When a body is pulled from the deep and watery fens on the outskirts of town, everybody assumes it was a tragic accident. But Detective Tara Thorpe, newly joined and determined to prove herself, suspects there’s more to the story.
Tara is desperate to investigate further, but her supervisor Patrick Wilkins has other ideas. He would rather die than let this ambitious upstart show him up – even if it means some digging in Tara’s carefully concealed past to keep her under his thumb. After all, it’s not like he can report her – everyone knows that his boss Detective Garstin Blake and Tara have a history…
When another body is found, it becomes clear that there’s a killer on the loose. Could the murders be linked to the secrets that Tara has been keeping from her team… and can she solve the case before another innocent dies?
My Review
A few years after the first book in this series Tara Thorpe has abandoned journalism and is now a police constable. The newest detective in Cambridge she has to work for DS Wilkins who is determined to undermine her. This is probably because of her previous connection to their mutual boss, DI Garstin Blake. There is definitely an attraction between the two, but Blake has a wife and child and Tara is concentrating on her new career.
An apparent suicide case, dismissed by Wilkins is reinvestigated by Tara after the victim’s sister approaches her. Ralph Carncross, an unpleasant author with a small cult following, may have been murdered and when another person connected to him dies, she searches for more evidence.
In the previous book, we learnt of Tara’s experiences with a stalker and how she learnt to take care of herself with the help of a former police officer, Paul Kemp. He appears in this novel, as a likeable rough diamond. Working behind the scenes he may still be acting as her protector. Meanwhile we learn of how Blake is trapped in an unhappy marriage. Maintaining his distance, he watches over Tara which proves essential as her investigations lead up to a terrifying conclusion. Another great read.
Death on the River on Amazon UK
My Review of Murder on the Marshes by Clare Chase
Lizanne lost in a good book 
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