We get to know the main members of the police team throughout the book, building up a picture of their professional lives and glimpses into their private lives. There are twists and misdirections and an overall sense of danger and of something lurking and waiting. This is the first book in a brand new series by Ross Greenwood with a new lead female detective as the main character and I settled in, excited to learn about her back story and her colleagues, as well as tag along for an exciting investigation.

What he has written here is a fast-paced, action-filled puzzle with believable characters that’s spiced with a lot of humour. The forensics and technical aspects are spot on and added into the storyline to make it extra believable and enjoyable but at an excellent level that all can understand without it feeling like a lecture or being patronising.Even with the supposedly bad guys Ross shows the complex aspects that have made them act the way they do and the cumulative affects of their own struggles with themselves and in society and the failings therein. There were a lot of other characters in the rest of the team to get to know as well, so many that a couple of times I got lost as to who was who, but I think there is good scope for a lot of interesting stories to come out of this team in the future. Greenwood blends solid storytelling with an in-depth exploration of human emotions and the consequences of our choices. Those connected are so varied and have many problems and this also makes trying to work out events, truths and lies very difficult.

When a connection is made to something that happened on this same beach thirty years ago , multiple suspects come to light . A gripping debut novel in this series that proves Greenwood has all the elements for a strong series ahead. There’s always a lot to do in a new series, location to establish, characters to introduce and establishing at what level of the gritty and gruesome the series is going to be pitched at. With his eloquent descriptions, I can almost taste the salt in the air, hear the waves crash, and feel the chill of the English coastal winds.The pacing slowed down a lot in the middle and the story lost a bit of the natural pull/thrill that should come with a murder mystery. With a well-crafted plot and strong characterization, this book should appeal to many fans of the genre. If you do ( like me with my pathological inability to put down a book after starting to read it) then it’s perfectly fine to skim read it. As more bodies emerge on the beachfront, DS Knight and her team must locate a killer and stop the slayings.