A review by nietzschesghost
Death in the Lakes by Graham Smith

3.0

The Silent Dead, the first novel in a new police procedural series featuring DC Beth Young and set in Cumbria, is highly original, deeply interesting and immersive right from the first couple of pages. The unique storyline really drew me in and was what attracted me to the book initially. I enjoyed the writing and the pace, however, I had correctly guessed the killer very early on which led to me getting a little bored over the rest of the novel as there were no more surprises and tension was at a minimum. Although I liked Beth as a character I did find her difficult to understand as no background was given of her previous employment before joining the Cumbrian Force Major Incident Team (FMIT) and her fitting in right away with many of her colleagues readily confiding in her seemed highly improbable and unrealistic to me.

The premise was a sound one but unfortunately, it was lacking in terms of execution. This makes me sad to say as the concept was so, so good. If you enjoy dark, disturbing and brutal crime fiction then this may be a perfect fit for you. I hope in the second book we get to know much more about Beth and see her character develop and evolve over the passage of time. I also hope the perpetrator is as twisted and intriguing as he was here.

Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.