The Wild Swimmers by William Shaw

 

First Line: It came down to a choice between two directions, north or south.

 

Approaching the beach to search for a missing woman, Detective Sergeant Alexandra "Alex" Cupidi heads north while her teenage daughter, Zoë, goes south. It's a decision that Alex wishes she could remake because Zoë is devastated when she finds a dead body on the shore. Mimi Greene was a regular wild swimmer with a group of close friends, and it was very much out of character for her to be swimming alone-- especially in bad weather. It's not long before Cupidi thinks this is more than an accidental drowning.

Meanwhile, her friend and colleague Jill Ferriter has received a letter from a man claiming to be her father. Stephen Dowles was convicted of two murders and has spent the last twenty years in prison. 

With Alex obsessed with the investigation surrounding Mimi Greene's death and her daughter's fragile emotional state, Jill must rely on former police officer Bill South to uncover the facts around Dowles' conviction, and he begins revisiting old colleagues and criminals.

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William Shaw's Alexandra Cupidi series is one that I love. I can hear the birds calling overhead and taste the salt in the air while I search for shells in the sand. Yes, he puts me right in the middle of the setting. Having written a couple of standalone thrillers, I was ecstatic to see that he'd come back to this area and these characters again.

As always, the mysteries concerning the wild swimmer and the convicted killer are strong ones with plenty of twists and turns, but it's the cast of characters that I love seeing again and again. After being a hermit for several books, it would appear that Bill South has finally begun to heal from the emotional turmoil of The Birdwatcher as he takes a larger role in The Wild Swimmers. And speaking of wild swimmers, the group of women that Mimi Greene had joined is a strange collection of personalities.

The two main characters, Alex and her daughter Zoë have come full circle. The trauma of finding Mimi has made Zoë terrified of being in a setting in which she had been passionately in love. And with all the determination of a nineteen-year-old, she is now acting older and more judgemental than her mother. Alex, who used to be a certified city girl who hated the country, now loves the beaches and marshlands of southeastern England. The only way Alex hasn't really changed is in her tendency to jump in before she thinks-- sometimes with dangerous consequences, sometimes not.

If you love strong mysteries peopled with multifaceted characters who live in a setting you can see and hear and feel and taste, you must read this series. Start with The Birdwatcher so you don't miss one little bit!

The Wild Swimmers by William Shaw

ISBN: 9781529420128

riverrun © 2024

Hardcover, 384 pages

 

Police Procedural, #6 Alexandra Cupidi

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon UK