The Brutal Tide by Kate Rhodes

The Brutal Tide by Kate Rhodes
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

REVENGE
DI Ben Kitto made many enemies in his time working as an undercover officer for the Met police, none more ruthless and calculating than gang leader Craig Travis.

IS WORTH
Travis has longed to make Kitto pay for his role in getting him convicted – and that day has finally arrived. Now, a dark and twisted killer is heading for the Scilly Isles, one who has waited a long time for revenge.

WAITING FOR . . .
With Kitto busy investigating the discovery of a body on the islands and distracted by the imminent arrival of his first child, his defences are down. He has so much to lose.

And Travis will stop at nothing to take it all from him.

In his previous work in London, DI Ben Kitto had made many enemies, but none more so than his final case – putting a vicious gang leader behind bars after an extended undercover operation. Now dying, the police are alerted when key people involved in that final arrest begin to die from what looks like an organized hit. But DI Kitto doesn’t have time to worry about that with his partner due to give birth to their first child any day and the bones of a young man unearthed at a local work site. Can Ben juggle everything as his life takes such a drastic turn?

I really enjoyed this book. While I can understand if this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, I thoroughly enjoyed the snippets every chapter or so where we could see the progress of the killer interspersed between Ben and his own case. I felt this was a different and highly interesting way to keep the tension high and not to make the plotline too farfetched. Since any new arrivals on the small islands stand out markedly, I thought having us see the killer progress through the other people on their list was an excellent way to fuel the tension but still have a strong murder-mystery plot with Ben and his own case load going.

I was also pleased the very climactic birth of Nina and Ben’s child wasn’t too cliched. While it was a little easy to guess – the traditional “racing from the final fight scene to not miss the baby’s birth” was quite the cliché, but there were a few little twists that made it a solid read, nevertheless. I thought the main plotline was quite well woven and while I guessed a few parts of the plot there were still other bits that I didn’t guess and came as a delightful surprise.

I’m enjoying this series and can recommend it for mystery readers who enjoy small town and/or British police procedural style mysteries. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.