THE DARKEST WATER

The waters of England’s scenic Lake Country are turned to menacing use.

The head found by a jogger on Drigg Beach turns out to be attached to painter Leo James, who’s been buried up to his neck and left to drown in the incoming tide. D.I. Imogen Evans, still levelheaded and unflappable despite the celebrity status her last case brought her, promptly identifies the body, but suspects and motives are few and far between. And since James, who lived like a hermit, left no one to mourn him or hound the police, Imogen’s investigation is soon eclipsed by the travails of Calvin Matheson, who’s opened Therapy, a coffee shop, after helming an earlier restaurant that died on the vine. Urged to promote the shop through social media by his wife, Vicky, who manages an animal shelter, and Tara, their sole employee, Calvin succeeds beyond his wildest dreams. That’s because his wildest dreams didn’t include BlondieMel, who follows up her flirtatious texts to Calvin by showing up at Therapy seeking a job. In the first of many bad decisions, Calvin hires her, and in no time at all he’s been lured to her place for several hours, Vicky has vanished in his absence, and all those anonymous souls who’ve been following him on social media have turned against him with a vengeance. When he demands that Imogen take Vicky’s disappearance seriously, she sets about methodically linking it to the murder of Leo James and a fatal secret Calvin’s been hiding for most of his life.

Lots of coincidences, but readers caught up in the swift-moving current won’t notice till they’ve turned the last page.