DEAD IN THE WATER (2024) ***½
by Simon McCleave
This paperback edition published by Avon, 2024, 345pp
First published in 2024
© Simon McCleave, 2024
ISBN: 978-0-00-862024-0
Blurb: When a seventeen-year-old girl vanishes from her home overnight, DI Laura Hart knows that time is of the essence. Then, an inmate at the local prison is murdered in her cell and suddenly Beaumaris CID is juggling two major investigations. With inmates refusing to talk to the police, Laura is forced to take drastic action: going undercover behind bars. With everyone under suspicion, Laura’s true identity must be kept a secret, meaning no one can protect her. Locked in with a killer, it’s a race against time – can Laura find a lead… before she’s found out?
Comment: Simon McCleave must be one of the most productive writers out there. Since 2020, he has written 25 novels across three series. This is the fifth book in the entertaining Anglesey Crime series featuring DI Laura Hart. This book becomes more of an ensemble piece as the team, led by Laura’s fiancee, DI Gareth Williams, tackles two cases. The first is a murder that has taken place in a prison, and the second is the case of a missing teenage girl. As Laura goes undercover in the prison to investigate the former, DCs Andrea Jones and Charlie Heaton investigate the latter. Of course, as the plot thickens the two cases become inter-linked. McCleave keeps the pace fast with short chapters and easy prose. His need to spell out everyone’s thoughts remains, but feels less annoying here. What we have is a tense and exciting thriller, which, at times, stretches credulity, but delivers another entertaining entry in a winning series. Note: The book opens with a resolution to the cliffhanger we were left with at the close of ‘The Drowning Isle’. It feels incongruous and perhaps should have been seen to its conclusion in that book.
