The Driftwood Girls by Mark Douglas-Home

First Line: Her glower was as scornful as any sixteen-year-old girl had directed at a boy all that long summer.

Twenty-three years ago, Christina Tolmie vanished without a trace, leaving her young daughters Kate and Flora orphaned. Now Flora is missing, too. When a desperate Kate searches Flora's home, she finds a slip of paper with one name on it: Cal McGill. Cal is known as the Sea Detective, an expert on the winds and the tides, and consequently a gifted finder of lost things-- and lost people.

Cal doesn't think he can help, but he has unexpected time on his hands, so he begins a cursory search. What he finds may not only reunite the sisters, but it may also shed light on their mother's disappearance all those years ago.

Cal McGill's full first name is Caladh which is Gaelic for a harbor or haven, and many people have come to him hoping he will end their nightmares and find their missing loved ones. With his exhaustive knowledge of winds and tides and his far-flung network of contacts, he's been very successful, and I hope he continues to be because Mark Douglas-Home's series is one of my very favorites.

As Cal begins his search for Kate's missing sister, he's also faced with the death of his best friend, Alex, and this leads to much introspection. Cal has always been a loner: he "experienced the closest he ever came to elation. He was on a wild coast alone and no one knew where he was." I can identify with this aspect of his nature, but I'm also aware of its downside. "Was he becoming more solitary in his habits, too comfortable in his own company and silence?" Cal has to work this through while he searches for Flora.

The Driftwood Girls is several stories woven skillfully together. There's Cal's soul-searching after the death of his friend. There's the search for Flora Tolmie. There's the rather strange story of three people living on an island off the coast of the Netherlands. And there's the slowly unfolding story of what happened to Kate and Flora's mother twenty-three years ago. The book could actually be considered a study in the different ways people respond to grief and this overlying sadness-- as well as Cal's feeling of being cut off from the world-- may make it a bit difficult for readers to be drawn into the story.

The knowledge that goes into making Cal the sea detective is fascinating but never overwhelms the story, and the author's descriptions of coastal areas of Scotland and the Netherlands can have even the most hardened landlubber smelling the salt air, hearing the cry of gulls, and wanting to set sail. The only thing that I can quibble over is how neatly the story of Kate and Flora's mother was wrapped up. It all seemed a bit too convenient, just a bit contrived, but it certainly didn't keep me from enjoying the book.

The oceans, tides, and winds, the atmospheric descriptions of land and sea, the characters, and the stories all mesh perfectly into mysteries that I love to sink into. If you love stories like this, then you need to become acquainted with Cal McGill. Start with The Sea Detective, and be prepared to get your hands on all the others.

The Driftwood Girls by Mark Douglas-Home

ISBN: 9781405923637

Penguin © 2020

Paperback, 330 pages

Private Investigator, #4 Sea Detective mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon UK.

The Malice of Waves by Mark Douglas-Home

First Line: A few hours: wasn't that what Dr. Lipman said?

It's been five years since fourteen-year-old Max Wheeler disappeared, and his grief-stricken father is still searching for the truth. That's why Cal McGill is in the small community of Priest's Island-- he's come to see if his knowledge of the ocean and its currents can bring new clues to light.

Wheeler is not the only one reeling from his son's death. The small island community has also been torn apart by the tragedy, and by the whispers that insinuate that at least one of the villagers has to know what happened to the boy. With emotions running high, it's up to Cal to find the truth.

I love this series. Unless lightning strikes twice, it will be my "find of 2016."  Although I didn't find The Malice of Waves to be quite as mesmerizing as the first two books, it's still an excellent read and not to be missed.  

Douglas-Home changes it up a bit for this third book, and it's all to do with the villagers on Priest's Island. The settings for the author's books are wonderful. You can hear and watch the sea birds wheeling in the sky overhead. You can smell the salt air and be hypnotized by the crashing of the waves. The locations come to life, but they are fictional, and I like Douglas-Home's reasons for making them so: "My reason for inventing places is to avoid imposing a fictional plot on an island community that has a rich and interesting history of its own."  Fictional or not, the landscape is breathtaking and an important part of the books. 

While Cal's work with the tides does help to prove (or disprove) various theories as to what happened to the young boy's body, once again there is an environmental element to the story in the character of Pinkie Wise, a man who is obsessed with collecting rare birds' eggs. Pinkie has a small but pivotal role in The Malice of Waves. One of my favorite characters, Detective Sergeant Helen Jamieson, makes her second appearance in the series, and it was a welcome one. I hope to see more of this intelligent, fierce young woman. Both Helen and Cal are unconventional, complex characters-- one of the reasons why I like these books so much.

A strong theme throughout the book is how grief affects different people, and how it can rip families apart. I think I was so strongly opposed to the elder Wheeler's behavior that I completely forgot to keep track of the clues planted all along the way as to the killer's identity. I noticed them, but the lure of the story was too strong for me to put them all together. (Hopefully I won't have to turn in my amateur sleuth badge.)

If you love strong characters teamed with engrossing mysteries and evocative settings, Mark Douglas-Home's the Sea Detective novels are perfect for you.  They are best read in order, so please begin with The Sea Detective-- one of my Best Reads of 2016.      
 

The Malice of Waves by Mark Douglas-Home

ISBN: 9780718182762

Michael Joseph © 2016

Paperback, 290 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #3 Sea Detective mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from The Book Depository   


 

The Woman Who Walked into the Sea by Mark Douglas-Home

First Line: A vase of blue African lilies, Diana's favourites, filled the church alcove.

Does Cal McGill really want to be the "Sea Detective"? Soul-weary from unceasing requests from bereaved parents begging him to locate the bodies of their children lost at sea, Cal has come to a remote area on the northwest coast of Scotland to reevaluate his life. There he sees a young woman standing on the beach, staring out to sea. 

Soon he is compelled to investigate the twenty-six-year-old mystery of another young woman who stood on that very same beach, then walked into the sea and was never seen again. Cal's going to be brought face-to-face with a tight-knit coastal community that's hellbent on keeping its secrets.

I'm glad to report that The Woman Who Walked into the Sea did not meet my expectations-- it exceeded them. Expecting to read the second book in a mystery series featuring the same cast and location as in the book before it, I found something new. Yes, Cal McGill is still with us, thank goodness, but he's set down in the midst of a brand-new locale and a secondary cast filled with memorable characters. 

The author brings his setting to life, so much so that I could almost smell the sea air and hear the crash of the waves and the cry of the birds. With the village being promised new life due to a proposed offshore wind farm, there's an ecological element to this second mystery, too, reminding those of us who have read The Sea Detective of Cal's strong beliefs on the subject. 

Douglas-Home is so very adept at weaving together a complex story without bogging down the pace or the readability. He explores many questions relating to a complicit village whose residents always seem willing to believe the worst. He shows how secrets can twist in upon themselves and fester, and with surgical precision, he shows how love can be unbelievably cruel. 

This complicated tale is carried on the strong shoulders of a vivid cast of characters: the heartsick Cal, Violet who wants an end to secrets, Mr. Anwar who only wants to do what's right, the malevolent Mrs. Anderson, the vibrant little Anna, and Ross Turnbull-- perhaps the most surprising character of them all. The setting, the story, the characters, are all woven together so tightly and so beautifully... definitely one of my best reading experiences so far this year. 

Since the author seems to be avoiding any real kind of formula for writing his books, I can't wait to see what he's done with book number three: The Malice of Waves. How lucky I am to have found these books!
    

The Woman Who Walked into the Sea by Mark Douglas-Home

ISBN: 9781405923583

International Edition

Penguin Books © 2016

Paperback, 384 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #2 Sea Detective mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from the Book Depository.

The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home

First Line: The cold wind made the girl shiver.

If you pay a call on Cal McGill, you'll find a sign stating "Flotsam and Jetsam Investigations." Cal is an Edinburgh-based oceanographer, environmentalist, and one-of-a-kind investigator. Using his knowledge of ocean currents, prevailing winds, and shipping records, McGill can track where objects have come from-- or where they've gone. He's beginning to make a bit of a name for himself in this unlikely occupation.

He's going to need all his skill to solve a mystery that has police stumped. Severed feet have begun washing up on islands off the coast of Scotland. Two of the feet belong to the same person, yet they turned up on beaches many, many miles apart. 

Little does McGill realize that when he starts to investigate this particular case, he'll unravel a powder keg of corruption, exploitation, and violence. As a result, many lives will be threatened across the globe-- including his own.

Within the space of a week, two of my most trusted sources for book recommendations raved about Mark Douglas-Home's The Sea Detective. When I looked it up online and read the synopsis, I immediately ordered a copy. (Actually I ordered it and the second book in the series because I trusted those recommendations so much.) My friends did not steer me wrong. Now I'm joining my voice with theirs to say that if you enjoy well-written crime fiction with an unusual focus and quirky characters, you need to get your hands on this book, too. The setting of the Scottish Highlands is mere icing on the cake.

Cal McGill is a prickly sort of character who seems much more at home with his oceanography studies than he does with people. As an environmentalist, he's been known to put his reputation on the line to prove a point. Helen Jamieson is a rising star in the local police force. She's overweight and plain-- a fact that her obnoxious superior Detective Inspector David Ryan never misses a chance to point out. But when it comes to investigating crimes, her force of will and creative thinking know no bounds. The Edinburgh police believe Cal McGill is nothing but a nutcase and a scofflaw. Only Helen can see how perfectly suited he is to find out what's going on with these severed feet.

If severed feet wearing shoes washing ashore in various locations sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Douglas-Home's plot is based on fact, and his conclusions are not only plausible, they're downright chilling. As a bonus, we're also brought along on an investigation that McGill has carried close to his heart since he was a small boy: the loss at sea of his grandfather during World War II. Both mysteries are absolutely compelling, with the "cold case" highlighting to perfection how insular tiny villages in the remote areas of Scotland can be.

Two engrossing mysteries, a unique way of solving them, a pitch perfect setting, and vividly drawn characters all combined to create a story that I didn't want to see end. Fortunately, I have the next book in the series, The Woman Who Walked into the Sea, to prevent any symptoms of withdrawal.
   

The Sea Detective by Mark Douglas-Home

ISBN: 9781405923569

Penguin Books © 2015

Paperback, 400 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #1 Sea Detective mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from The Book Depository.