All Cam Killick was looking for as he searched the depths of a hidden fishing lake was an expensive lure that an angler wanted returned. The good news is that he found the lure – the bad news is that he also found a hunting knife, which despite being submerged, still had blood and tissue on it. Which meant that there must have been a lot of blood…

Only a handful of people know about the lake – someone has been selling access to a nest of valued pike for a small fortune – so the list of suspects is small. But it soon becomes even smaller. There is a predator lurking in the waters, and while Cam knows all about the water, he knows also that a predator is most deadly on their home territory…

Ah, the difficult second book. There have been a few occasions when a character-driven thriller stumbles when the character’s arc was finished in the first book. I was a little concerned that might have been the case here, as the first book, The Troubled Deep, apart from all the killing, did very effectively tell the tale of the traumatised Cam finding his way back into society and life in general.

And here we see Cam trying to settle into society and, while there is still a long way to go I think, it’s refreshing to see him not ballsing it all up and undergoing major setbacks. I think this is an excellent portrayal of recovery, a story of positivity, albeit with a stalky serial killer in the background.

And even then, the killer has been written exceptionally well. We get the occasional section from the killer’s point of view, usually when there’s a killing to be done or when Cam has pissed him off (again) by his snooping, but the final section of the book does not go anywhere near the direction that you might expect and it’s a tremendous ending.

I should say, given the nature of my blog, this isn’t a mystery. Walking past a shifty character once does not make them a viable suspect, but this isn’t even trying to be that sort of book, so I’m not going to judge it as such. What I will judge it on is the fact that it’s a gripping thriller with fully-formed lead characters (and villains) whose flaws don’t define them. I’m not sure which book Janice Hallett was reading when she gave the cover blurb “Master of the stone cold twist” but it wasn’t this one. But it didn’t need a twist – all it needs is a sequel. And another. And another… although preferably without a killer who has to mark their territory by doing a poo though…

Forbidden Waters is out now from Raven Books. Many thanks for the e-copy via NetGalley.