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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Book #11 The Woman who Walked into the Sea

The Woman Who Walked into the Sea by Mark Douglas-Home
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another classic and satisfying whodunit from Mark Douglas-Home, author of The Sea Detective. Cal McGill, an oceanographer, is once again the hero of this sequel and I hope that Douglas-Home intends to continue with this series.

For this book the author has invented a coastal settlement in the north of Scotland called Poltown, located not far from Ullapool. Cal finds himself in Poltown drawn there by news of a beachcomber’s find. His visit coincides with a funeral - or rather a memorial service - for Diana, whose late husband ,a lawyer, had owned the Big House. And what does any of this have to do with the woman who walked into the sea and committed suicide? Did she? Or did something more sinister take place? What part does the retired housekeeper, Mrs Anderson, play in this dark occurrence?

Violet lives in Glasgow with her four-year-old daughter. Violet was abandoned at birth, deposited on the doorstep of Raigmore Hospital. She has always hoped to find her mother. A social worker from Inverness, brings her an anonymous letter, which was sent to his office. It reveals her mother’s name and where she lived - a cottage near Poltown on the north west coast of Scotland. The social worker tells Violet that he has checked and the woman named as her mother “died the day after you were abandoned at the hospital.”

Enough to take Violet to Poltown to become embroiled in this tight-knit, suspicious community... And here the threads come together in a beautifully crafted plot in which Cal’s expertise does provide an answer to the problem of The Woman who Walked into the Sea....


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Book #3 The Sea Detective

The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once in a while a book like The Sea Detective comes along that is just so different. The genre of crime fiction is bursting at the seams and it must be very difficult to think of something new to bring to it. Well, for me this is it. This is one of the most unique crime novels I have read in a long time.

"The Sea Detective", first novel in the series featuring Cal McGill, an Edinburgh-based expert oceanographer and marine tracker, courtesy of Flotsam and Jetsam Investigations, is certainly different. All the elements you would expect in a book that deals with, well - with a murder investigation - are just not there. McGill uses shipping records, ocean currents and prevailing winds to track objects, including human bodies - at sea. And this is an intriguing story that grips from the opening page. And it starts in a grisly fashion - a Bedia girl from India is being trafficked by her family in exchange for money and there are some horrific scenes that I won’t go into. In the following pages McGill is being chased by police for something he has done wearing his eco-warrior mantle, but the story really begins when two severed feet wash up at two different locations off the coast of Scotland. Cal McGill’s expertise comes to the fore with his analysis of ocean currents but he soon ends up entangled in something far more sinister.

Cal McGill is an intriguing character, has little respect for the authority. Intelligent and unable to accept injustice in the world that he sees as hurtling towards another cataclysmic climate change. As an eco-investigator he finds himself out of his depth as the story develops. Becomes involved in circumstances beyond his standing. And as such he is a thoroughly likeable character.

The Sea Detective is a refreshing read for those who enjoy crime fiction. Yes, it is certainly different. Well done Mark Douglas-Home.

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