A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton

ISBN-13: 9780593069189
Publisher: Bantam Press 
Publication Date: May 2014
Format: Hardcover, 444 pgs
Source: Purchased

This is the 4th book of the Lacey Flint's series. In this installment, Lacey quit the force from a detective to join the marine police unit. Aside to recover from the trauma the previous cases had led her, she feels she wants a safer, quieter life too - to allow her to think things and her relationship with DI Mark Joesbury, who has gone missing in action for an undercover assignment. 

But of course, life has its own way of turning things and before Lacey could find any peace living alone on her boathouse, she found a dead body floating on River Thames near her home; her body wrapped in burial cloths. Needless to say, this discovery shook Lacey to the core, especially knowing that the corpse was deliberately left for her to find after further investigation. As much as she didn't want to return to her profession she knew she couldn't (and shouldn't) let this case goes unresolved and let the woman died without giving her a justice. However, there are loads of questions surrounding the investigations; as no one knows why the corpse was wrapped in that way and further searches have shown it has got nothing to do with religions or honour killings. 

And as if the case isn't complicated enough, there are speculations about Mark Josebury's involvement in a cop shooting incident and whether if he's gone over the dark side after his most recent undercover assignment. After all, there's a very fine line between the good and the bad and some coppers could be bent given some circumstances and the law and rules they've known so well. Lacey, on the other hand, knew there must be some explanations behind and she intends to find that out, too. That said, like Lacey, I still believe in Mark; and I know whatever he has done or need to be done it's always for good reasons. 

As the story slowly unfolds, we will soon learn more about people-smuggling, as well as people-trafficking are some of the issues the world is still facing today and why they could be so hard to wipe off completely, especially if they are immigrants who are trying so very hard to escape from the hardships they are suffering and would pay any price to make their escape possible. And of course behind these sad situations there are some twisted people who'd do anything for whatever reasons they believe in. 

A Dark and Twisted Tide is not something I'd expected from a conventional thriller, but the intensity and suspense are all there. There are also some dark elements thrown in in a sense that makes you wonder about the assignments the undercover officials have to go through and to what extent they've to do to make their aliases believable. And lastly, not to mention the immigrants victims who are murdered not knowing the real reasons why they are lured and then disposed of cruelly. It was a compelling read, but there's also sadness behind the intensity. And after reading this installment I found myself liking and respecting Lacey and DI Dana Tulloch more than ever. 

The Devil You Know by Elisabeth de Mariaffi

ISBN-13: 9781783297627
Publisher: Titan Books 
Publication Date: 6 February 2015
Format: Paperback, 400 pgs
Source: Purchased 

The Canadian setting of this thriller took place between the 80s and 90s. Told from a first person POV, this is a story about Evie Jones' obsession of finding the truth surrounding the murder of her childhood friend, 11-year-old Lianne Gagnon; who had disappeared after she was last seen hopping into a man's car and was found murdered twelve days after her disappearance. 

Ten years later, Evie still thinks of her friend's murder. And that curiosity heightens after she became crime reporter with the Toronto Free Press. The cop believes they have a name of the murderer - Robert Cameron, but he is never caught. There are speculations that he might be dead, but Evie believes he is hiding under different aliases. Then, there are some days Evie felt she is being stalked and someone is standing outside her balcony, as if watching her. Her childhood friend, David Patton, thinks she is in a constant state of paranoia and that the case she's investigating is getting to her. 

As Evie tries to piece the puzzle surrounding her friend's murder, she stumbles upon some information which would make her question about the people around her and most importantly, why Lianne Gagnon? 

The Devil You Know is neither written in a conventional thriller form nor a police procedural; for starters there are no quotation marks used for the dialogues here. While some readers may find this style creates a more intimacy to the storytelling, I found myself not getting used to it although it didn't really affect my reading. As much as this is a thriller, I'd say this is more of a case of characters studies as it shows us how some people reacted when they are being driven into a corner, or how much a person would do everything under certain circumstances. 

Although the intensity isn't as great and the pace is somewhat slow at the beginning, I continued to follow Evie's story because like her, I wanted to know who is Lianne’s murderer. Unfortunately, I felt the conclusion was a letdown although some questions are answered. As mentioned before, this is unlike other thrillers or police procedural so perhaps it is a book that allows us to think about the characters and their actions/motives. 

This is the author's first novel (she has one previous collection of short stories, How to Get Along with Women, which was nominated for the prestigious Giller Prize) and I'd be interested to read her next release. I hope it'd be something different from this.