The Salt Marsh

Set in England in 1986, Carson’s convoluted sequel to Orkney Twilight finds 20-year-old Sam Coyle still grieving for her father, Jim, an undercover agent, who was shot dead by a hit man two year earlier. Jim used to like to whistle the theme from The Third Man, the classic Cold War film, and recurring references to the tune reinforce the book’s pervasive sense of unease. Sam and her boyfriend, Luke, take part in protests at the Dungeness nuclear power station on the south coast of Kent. When Luke disappears, a friend warns her that she’s being monitored by MI5 as a possible terrorist and that her former housemate, environmental researcher Dave Daley, may be under suspicion as well. An unlikely suicide raises the stakes. Meanwhile, Sam must deal with a hit man called Sonny who offers his help, and a corrupt cop, Superintendent Crawford, who’s investigating the suicide. Nothing is simple or straightforward. Readers may wonder why the bad guys didn’t get rid of Sam early on. [em]Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath Literary Agents (U.K.). (Oct.) [/em]