Shallow Waters – Rebecca Bradley

Crime Fiction
4*’s

Rebecca Bradley’s new creation DI Hannah Robbins isn’t for the faint-hearted (just look at that cover), this novel covers some particularly grim subjects but fortunately without subjecting the reader to endless scenes of violence. That said I found it quite a creepy read, with the descriptions of a girl shut in the cage playing on my mind long after I closed the book, something that doesn’t happen too often, and that I can only put down to the writing which snuck underneath the hard skin of this reader.

DI Hannah Robbins is a little bit of a mystery and I have to say her relationship with a journalist is surely not the wisest of pairings, which suggests that, when she’s not doing the day job, she leads with her heart and not her head. But there is little time for romance because as this story opens there is a killer to find, a young girl has been found naked and battered in a dirty alleyway, and most affecting of all, unknown. The race is on to find out who she is and what had happened to her and DI Hannah Robbins is soon on the trail when another young girl is found dead.

Rebecca Bradley doesn’t spare the details of the pressure the Police are under to find the killer before the media turn on the investigation, making those higher up the force so keen for a quick result that the investigation takes on a nightmarish quality with Hannah only stopping to gulp a glass of wine and a quick sleep before desperately looking for the links which will lead to the killer. Unlike in many books of this genre the victims are also given a personality, albeit seen through the eyes of their friends and family. This book is well researched which has the advantage that anyone who doesn’t read quite as many ‘gripping police thrillers’ as is eased into the jargon and acronyms.

Unusually for me I managed to have a lucky guess at the perpetrator although that didn’t lessen my enjoyment, in fact I was punching the air with delight when Hannah had her quarry in sight. Shallow Waters is a complete novel but one that leaves you wanting to find out more, especially about Hannah which means that I will definitely be watching out for the next in the series.

I’d like to thank the author for allowing me to read a proof copy of this thrilling read which was published on 22 December 2014.