cue after his assistant is injured in an accident, and to Vicky’s horror she’s here to stay. As events begin spiralling into darkness, is there anyone in this quiet backwater Calvin can trust—or have his mistakes already put him, and everyone he loves, in terrible danger?

My Review:

5 stars

The story starts with a body on the beach found buried up to his neck in sand. Leo James was a loner, a hermit, and doesn’t seem to have had a past.

Meanwhile Calvin, with the help of wife Vicky’s savings, opens up a new café in Elderbridge, a village in the Lake District. Business is slow, and assistant Tara advertises the café on social media. Immediately somebody called BlondieMel starts sending Calvin direct messages. When the café becomes swamped with customers, Calvin advertises for a temporary assistant. BlondieMel arrives, says her name is Mel, and offers her services.

Mel is being harassed by a local group of youths. Calvin, still grieving from his sister’s death 25 years before and wishing he could have protected her, now wants to help Mel. He speaks to the youths, but exhausted from working long hours at the café, falls asleep afterwards in Mel’s house after Mel had given him tea and biscuits to thank him for persuading the youths to stop harassing her. Vicky meanwhile thinks Calvin might be having an affair with Mel.

When Calvin returns home that night, Vicky is nowhere to be seen. Also, one of the youths, DJ, has been murdered. Detective Imogen Evans now has three cases to deal with; Leo James’ murder, DJ’s murder, and Vicky’s disappearance.

This excellent ‘whodunnit’ start off slowly, but suspense soon builds until the reader cannot leave the book alone until they find out who is behind the murders and Vicky’s disappearance, the reason why, and whether all three of Imogen’s cases are connected in some way. I had the culprit totally wrong!

An entertaining, suspenseful story.