Pages: 431
Published: 4th August 2022
Genre: Crime/Mystery
On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours.
But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.
On New Year’s Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbors, friends and family—and Ffion has her own secrets to protect.
With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead…but who finally killed him.
This is a book with a very clever structure and a sprinkling of unexpected twists which grab your attention, but unfortunately those things are not enough to redeem what is a largely disappointing read. Beset by an excess of unlikable, two-dimensional characters, sluggish pacing and a general lack of suspense also combine to make it an underwhelming mystery.
The first in a series starring somewhat wayward detective Ffion Morgan, it is a powerful read at times because of her backstory and the issues it explores. However, even during these moments there is nothing especially unique or standout, and as such it rarely manages to captivate and make you desperate to find out what happens next, despite the occasional glimpse of inspired writing.
In North Wales, right on the border with Cheshire, a man is found dead in a lake following a New Year’s Eve party. He is identified as opera singer Rhys Lloyd, a renowned figure in the area who had recently overseen a new housing development called the Shore, where a group of predominantly rich people and minor celebrities now live. He had been murdered and left to drown.
The following morning, local Detective Constable Ffion Morgan is assigned to the case and to her horror she finds that the detective from Cheshire Police working alongside her is Leo Brady, with whom she has just had a one-night stand. After initial enquiries uncover that Rhys was the target of online abuse and that several of the Shore’s residents had a potential motive to kill him, the list of suspects increases, and it includes his wife Yasmin.
But Leo, who is routinely belittled by his commanding officer and is prevented from having regular contact with his son Harris, becomes concerned that Ffion is hiding something. He notices that she is evasive and is trying to control certain aspects of the investigation, placing doubt in his mind in the face of their growing friendship. And when he learns that Ffion’s car was outside Rhy’s house just hours before his murder, Leo has no choice but to confront her.
The main downfall for this book is that the mystery is simply not very interesting, a fact not helped by the slowness of the pace. Sure, there are lots of potential suspects and the connection that Ffion may or may not have with the case brings an extra dimension to it, but little about the way the plot plays out has you furiously trying to unpick what actually happened to Rhys.
It was the development of the two main characters that carried it more than anything else, mainly after the major twists occur. As effective as these twists are, some felt more like they belonged in a television soap opera than a serious crime novel. Then the actual revelation of how Rhys died was maybe a bit contrived, and I struggled to buy it. Even after that I was expecting another twist at the end as is Clare Mackintosh’s trademark; and so it proved.
The entire story is told in the third person, focusing primarily on Ffion and Leo in the present day, yet it also switches perspectives frequently between a number of the suspects – and Rhys himself – going back to the lead-up to his death. It goes back and forth through the timeline a lot and at times it can be tricky to follow, but it is intelligently done as we see some moments early on, and then again much later but from the point of view of a different character, allowing another piece of the plot to fall into place. Palindromic, in a way.
Ffion is not the most likeable of main characters to begin with, but as you find out more about her you start to empathise with her more as a person. She can be quite impulsive and spontaneous, and as police officers go she is something of a law unto herself. There are definitely complexities there, although one thing I would say is that we do not get to see much of her crime-solving skills.
Once you get to know Leo, it is clear that he is thoughtful and dedicated to his position, which makes him the easiest character in the book to connect with. He has a lot to deal with both in and out of work, having to put up with a bigoted boss who seems to embody the things that made so many recent headlines about the Metropolitan Police in the UK, and his equally insufferable ex-wife.
Speaking of insufferable, we have the residents of the Shore. Unlikable characters are not a problem per se, particularly when they are murder suspects, but these characters are so terribly dull that they dragged the story down. From Ashleigh to Clemmie to Jonty, they are all merely cardboard cut-outs and I really struggled to stay invested when it came to any of them.
One of the few unique things about this book is the setting, as I know that part of the world quite well and have not previously seen it represented in fiction. There was a lot to appreciate in the discussions about the Welsh language, and the whole area was given a wild, almost otherworldly atmosphere. This is most acutely felt during the scenes out on the water.
There are some flashes of the exquisite writing Clare Mackintosh is capable of here, with some very good moments of humour in the first half of the book and the way the plot unfolds. The storyline about Seren is impactful too, but a large amount of it is undermined by a mystery that rarely flickers into life; instead becoming a bit of a drag.
Overall, a book which has its good points but ultimately ranks as something of a letdown. It begins rather slow and ponderous and never really builds any momentum, notwithstanding the potential that is shown at times by the two protagonists, or indeed the twists. The atmosphere is a positive to take away, so hopefully the next DC Morgan mystery can build on that with a more exciting plot.
This book deals with topics including rape and sexual assault, attempted suicide, and online abuse. There are also occasional drug references. Do be mindful of these things if you decide to read it.
I had enjoyed all of Clare Mackintosh’s books to date before reading this one, but sadly I just never managed to get into it, regardless of how much I tried. The pace was too slow and several of the characters lacked substance.
My rating: ⭐⭐
Stephen Reads Books 