Shadow Sands: A Kate Marshall Thriller

Early in Bryndza’s dazzling sequel to 2019’s Nine Elms, former police officer Kate Marshall, now a university lecturer in criminology, finds the body of a teenage boy while scuba diving in a reservoir near her home in Devon, England. Kate, who has acted as a private investigator in the past, is reluctant to get involved, until the dead boy’s mother persuades her to look into his suspicious death. Kate enlists the help of her assistant, Tristan Harper, who must out himself as queer to clear his name when he appears in film footage outside the house of a missing Italian professor he agreed to go on a date with. The missing professor may be linked to the body in the reservoir, and Kate and Tristan get immersed in a case that begins with an officer who appears to be faking evidence to force a false arrest and ends with a wealthy family that’s all-too-entangled with the business of murder. Sharply written and wonderfully wrought, this crime thriller sings with every twist and builds to a more-than-satisfying bang. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Kate. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Nov.)