Rachel Reviews: The Woman who Walked into the Sea by Mark Douglas-Home

I really enjoyed this, the second in The Sea Detective series, named after Cal McGill, who's essentially a scientist who looks at a number of factors like currents, tides and weather conditions to decipher from his analysis of these the location of things lost at sea. This includes cargo lost from ships but it has more recently for him extended to tracing the whereabouts of people lost in coastal waters. This is not a job for the faint-hearted and this book sees Cal questioning his motives for taking on some of the cases he receives. I've not read the first book but I'm assuming that it sets the scene for Cal being a person called upon by a distraught family to find their loved one and perhaps the discovery of what happened to them.

In this book, Cal is not central to the action of the book although he has a key role. It mainly concerns itself with Violet who has been contacted by a social worker who has been sent an anonymous letter, detailing information about Violet's past. To provide context, Violet was abandoned on the doorstep of a hospital, wrapped in a towel, and has never known her history. The letter prompts Violet to find out who her mother was and what happened to her and she leaves for the small (fictional) town of Poltown in pursuit.

What begins to become obvious is that Poltown is a town fractured by the need to hold on to its essence in terms of it being a remote quiet town but also with being able to survive with very little to sustain it. A big wind farm brings the chance of jobs and sustainability but at what cost to the environment and the quiet way of life? This has divided the town but alongside this, there are the local thugs who exploit the susceptible locals and bend them to their will through loans offered and rescinded, as well as the emotionally wounded who merely exist rather than thrive, creating an atmosphere of tension, dispute and things hidden.

Violet learns the truth with McGill helping support and probe and the story unfolds deftly. Secrets are revealed but with a cost and many suffer along the way, the whole avalanche of truth being set off by a bitter old woman.

An easy read which had much to recommend it.

Rachel Rating: 4/5 stars

This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery:

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