“Was it murder, suicide or an accident? Who will be next to die?

Six international friends all appear to be successful, albeit to different levels. A human rights’ lawyer, an IT geek, a businessman, a waitress, a phone guy and a physiotherapist. None of them are known to the police.

One of them must know what happened that fateful night on the catamaran.

Agent Georges Fournier is assigned the case in the French resort town near Antibes. He’s short on time, with a growing health problem and a District Attorney who just wants the case closed as accidental. But he’s not letting go.

Chrissie is a single mother and respected flight attendant in New York. When she finds out who her father is, she’s ecstatic and wants to meet him. 

But within a week she’d wish she’d never known.”

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the blog today and to my guest reviewer’s stop on the Dead In The Water blog tour.  My guest reviewer, for those of you who don’t know, is my wonderful husband who is learning to love fiction once again after many years of not wanting to pick a book up (having my old Kindle helps I think…!).

Let’s find out what he thought about Simon Bower’s Dead In The Water…

Thanks to Emma for letting me into damppebbles again. I am really excited to bring you my latest review of Simon Bower’s Dead In The Water.  I always get nervous writing reviews of crime books as I want to avoid giving away spoilers – but here goes….

Dead in the Water is a well constructed crime thriller, with a timeline that flits between the past and the present.  The author cleverly sets up teaser shots from the present day, without giving us too much information.  Someone is dead – but who, someone is in a hospital bed – but who and why?

The constant tease and reveal structure worked well to keep me speeding through this read and the author manages the pace nicely.  All of the 7 core characters are well formed – the 6 protagonists and Agent Fournier, the dogged detective tasked with understanding whether there was foul play in the death of ….(did you think I was silly enough to tell you who died!).  Simon Bower has carefully constructed his characters to show likeable elements and their not-so-nice side!  Characters and their story evolve through the book and I found myself re-assessing my liking for characters as I moved through, which is a good sign that I was engaged with the story.

Dead in the Water takes us on a pan-European adventure and the author has worked hard on his research – dropping in little facts as we move across the continent to give more depth and atmosphere to the locations.  Coupling this with the story’s narration switching between the main characters and you get an immersive and enjoyable read which will keep you guessing till the very end.

Would I read more Simon Bower – almost certainly.  Would I recommend this book to someone looking for an easy reading and enjoyable book that will immerse them in a fantastic story – yes.  Would I go on a boat with Simon – no….bad things seem to happen!

So hopefully I haven’t given too much away, death, hospitals, characters, Europe…you need to read it to find out the rest!  Thanks again to Emma for letting me takeover today!

4 stars out of 5.

Dead In The Water by Simon Bower was published in the UK by Middle Farm Press in May 2018 and is available in paperback and eBook formats [only 99p to download on Kindle this week!] (please note, some of the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | Waterstones | Foyles |

Simon Bower is a British and Canadian author born in Berkshire in 1973. Since 1998, he’s adopted a global lifestyle, setting up home at times in Europe, Africa and North America.  In 2016 Simon turned to writing full time, which led to his first published work, Dead in the Water, being released in paperback and eBook by Middle Farm Press in 2018. Simon currently lives in France, near the Swiss border, where his young family, mountains, acrylic paint and sharpened skis keep him in regular mischief.

Author Links: | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon | Goodreads |