The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd

The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd

Expected publication:  March 1, 2022 – Penzler Publishers/Scarlet

Review galley courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley

Description:

In a small fishing village on the Devon coast, Lucy Locke has built a life that anyone would envy. She and her husband, Daniel, own successful businesses and live with their two children in a picturesque home overlooking the harbor. But everything changes one morning when, following a monumental storm, the family yacht is found empty — and Lucy’s husband is nowhere in sight.

As the search for Daniel mounts, so does Lucy’s sense of dread, raised to a fever pitch when another, more terrifying revelation pushes her storybook life to the brink of total destruction. Lucy is reluctantly forced to face a harsh truth: the sea gives life, and just as quickly takes it away. And when the detective on the case uncovers suspicious details that Lucy had hoped would stay buried, she’ll have to confront the nightmarish possibility that she created her own undoing.

Beautifully rendered with evocative, atmospheric prose, The Rising Tide is at once a pulse-pounding, inescapably suspenseful thriller and a poignant tale of the power of the natural world. Its characters and settings are sure to stay with readers long after the final page—and after their heart rates finally return to normal. (publisher)

My take:

After a slow burn beginning this thriller gathered steam and led to a gripping, edge-of-my-seat read.

The seaside/fishing village setting drew me in and then little by little seeing a bit of the underside of the characters kept me turning the pages. By the end I was reading through my finger-covered eyes and wondering how the heck the author would work things out.

I wasn’t disappointed. I’ll be looking for the author’s previous book.

---

About the author:

Sam Lloyd grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. His debut thriller, The Memory Wood, was published to huge critical acclaim in 2020. The Rising Tide is his second novel.

---