A review by stefaniefrei
Blood Tide by Claire McGowan
5.0
The Devil
2014, Ballyterrin, Northern Ireland. On an island out in the Atlantic off the Irish coast, a couple have gone missing. So forensic psychologist Paula Maguire and colleague Fiacra Quinn are sent over to the lonely place, inhabited only by some hundred persons, mostly islanders since generations and a close-knit community. The islanders are not welcoming about outsiders, evidence disappears, witnesses seem evasive, the seaweed company is everywhere. Being on Bone Island to investigate is like a backdrop in time: away from ubiquitous WLAN, hardly a connection for mobile phones, only one shop and one pub. And it is the same island that then 13-year-old Paula had spent her last holidays upon with her parents, when she, of course, did not yet know her mother would soon after disappear. Paula is trying to investigate about her private life, too: she has new information concerning Aidan and the disappearance of her mother that both keep her wondering. And when a storm comes up, Paula finds herself all alone on the island with her colleague, with no contact to the main land, phone, mobile, mail or carrier pigeon, and something definitely going on.
"Did you not feel it? Like - I don't know, we were just the thicko outsiders, and nobody was telling us the whole story?" Chapter Nine. And then the blood is coming.
This number 5 in the six book - series is definitely the most spooky one. With a lot of it as a "closed-room" setup, the atmosphere is dark and broody, sort of gothic even, danger looming everywhere and behind everything and everybody. Again I am very stunned about how the author is capable to vary the missing-person topic, along with the setup of the story. The "closed room" might have been boring - like how might have been "whodunnit", if no one else can get there; but then, the number of possible suspects is certainly to big to make this an easy guess. Again, Claire McGowan weaves in twists, although I was not that surprised this time which curiously did not dim the suspense. I very much liked that there is progress also about the ghosts from Paula's past and really really need to read the last book next. This time, my favorite character has been Bob Hamilton, what a surprise.
5 stars for the first "closed room" setup since Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" that kept me glued to the pages (now, is that a hint? Find out....)
2014, Ballyterrin, Northern Ireland. On an island out in the Atlantic off the Irish coast, a couple have gone missing. So forensic psychologist Paula Maguire and colleague Fiacra Quinn are sent over to the lonely place, inhabited only by some hundred persons, mostly islanders since generations and a close-knit community. The islanders are not welcoming about outsiders, evidence disappears, witnesses seem evasive, the seaweed company is everywhere. Being on Bone Island to investigate is like a backdrop in time: away from ubiquitous WLAN, hardly a connection for mobile phones, only one shop and one pub. And it is the same island that then 13-year-old Paula had spent her last holidays upon with her parents, when she, of course, did not yet know her mother would soon after disappear. Paula is trying to investigate about her private life, too: she has new information concerning Aidan and the disappearance of her mother that both keep her wondering. And when a storm comes up, Paula finds herself all alone on the island with her colleague, with no contact to the main land, phone, mobile, mail or carrier pigeon, and something definitely going on.
"Did you not feel it? Like - I don't know, we were just the thicko outsiders, and nobody was telling us the whole story?" Chapter Nine. And then the blood is coming.
This number 5 in the six book - series is definitely the most spooky one. With a lot of it as a "closed-room" setup, the atmosphere is dark and broody, sort of gothic even, danger looming everywhere and behind everything and everybody. Again I am very stunned about how the author is capable to vary the missing-person topic, along with the setup of the story. The "closed room" might have been boring - like how might have been "whodunnit", if no one else can get there; but then, the number of possible suspects is certainly to big to make this an easy guess. Again, Claire McGowan weaves in twists, although I was not that surprised this time which curiously did not dim the suspense. I very much liked that there is progress also about the ghosts from Paula's past and really really need to read the last book next. This time, my favorite character has been Bob Hamilton, what a surprise.
5 stars for the first "closed room" setup since Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" that kept me glued to the pages (now, is that a hint? Find out....)