Ex-Detective Lacey Flint has quit the police for a safer, quieter life. Or that's what she thinks. Living alone on a houseboat, she is trying and failing to get over the man she loves, undercover detective Mark Joesbury. But Mark is missing in action and impossible to forget. And danger won't leave Lacey alone...
When she finds a body floating in the river, wrapped in white burial cloths, she can't resist asking questions. Who is this woman and why was she hidden in the fast-flowing depths? And who has been delivering unwanted gifts to Lacey? Someone is watching her very closely. Someone who knows exactly what makes her tick...
I was very kindly given a chance to read this early by the publisher (it is out in the UK tomorrow) and I absolutely LOVED it. I confess, I haven't read any of the earlier books in the Lacey Flint series (this is number 4) , and I now feel that I need to know more about the character's backgrounds and stories, so I will be starting again at the beginning. This didn't spoil my enjoyment of this book as a standalone thriller at all though. The characters (despite my limited knowledge of their past-lives) are strong, realistic and quite fascinating, and the plotting is sharp, with twists galore and raising some very interesting cultural issues. Near the end I thought that I had an idea who the culprit was, and in the end I was right, but not before the story had twisted back and forth several times, with me absolutely gripped.
The River Thames is a fabulous backdrop to the story, and Sharon Bolton describes it brilliantly. I only know London as a visitor, and love wandering over the central bridges, looking down at the river. Here though, away from the main landmarks of the city, the Thames, with its creeks and channels, is dark, menacing and quite frankly terrifying at times. I'm not sure I'll be able to look at it in the same way again the next time I stop on a bridge with my children to wave at people on the boats below.
All in all a very well written gripping page-turner of a thriller. I thoroughly recommend it!
Looking forward to reading this!
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