Book #42 The Malice of Waves

The Malice of Waves by Mark Douglas-Home
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third volume in The Sea Detective series by Mark Douglas-Home, featuring oceanographer Dr. Caladh McGill, who uses his knowledge of tides, winds and currents to solve mysteries no one else can. This latest episode takes place in the isolated but bleakly beautiful Eilean Dubh an island located across The Sound from the smaller Priest's Island and between Harris and North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The places are fictional although there are Scottish Islands with similar names. The location is a major factor in creating a bleak atmosphere amongst the closeknit and insular community that lives here. Five years ago, fourteen-year-old Max Wheeler disappeared from Priest's Island. Neither the police nor the private investigations since have shed any light on what happened the night he went missing, presumed dead. Cal McGill is hired by the boy's inconsolable father to carry out his own investigation as to what might have happened. He faces resentment from the locals who have lived under a cloud of suspicion for five years. Are they hiding a murderer on Eilean Dubh?

This is another good read, perhaps not quite as absorbing as the first two in the series, but certainly worthy of four stars. I enjoyed it.

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