REVIEW: Dark Waters by G.R. Halliday

Dark Waters (DI Monica Kennedy #2) by G.R. Halliday

Genre: Crime fiction, Crime thriller, Noir, Suspense, Psychological thriller, Horror

Read: 13th August 2021

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Published: 16th July 2020

★★★★ 4.5 stars

DESCRIPTION:

THREE MISTAKES. TWO MURDERS. ONE MORE VICTIM TO GO . . .

Annabelle loves to drive. It helps her escape her world, her past. Speeding on a mountain road in the Scottish Highlands, she sees a little girl step out in front of her. She swerves to avoid her. The next thing Annabelle remembers is waking up in a dark, damp room. A voice from the corner of the room says ‘The Doctor will see you now’.

Scott is camping in the woodlands in the Scottish Highlands - but in the middle of the night, he hears something outside his tent. When he goes out to have a look, a little girl is standing among the trees, staring right at him. Scott is never seen again.

When a dismembered body is found, DI Monica Kennedy gets called to the scene immediately. After six months away from the Serious Crimes team, they need her back on board.

As Monica searches for the murderer, another body is found . . . she’s on the hunt for a serial killer.

Perfect for fans of James Oswald, Ann Cleeves and Val McDermid.

MY REVIEW:

The second in the DI Monica Kennedy series, DARK WATERS is a dark and disturbing read that both creepy and claustrophobic. It is so terribly dark that I feel I need to warn readers that, not only is it disturbing and troubling in some of the content, but there are descriptions of dismemberments that some may find a tad gruesome. But whoa! What a thrilling read!

Annabelle is visting from London and upon arrival in Stirling, snaps a selfie or twelve, applies a filter and uploads to Instagram. The only indication that she is in Scotland. She heads for Inverness and then towards the West Coast when she sees a gate. It isn't locked so she decides to take a chance and is driving her new blue BMW M4 as fast as she dares along the lonely stretch of road beyond. Suddenly a little girl appears out of nowhere and Annabelle swerves to miss her hitting the lone oak tree and sending her into unconscious oblivion.

When she wakes with no idea where she is and unable to move, she is terrified. What happened? Where is she? As the blackness of her surroundings recede, she finds herself in a damp dark room awaiting to see the Doctor. And only then does Annabelle realise that her troubles are only just beginning.

In the wake of the nightmarish end to the previous case which left both her and her daughter Lucy traumatised, DI Monica Kennedy took a temporary secondment to the traffic division so she could spend more time with her daughter. But then she receives a call from her superintendent in MIT. A dismembered body has been found in a remote area near Glen Turrit and she is the only SIO he trusts to handle the case. Joining her are DC Connor Crawford and DC Ben Fisher, both still recovering from the horrific previous case, as well as newest member DC Maria Khan. Assembling her team together in order to begin investigating and identifying the victim, Monica is shocked to learn of a second set of remains with the same injuries as the first has been found nearby.

After tentative identifications are made, investigations lead them to Sinclair Enterprises, a corporate body that seems to own half the highlands, with Monica questioning the victim's widow and his sister. Neither woman is entirely forthcoming leading Monica and her team to believe they are hiding something. But what? And how were the two unlikely men connected?

Enquiries take Monica to a remote almost deserted town in Little Arklow, primarily built during the construction of the hydro electric dam in the 1950s and 60s and after which was relatively abandoned to just a few remaining people. One of which is the partially delusional Gillian who regales Monica with tales of the Affric men and the death of her friend Euston Miller. But how much of her fairy tales are truth and how much are fantasy? But those delusional ravings send Monica on the hunt for the truth as she seeks out the website which Gillian alluded to that Miller had set up some years before. There she comes across the mysterious disappearance of a man, Colin Muir, in 1980...and then there is the apparent suicide of Miller himself four years before. How is all this related to the dismembered bodies found near the hydro electric dam in Glen Turrit? Are they somehow connected to the past?

And then...DC Fisher receives a strange and somewhat creepy text from an unknown number alerting him that whoever they are "is being held hostage somewhere in the highlands" along with as much detail as they could provide that could help pinpoint their location. Believing that it's one of his colleagues having a laugh, Fisher deletes the text without further thought. But Monica isn't so sure. She asks him to retrieve it and put a trace on the number to identify its owner.

Monica is a wonderful character and despite her dislike for her colleagues she has grown to appreciate their value and their unique personalities. She herself is a complex character with her own demons to battle as she comes face to face with them through flashbacks and memories. We actually see a lot more of her mother Angela this time around and I must say I'm pleased to note that she has finally taken Monica's advice and keeps the doors locked. Crawford also, it seems, spends rather a lot of time with her mother who has taken a real shine to him as has Monica's daughter Lucy. It was good to see the supporting characters of Crawford and Fisher fleshed out a bit more in this book and Khan makes a welcome addition bringing her own strengths to the table.

There's a real sense of otherwordliness throughout the book that borders on creepy with the remote settings of the glens, the dam and it's various caves and tunnels. The highland setting lends a remoteness and bleakness to the story that provides a menacing sense of claustrophobia despite its wide open landscape. And then there are Lucy's disturbing dreams, cryptic conversations and her sleepwalking which are creepy to say the least. Is it just because of Monica's sudden return to MIT or is it something far more disturbing? I love how the author leaves that question dangling for readers to ponder.

Told through the alternating narratives of Monica and Annabelle, DARK WATERS is a nightmarish and creepy read with a chilling plot and atmospheric setting. It is dark, disturbing and incredibly intense from the very first page until the very last. One of the most terrifying stories I've read complete with tension, suspense and intrigue, it is definitely NOT for the faint-hearted.

I was just telling hubby that this book would make an awesome movie or better yet...a BBC series with it's spine-tingling plot and the remote atmospheric setting of the Scottish Highlands. It has a touch of the darker side of Criminal Minds and Wolf Creek about it making it doubly disturbing. Mick Taylor meets the Doctor - who would come out of it alive?

Everything about this book is disturbing and yet it is an addictive thriller that is one of the most memorable of its kind. I doubt books like this would be endorsed by the tourism board because after reading, some would never want to venture to the Scottish Highlands again!

Don't worry if you haven't read the first book as DARK WATERS suffices perfectly well on its own. Only the vague references to the previous case from the first one will have some wondering but on the whole, readers learn a whole lot more about Monica in this book as she delves into her own past through memories and flashbacks.

Although I enjoyed "From the Shadows", it pales in comparison to the deeply dark and disturbing tale woven throughout DARK WATERS. It is incredibly well written and though there appears to be a lot of bulked-out description which could have been thinned out a little, DARK WATERS is intense from start to finish.

Perfect for fans of dark, disturbing, intense and atmospheric thrillers.

I would like to thank #GRHalliday, #Netgalley and #VintageDigital for an ARC of #DarkWaters in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Gareth Halliday was born in Edinburgh and grew up near Stirling in Scotland. He spent his childhood obsessing over the unexplained mysteries his father investigated, which proved excellent inspiration for his debut novel "From the Shadows". He now lives in the rural Highlands outside of Inverness, where he is able to pursue his favourite past-times of mountain climbing and swimming in the sea, before returning to his band of semi-feral cats. "Dark Waters" is his second novel.

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