Detective Casey White is called when the body of a girl is found close to a lighthouse on the outer banks.
A family report their daughter missing from a nearby town.
When Casey goes to give the unfortunate family the bad news she’s in for a shock. It is their daughter thats dead, but it’s not the one they reported missing.
And that opens the door to one of the most original plots I’ve read for quite a while.
I read a lot of crime fiction so it’s not often I come across a story that lets me sit back and think, “I’ve not come across that before”
Casey and her team are brilliant. The ongoing stories and recurring characters that sit of the peripheries are great, but what really steals the show in these books is the setting.
The Outer Banks of North Carolina is fascinating. I’ve spent hours on Google Earth looking at the area.
One of the pleasures in reading is that the book can take you to places you’ve never heard of. Now I’ve found one I really want to visit.
A massive area of linked islands forming a false coast on the Atlantic Coast of America. Some island inhabited, some deserted, some overgrown wildernesses. Small towns, on the mainland side of the lagoon that’s formed by the islands, with the usual mix of rich, poor and eccentric characters.
For U.K. readers this is a bit like Midsummer, on the coast, and on steroids.
White is a brilliant character, she’s made enemies, and friends. The small town attitude means that whenever anything goes wrong the newcomer gets the blame. But things have got as bad as they’re going to get and the town is now on the rebound. It’s making its way back.
Will Casey get the credit and recognition she deserves, I doubt it.
Will she solve the riddle that is the two sisters, one dead, the other missing.
The key to it is embedded in the small town community, this small town just happens to be fragmented over a few islands and inlets.
A great story, a great series. I can’t wait till we find out what happens next on the Outer Banks.
Publisher: Bookouture. Print Length: 283 pages. Audio book: 8hrs 25 minutes. Available now
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