This is not my first Robert Bryndza work, having read and enjoyed Fatal Witness from his Erika Foster series earlier this year. This is the fourth instalment and my first experience of his Kate Marshall series though, and it more than stood on its own and certainly didn’t disappoint. While recovering in hospital after almost drowning, Kate meets Jean who asks for her help in locating her grandson Charlie, who has been missing for over a decade. To get to the bottom of the case, Kate and her partner Tristan must dig into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance, the mysterious death of a social worker linked to Charlie’s disappearance, as well as the suspicious goings on in a local book club. The clues that the author leaves along the way led me down several different plot paths that ultimately proved to be wrong, before he ultimately brought them all together in a very satisfying and exciting conclusion!

Kate is an ex police officer working as a PI, taking on cases with the support of her younger colleague Tristan. She happens to get caught up in a riptide which sees her end up in hospital, and it is there that she talks to Jean, who tells her the sad story of the disappearance of her grandson, Charlie, a decade ago. Jean was wild camping with her daughter and her partner and Jean’s ex-partner happened to turn up unexpectedly. Whilst she was managing his drunken behaviour, the child seemed to have wandered off. Several hours of searching threw up no trail and in the early hours of the next day, the police were called. He was never found, but Jean has a sense that his story didn’t end in one of the bogs or drains, or in the raging local river, as was surmised at the time. Once fit enough to leave hospital, Kate and Tristan start to pore over the details of the original investigation. They discover all kinds of aspects that, they know, must build a fuller picture, including the brutal murder of a social worker who was involved in overseeing Jean and her relationship with Charlie. This is a nicely paced novel that moves around, picking up clues and piecing them together. I did guess quite early on what the likely outcome might be and that is probably because I have only recently read a novel with a similar storyline and similar outcome. I listened to this as an audiobook and although I liked the voice of the narrator for the majority of the experience, I sometimes felt that she was a little overly dramatic as though she was reading from a pulpit at times.

Three-year-old Charlie was left alone in a tent on Dartmoor while his grandmother, June, nipped out for a smoke. When she returned he had vanished. Eleven years later, June is in hospital and finds herself next to Kate Marshall, who has been admitted after nearly drowning during an early morning wild swim in the sea. Kate, a former Met Detective, is a Private Investigator, and June tells her about the disappearance. Despite being on antibiotics to treat the pneumonia caused by the sea water, Kate, with her assistant, Tristan, takes on the job. Although there had been an extensive search and a police investigation no trace had been found and the conclusion was that he had fallen into a nearby river and been swept into a sinkhole beneath the moor. Kate and Tristan find a number of lines that seem to have been missed at the time, poor policework, and by a series of connections between these resolve the case. This is episode four of a series involving Kate, but works as a standalone The story is essentially linear, and the resolution is inevitable and totally predictable, despite the convoluted and coincidental trail, so there isn’t really any mystery. That isn’t necessarily a problem if the writing is strong, the characters believable, the action logical. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is any of these; the text is repetitive and unexciting, none of the characters feel ‘right’ and the mechanics of the plot don’t really work. To take a couple of examples: the initial event to the actions requires a flash flood which meteorologically and geographically doesn’t make sense; the actions of the police in allowing Kate and Tristan access to evidence and interviews are probably illegal. So, a disappointment for me, but the author is prolific and his fans will be happy enough. I reviewed a previous book in the series and gave it 3.5 rounded to 4, describing the plot as “overwrought”. This is definitely not as good and I rate it as 2.5, rounded to three. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

For some reason I was not terribly impressed by this book. It seems that I am in the minority, as most reviewers loved it. I found the whole story a little tedious and not terribly believable, especially the seemingly rather rushed ending. However it was a fairly good read that passed on a few hours.