Patricia Hall Death In Dark Waters

Death In Dark Waters

Patricia Hall

St. Martin's, Feb 2004, $23.95, 288 pp.

ISBN 0312321554

After a night spent in the Carib Club on Chapel Street in Bradford in Yorkshire County England, Jeremy Adams is hit by a car while dancing in the street. Tests show that he was high on the drug Ecstasy and his father a very wealthy and powerful business man wants the dealer behind bars and the club closed down. Detective Michael Thackeray is assigned the case but he thinks the angry father's influence power could be better spent in the housing development Wuthering Heights.

The Heights is a low income housing project that is crime ridden and drug infested. Thackeray's girlfriend Laura Ackroyd happens to agree with her lover's opinion and is trying to do an investigative piece but the tenants are too afraid of the drug dealers to talk. The council thinks the best way to take care of the problem is to tear down the Heights and build homes for a better clientele. When a recovering addict is murdered and someone is doing their best to get the Carib Club closed using any means possible, Laura and Thackeray find that their separate investigations have a common link.

Fans of this long running police procedural series will find that DEATH IN DARK WATERS has a much more gothic atmosphere and tone than any of Patricia Hall's other books. It is very fascinating watching the reporter and the police officer run separate investigations simultaneously while trying to work on their relationship. The high quality of writing and the excellent characterizations make this crime thriller a novel that must be read by anyone who likes an outstanding who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner