A Dark and Twisted Tide

April 28, 2014
Someone is snuffing the life out of young women, then shrouding their weighted bodies before tossing them into the Thames, in Bolton’s haunting fourth novel featuring London police officer Lacey Flint (after 2013’s Lost). Though the former detective constable has recently transferred to the Marine Unit in hopes of putting a string of disturbing cases behind her, she’s ordered to work on the investigation, since the inquiry was launched by her discovery of one of the victims while she was swimming in the river near her houseboat. Despite considerable personal turmoil—including having her lover, Det. Insp. Mark Joesbury, disappear on an undercover job—it’s not long before she’s immersing herself in the increasingly dangerous hunt for a possible serial killer targeting illegal Afghan immigrants. Bolton sweeps the reader along with Lacey until finally running aground after a few twists too many. Agent: Anne-Marie Doulton, Ampersand Agency (U.K.).