The Foaming Deep by MS Morris

The Foaming Deep by MS Morris
Publisher: Landmark Media
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A hidden cove. A tangle of lies. A deeply buried secret.
When a young woman’s body is found at a cave entrance by the pretty fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay, DCI Tom Raven is called to investigate. A trail of footprints leads from the body on the shore to the nearby youth hostel. But the killer’s identity is far from clear as the picturesque façade of Robin Hood’s Bay conceals more than it reveals.

Meanwhile, Raven has been given a tantalising clue to the truth behind his mother’s death at the hands of a hit-and-run driver over thirty years ago. As he works to untangle the facts, he discovers a secret far darker than anything he could have imagined and must battle the inner demons that threaten to destroy him and everything he holds dear.

A young woman’s body is found on the beach at the entrance to a local cave. DCI Tom Raven and his team are called to investigate, but with a number of people upset at the returned local lady the case appears quite murky at first. When things begin to lead in a number of different directions Raven and his team need to keep a handle on a quickly escalating situation.

I have been enjoying this Yorkshire based British police procedural series and found this to be an excellent addition to it. There were a few sub-plots revolving around the main murder mystery and I thought this really helped keep the pace of the book feel like it was moving forward at a good clip. There was also progress on a few of the longer-term story arcs which I also thought were very well woven into the story.

Readers looking for a high action story might not find this book really suits those sorts of tastes. I enjoyed the smaller town feel and the fact that we had space to learn about the numerous secondary characters. The mystery is absolutely front and center here and I think more traditional mystery readers should feel this is a great book. I did think that readers should be able to pick this up as a standalone. While it’s well into the series aside from the background history between DCI Raven and his team all the plot really is well contained in this book, and I feel readers should be able to enjoy this without having read anything previously.

With well drawn characters and a multi layered mystery plot I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable story and a great series.