FEAR IN THE LAKES

4 stars out of 5

All the basics are here: Solid police procedural, well-developed characters (most of whom have flaws), a couple of twists and near-death misses and an easy-to-follow plot. Perfect, IMHO, for on-the-beach or way-to-work reading you'll enjoy but that won't seriously challenge your brain or scare you half to death.

This is, for the record, the third in a series featuring Detective Beth Young, who works in and around Cumbria in England. I've not read the others, but that wasn't a problem - this one stands on its own just fine. Beth has a few issues from her past - most notably that she's trying to find the person who started a fight years earlier that ended with her being hit with a broken bottle, leaving her with a nasty scar on her face. She's also got a relatively serious boyfriend, Ethan, a paramedic who understands her dedication to work and unpredictable hours.

As this story begins, Beth is called in to investigate the near-murder of James Sinclair. His wife found him clinging to life, with virtually every single bone in his body shattered in methodical fashion. His wife insists he's an extremely mild-mannered guy, but Beth and her team become suspicious when his squeaky-clean background ends around age 18 (before that, there's no evidence that he ever even existed). Needless to say, Beth is convinced that James and his gruesome attacker share a connection somewhere in that past. But what is it, and how can it be found?

Then two more bodies turn up with similar injuries; this time, they're dead, but it appears the damage done matches what was done to James so well that they must have been inflicted by the same person (now thought to be a serial killer known as the "Sculptor" because the weapon of choice appears to be a chisel). 

From then on, it's mostly a matter of following clues and Beth's listening to her own inner voice that's just a bit off-center (one of the reasons her talents are appreciated in her department). But the closer Beth gets to identifying the killer, the closer the killer gets to choosing Beth as his next victim. Oops!

Entertaining and easy to read, this one definitely whets my appetite for the next one. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Fear in the Lakes by Graham Smith (Bookouture, July 2019); 356 pp.