Thanks Quercus Books and netgalley for this ARC.

William Shaw has a fan for the duration. Loved the feel of this gritty cop drama mystery. You'll be cheering for Cupidi, and on you feet cheering for more novels from Shaw.

A accomplished author who has created a new police series set around Dungeness. In DS Cupidi he has created a wonderful detective instinctive and headstrong. Often guilty of saying too much too quickly and speaking her mind without thinking.
Her move out from London is due to her relationship with another police officer and she is conscious of this history, mistakes made delaying her career and the pressure this has brought on her daughter.
The themes that link this novel are many and complex. On the face of it these include relationships, mainly as a Mother; Alex Cupidi with her daughter Zoe and Helen her own Mother.
In addition forgotten hidden societies whether New Age travellers, homeless and modern day issues with migrant workers and failed asylum seekers.
Finally the role of the police is looked at indirectly in how they can exasperate situations and turn issues into criminal activities and serious incidents.
Perhaps not learning from her default position of working on instincts and feeling safer than in the demanding streets of London. Maybe it is just her approach to policing but on a number of occasions Alex’s drive and pursuit I. The investigation leave her vulnerable. But perhaps she thinks a heavy response cannot be made silently and people can scatter and evidence lost.
Shaw examines this very well without coming down on one side or critiquing his protagonist. A thrilling climax makes use of this but allows for a brilliant ending and room to question the realities of immigration not as exploitation but in human terms.
I love this author’s writing, his humility and creativity. I hope with this novel his popularity will increase and his head will swell slightly to see and receive the acclaim he richly deserves.
A pleasure to read and review. Out May 3rd - Happy Publication day!

Salt Lane is set in the isolated Kent coast, land of watercourses, fens, stark beaches, the shadow of Dungeness power station and features DS Alex Cupidi, previously encountered in Shaw's brilliant book The Birdwatcher.

There are two dead bodies for Cupidi to investigate, a woman found dead in Salt Lane, whose identity isn't as clear as it originally seemed, and a migrant worker found dead in a slurry pit (nasty, nasty death).

As well as investigating these cases with the help of young constable Ferriter, Cupidi is dealing with the isolation of her teenage daughter, Zoe and the reappearance in her life of the man, involvement with whom is the reason Cupidi had to leave London for Kent.

Shaw writes great, involved and complex characters, and the book is full of incisive social commentary, where a lot of the themes that preoccupy English society today are explored - illegal immigration, drug-taking, fruit picking, isolated communities and distrust of the establishment and the police.

I've read all of William Shaw's novels, and I was excited when I realised who Cupidi's mother is! The relationship between mother and daughter is challenging, but develops satisfactorily through the book.

An excellent read.

Having read The Birdwatcher where we were introduced to Cupidi I was interested to see how this novel would develop her character. The Birdwatcher is a prequel to Salt Lane but you don't have to have read it to not feel left out of prior knowledge.
Alex Cupidi is a character who can be frustrating at times in her attitudes to those around her but her softer side does shine through giving her an overall rounded feel and the same can be said of the cast of supporting characters. Cupidi's self reflection makes her seem human after all and its not overdone as the detective with a flaw can be a little wearing at times.
Particularly enjoyable is the treatment of place, here the desolate nature of the Kentish coast is brought to life in all its windswept, pebbly and marshy glory and you can almost hear the cries of the birds that Cupidi's daughter spends hours watching.
This plot weaves together much of what is happening in contemporary Britain alongside the police procedural (or at times lack of procedure) giving plenty of interest along the way. The issues are dealt with sensitively and give you a chance to look on things in a new light, you can see that William Shaw has tried to portray realities rather through research rather than rely on 'Daily Mail' style headlines as a basis for writing. I read this book in two sittings being drawn to find out who was behind the goings on, as we follow the story from Cupidi's point of view it is good to try and second guess what will happen next!!

So, would I recommend this book to anyone else? The simple answer is yes as it is a thoughtful, well written book, lyrical on landscape but with gritty action and emotional ups and down.

#SaltLane #NetGalley

One of my favourite books of last year was “The Birdwatcher”. The MC was William South, a cop with a dodgy past who runs up against a new colleague named DS Alexandra Cupidi. In this outing she takes over the lead as a member of the Serious Crime team with Kent police.

Alexandra arrived in the area as a transfer from the Met. After an affair with a colleague in London was discovered, she packed up teenage daughter Zoë & moved to Dungeness. It hasn’t been an easy transition for either one of them.

I won’t go into the plot too much, the book blurb gives a good recap. Initially there are 2 puzzling cases on Alexandra’s plate: a dead woman who seems to be in 2 places at the same time & the body of a migrant found in a farm slurry. There are multiple twists to each tale that keep you guessing & Alex seems to have a talent for getting into sticky situations.

I must confess it took me along time to warm up to the MC. Understandably, she feels like a fish out of water in her new home & her involvement with the William South case didn’t exactly endear her to colleagues. Their relationships aren’t helped by her prickly personality but she does form an odd bond with Constable Jill Ferrier, her polar opposite. Her work ethic results in her being a largely absent parent & as Zoë becomes increasingly isolated & withdrawn, there were times I wanted to reach through the pages & give Alexandra a good shake. I was also a little confused about the sudden appearance of a former colleague from the Met. His short inclusion didn’t really add anything to the story & it slowed the pace around the much more intriguing murder investigations.

It’s also a story about fitting in. Doesn’t matter if you’re an African migrant or cop from London. You’re clearly from away & don’t know the people, their past & customs. You have to learn the rhythm of local life which can be as difficult as navigating the fens.

So while I initially found it hard to connect with Alexandra as I did with William South, she started to grow on me. Life in the fens weaves its spell & she goes from feeling like an outsider to thinking maybe, just maybe, she’s found a place she & Zoë belong. The author has a writing style that is eminently readable. That plus the intricate plot will keep you turning the pages to see how it all shakes out.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Salt Lane, the first novel to feature DS Alex Cupidi of Kent police.

Alex has recently transferred from the Met to Dungeness and is still feeling her way when she is called out to a dead body found in a ditch in Salt Lane. They are still trying to identify the woman and her cause of death when another body is found in the slurry pit of a local farm. This one they believe to be an illegal immigrant and in the course of trying to identify him they uncover a hidden underbelly to the rural Kent countryside.

I thoroughly enjoyed Salt Lane which, apart from being an exciting, absorbing read, is very informative on the plight of illegal immigrants and the sharp practice surrounding them. The novel is told from Alex's point of view so the reader knows only what she discovers (a lot). This makes for a great read as the reader tries to work out what is going on and beat her to the punch! I guessed some of it in advance of her but there are a few twists, especially, unconventionally, at the beginning, which threw me off completely. Nevertheless the novel held my attention from start to finish and I read it in one sitting as it is well paced with both reveals and action appearing steadily to maintain the flow.

Alex Cupidi is an interesting character. She is brusque, to the point of rudeness sometimes, and doesn't do small talk and yet her brutal honesty makes people talk to her and trust her although this doesn't seem to extend to her mother and daughter with both of whom she has troubled relationships. I found myself liking her from the start.

Salt Lane is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

A thoroughly enjoyable read, having read The Birdwatcher I had high hopes for Salt Lane and I wasn't disappointed. Alex Cupidi is an intriguing character and her complex personal life adds to the story. Alex transfers from the Met in London to the Kent police force after an affair with a married colleague. The wilds of the Kent coastline and the marshes are wonderfully atmospheric, her relationship with her teenage daughter highlights the difficulties of being a single parent and coping with a demanding career.
Alex is dealing with two murders that initially seem unconnected, it's hard to say much about the story without giving away the plot. There is quite a bit of social commentary and it is handled exceedingly well. A politically and socially relevant crime story that grabs you and draws you in.
I look forward to further books in this series, William Shaw has created a fabulous character in Alex Cupidi and the setting couldn't be better.

I must say, i thoroughly enjoyed this book. Just loved the dysfunctional family of Alex’s and the scenery and all the bird and wildlife, I think the author is a birdwatcher himself. The story is a sad one, but very well written, and I had to keep reading to find out who was behind it all. Finished it in a day. I was quite surprised however, to find on fantastic fiction that there was one before this called Birdwatcher and that gives more insight into Alex’s move from the Met. I’m reading them back to front, but no matter, as I’m enjoying the first one just as much. I hope the author writes some more and makes it a series, I would like to see how Alex gets on, and her mum and daughter.

My thanks to the author and netgalley for the ARC.

Having really enjoyed, “The Birdwatcher,” I was delighted to see D S Alexander Cupidi come centre stage in the first of a new series. Cupidi left London for Kent, after having an affair with a married colleague, and relocated with her daughter, Zoe. Zoe is a troubled teenager, who has taken to birdwatching, after tagging along with William South, in the prequel novel. Unhappy at school, she spends her time on the Kent marshes and seems to have no friends of her own age. Alex is aware of her isolation, unhappiness and the fact that she is not spending enough time with her daughter, but she is also very career driven and apt to get caught up in the cases she is working on. In this novel, we get to know a little more about her, as we learn more about the affair which caused her to leave London and of the difficult relationship she has with her own mother.

In this book, Cupidi is dealing with two cases. One, the body of a woman found in Salt Lane, whose identity is not as clear cut as it first appears. Secondly, the body of a migrant worker, whose battered body is also discovered in the Kent countryside. For many of us, crime appears to be a city problem, but William Shaw has intelligently unearthed some of the problems faced by more rural areas; including the use of illegal immigrants in seasonal work and the secrecy among migrant workers, living undercover.

Working alongside Cupidi is the young, enthusiastic Constable Ferriter. She is full of ideas, and courage, but is also quite vulnerable and touched by the people she comes into contact with. Indeed, vulnerability is the theme of this crime novel, which is more literary, than fast paced. William Shaw always writes strong characters, as well as involved, intricate plots, and he deftly weaves a world where you see that the police are very much involved with, and touched by, the most vulnerable members of society. Indeed, for some of the characters of this book, they are outside society – marginalised by everything from immigration papers to lifestyle choices.

I have enjoyed William Shaw’s novels since his very first, Breen and Tozer book. Although I do really love that series, I also really loved this clever, contemporary crime novel. Unlike, “The Birdwatcher,” which also had a historical aspect, being partly set in Northern Ireland, during the Troubles, this is very much a modern crime novel, with relevant, contemporary issues. I look forward to reading anything else that William Shaw writes – he is one of my very favourite crime writers and never disappoints.

William Shaw begins this series featuring DS Alex Cupidi after introducing us to her in the excellent The Birdwatcher, set in the remote, atmospheric and isolated Kent coastline with its marshes. The story echoes many current social and political issues in Britain today, the anti-immigrant fervour, the lack of rights and inability to work faced asylum seekers, and the precarious and exploitative world of gangmasters and vulnerable migrant workers desperately needed to pick fruit and vegetables on farms. Alex has settled into her new home after working at the Met in London, but her affair with a married cop which precipitated her move to Kent, comes back to haunt her in the present. Her daughter, Zoe, is a loner, and unlike many young teens, has become a passionate birdwatcher. Alex worries about her as the distance between them grows, and Zoe emanates a deep sadness that she fails to get to the bottom of.

A body of a woman is found in the waters close to Salt Lane. It has been there for some time and the cause of death is hard to determine. The victim is eventually identified as Hilary Keen, and a visit to her son, Julian, to notify him of her death raises a surprising conundrum, Julian had seen Keen the night before, meaning his mother could not be their murder victim. Who is the real Hilary Keen? Another murder victim is discovered by a farmer in his slurry tank, a muslim North African man who had been assaulted prior to being killed. Alex finds herself working with the young, enthusiastic and keen Constable Ferriter, a woman with bags of courage and personality, who is emotionally hard hit by the first murders that she encounters. Alex's boss, DI MacAdam, finds himself having to face the stress and pressures of an IPCC investigation over his decisions that result in a man's death. Progress on the two cases is slow and laboured as questions asked of migrant workers reveal a wall of silence and fear. Cupidi and Ferriter slowly begin to get an inkling of the truth and the connections between the two murders as danger and menace begins to surround them.

William Shaw weaves a great compelling and atmospheric crime story that is politically and socially relevant. Alex is a flawed central character, dogged in her determination to uncover the truth that lie behind the murders. She is neglectful of Zoe, which has her inviting her mother to stay, even though there is a difficult relationship between them. Shaw has done a sterling job in establishing her as a woman cop that commands interest, so much so that I am really looking forward to her next outing! This is an engaging and entertaining crime novel that I loved reading with a fantastic location. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

This is book one of the Alex Cupidi series although she does feature in another book, The Birdwatcher, which could be considered a prequel. It is not necessary to have read that book before starting this one as the salient points are all covered nicely here but as it is a cracking read in its own right, why not!?
Due to some dubious personal life choices, Alex has been relocated from the bustling Met to the wilds of the Kent coastline. A move that irks her but has really annoyed her daughter who has had to leave all her friends and is pretty resentful of the new situation she finds herself in. But, both of them are resigned to their new lives and are trying to get to grips with it all.
Alex is called to the scene of an accident. A man has drowned in a slurry pit on a farm. On further inspection, she deems it to have been murder and her investigations lead her to migrants working on neighbouring farms as fruit pickers. But, as with most oversees workers, they run a closed shop and it's hard to get any information from them. Together with her colleague, Ferriter, they manage to find someone to talk to and gain a few leads there. But things take a wild turn when another body is found, one who it seems is a bit out of place, and it becomes a race against time to get to the bottom of what is swiftly turning out to be a rather convoluted case. One that also brought Alex's sordid past into her present once again.
Oh my days, this book was a veritable cornucopia of crime. What started off as one thing soon turned into a whole hotchpotch of interconnected crimes, some spanning decades in the making. Alex really doesn't make things easy for herself as she is forced to involve her old force and colleagues in her current case and all the baggage that came with that wasn't pretty. I am not too keen on characters' lives overtaking the crimes being solved but here it was necessary inclusion for both plot and character development reasons. The crimes themselves are well plotted and indeed well thought out and had me somewhat flummoxed throughout which meant that my interest was maintained through all the descriptive stuff I had to endure before I got to the crux of the matters in hand. It really was quite an ambitious plot all told.
One of the things I did love about the book was Alex's relationship with her constable Ferriter. I thought that, after a bit of a shaky start, they gelled really well and I do look forward to seeing them together in future books. Alex herself did annoy me quite a bit throughout. She's a bit of a lone wolf, gung ho maverick but her heart is in the right place so I guess I can put up with the rather shadier sides of her character. She makes mistakes but she does admit and own them so it's not all bad.
There's quite a lot of social commentary in this book, something I believe that the author is well known for and it is handled quite well here. Going into detail would include spoilers so I won't but it does highlight the plight of what some people go through and the breaks that they need to survive that can come from unlikely sources and I did like that element of what I read.
I did twig the main perp a bit before the reveal but only cos I was struggling to find someone else to pin it all on. There were other suspects of course but I did deem them unlikely / too obvious and I was pleasantly surprised that I was right in the end.
All in all, a good introduction (or reconnection if you read The Bridwatcher) to Alex Cupidi. It'll be interesting to see what she gets up to in the next book. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Thank you for allowing me to read this. I have read other books by the author and they are all just as good. An interesting cast of characters and a good story made for an enjoyable Easter read