Thirty years ago, the Brindley family – mother, father, son and daughter – vanished without trace. They drove away from a party and were never seen again. Rumours abounded about what happened to them – the car crashing into the marsh, the family leaving the country for unknown reasons. The fate of the Brindley family has almost passed into local mythology. Until Cam Killick found their car at the bottom of a lake – empty.

And rather than starting a new investigation, the case is announced as being closed – clearly despite the lack of human remains, the family drowned. This isn’t good enough for Cam – and it certainly isn’t good enough for some other people too. Because the discovery of the car threatens to reveal secrets that have been submerged for decades – secrets that people will kill to stop coming to the surface.

Another result of getting a little too click-happy on NetGalley but it was a happy accident. First of all, Rob Parker (who I think has been self-published or small press up to now) is going to be at Stockport Noir, and I do want to read some more books by authors who are going to be there and secondly, it’s a real page-turner.

Let’s be clear though, mystery-fans, this is a thriller, not a play-along mystery. It never pretends to be, it’s clear from the blurb, but if you’re here for the “Classic Mystery” bit of the blog, then a) why not branch out a bit and b) if not, don’t worry, there’ll be a whodunit along soon.

And it’s a pretty good thriller at that.

The glue holding it all together is Cam, a fantastic central character, a former SBS officer with sometimes-crippling PTSD who finds peace when underwater. It’s a good central idea for a character, especially one based in Norfolk with quite a lot of water around. He comes across as a very genuine character, as do the others on the side of right. There’s a really nicely developed relationship here too which was a lot of fun to read. Oh, and he’s got a fantastic dog!

The villains of the piece are a little less real, one in particular feeling like a bit of a moustache-twirler. He’s still fun to read about – his departing line in the restaurant scene made me laugh out loud – and he and his colleagues present sufficient danger to keep the threat level high throughout.

As I said though, this is a real page-turner. I polished it off in a day and I needed to know how things would turn out. Janice Hallett’s claim on the blurb about a “stone-cold twist” doesn’t hold up – indeed, it would have been more of a twist if something hadn’t been the case – but this isn’t the sort of book that needs one. A really effective thriller with characters (and a dog) that you can root for, not just to thwart the bad guys but to find some peace in their lives too. A really good read.

The Troubled Deep is out from Raven Books on 16th January. Many thanks to the publishers for the review e-copy.