THE DROWNING ISLE (2024) ***
by Simon McCleave
This paperback edition published by Avon, 2024, 367pp
First published in 2024
© Simon McCleave, 2024
ISBN: 978-0-00-862019-6
Blurb: When a teenage boy goes missing on a camping trip with his friends, the close-knit community of Anglesey is shaken. DI Laura Hart is brought in to lead the murder investigation and instantly feels the pressure, not least because her colleague’s son was the last to see the missing boy alive. Laura’s investigations force her to delve into the tangled web of relationships and personal lives of her own neighbours. The trail leads her to uncover a religious cult called The Fair Men, who locals say have a dark history and still hold their ceremonies on the island where the boys were camping. But could it be that yet more secrets are hidden behind closed doors?
Comment: The fourth book in McCleave’s Anglesey Crime series has all the virtues and faults of the previous three. Like the previous books in the series, this is a very readable mystery with engaging characters, written in a format that would suit a TV mini-series. McCleave’s prose often suffers from a condescending approach to his readers. he feels the need to spell out character thoughts, which serves to over-emphasise situations for dramatic effect. The story arc, relating to the death of Laura Hart’s husband in the first book, continues here and is dealt a cliffhanger finale, which will urge readers to return for the forthcoming fifth book, DEAD IN THE WATER. McCleave churns his books out at a significant rate with two ongoing series (the other being his DI Ruth Hunter books), and the result is a fairly formulaic approach. That said, I still find his books entertaining enough to return for more.
