I love me a bit of tartan noir, and this is a good one. GR Halliday is one to watch I think, a good one for fans of James Oswald and Tony Black. Highly recommended.

Firstly, I’d like to thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

This was the first book I have read featuring the character DI Monica Kennedy, but it was not necessary to have read the previous one as it was a stand alone story. You learn a lot about her home life and her family in the book. It does not assume that you already know all about her.

This is a very dark and disturbing tale, venturing into a horror story really. Monica and her team are investigating the gruesome discovery of severely mutilated bodies. It is set in Scotland which I found interesting, coming from there, in the tunnels built when constructing the Hydro Electric dams in the Highlands in the Fifties.

The book is complex as, apart from the above investigation, which is told by Monica, it also features the story told by another character in the book, Annabelle, who is introduced into the book quite early on.

It is very suspenseful, and a real page turner, especially towards the end, but it’s not for the fainthearted.

An excellent novel, fabulous read, great characters as always, full of twists and turns, slightly gruesome in places but highly enjoyable.

This was a bit "meh" if I'm honest.

There are two storylines runnng throughout Dark Waters. First Annabelle has come to the Scottish Highlands, tempted by the promise of deserted roads to race her car through. What she doesn't bank on is that after crashing, she wakes up underground and hostage to a sinister "Doctor" who apparantly needs to treat her. That's when things really take a turn for the worse for her.

Meanwhile DI Monica Kennedy is investigating what seems to be gang murders but the deeper she delves into the case, the stranger it seems to get. One thing is clear though, all avenues seem to be leading back to the same highland glen.

As you read you know that these two stories will come together as some point but it just seems to take a long time to get there. Also it is clear that Dark Waters is of a series, and although can technically be read as standalone, there is a lot that is references from past books. As this is the first DI Kennedy book I''ve read, this left lot of holes and ambiguity. The big bad case that went so wrong. Fishers behaviour. The relationship between Kennedy and Crawfard. The hint to the supernatural with her daughter. These are all things which just raised questions as you read with no answers.

I did enjoy the Annabelle side of the story though and as things started to come together, it picked up pace. However, there was a sluggishness at the beginning that the ending didn't make up for sadly, and I just found myself wanting to get through it rather than enjoying reading it

I also have absolutely no idea what the title has to do with the book. As although the "gang" murder victims were found in water, it didn't feature really anywhere else in the story with any significance. Unless I just missed it. Overall, if you've read the other books you'll probably enjoy this, but it's not enough of a standalone for me.

Three mistakes. Two murders. One more victim to go....

Annabelle has come to the Scottish Highlands to escape. But as she speeds along a deserted mountain road, she is suddenly forced to swerve. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a dark, damp room. A voice from the corner of the room says, ‘The doctor will be here soon.’

Scott is camping alone in the Scottish woodlands when he hears a scream. He starts to run in fear of his life. Scott is never seen again.

Meanwhile DI Monica Kennedy has been called to her first serious crimes case in six months - a dismembered body has been discovered, abandoned in a dam. Days later, when another victim surfaces, Monica knows she is on the hunt for a ruthless killer.

But as she begins to close in on the murderer, her own dark past isn’t far behind.... More horror than crime murder mystery which I enjoyed nevertheless.

I think I'm a bit jaded with reading detective novels. Here, detectives struggle to identify a brutal murderer whilst a victim is trapped and in serious jeopardy.

The structure and plot is rather formulaic and the barbarity of the crimes seemed sensationalist rather than an elemental part of the story.

Whilst there is less focus on her height in this 2nd book in the series (which I greatly welcome), DI Kennedy remains a rather enigmatic character, conflicted between her responsibilities as a mother and her duties as a detective. The rest of the squad are thinly drawn and the expansion of the team has little effect on the outcome. And Kennedy must be one of few DIs to get no pressure from her superiors whilst pursuing such a case.

The first book was intriguing but this tended to the formulaic and left me conflicted about whether to maintain an interest in this series.

Another great rollercoaster of a novel. I'm liking Monica Kennedy and her team more and more. Another diamond of a detective thriller. Keep them coming please. I will read them all.

In our second encounter with Detective Kennedy we have another puzzling crime, that goes beyond the worst thing you can imagine, and we learn a little more about this character and her backstory.
This took a little time to come together as the strands were so varied. Two mutilated bodies are found, and nobody can be sure if they’re linked, but the methods used on both bodies is eerily similar. Alongside this, we have a young woman (Annabelle) visiting the Highlands who is caught in a horrific crash when she swerved to avoid a young girl on the road. There’s also Scott, a Canadian tourist, who gets scared by some hostile behaviour towards him and then he meets a similarly awful fate which is linked to the mysterious appearance of a young girl immediately beforehand.
For a long time we switch between Annabelle’s experience waking up chained in a room and the investigation being led by Monica Kennedy. This lends a disconcerting quality to the book, where things take a long time to really get going. We know every detail will be relevant but there was almost a ‘real time’ quality to this that meant things didn’t happen at an implausibly rapid pace.
This is not one for the squeamish, and I was appalled at the levels of depravity shown by the characters in the book. Once again, I found myself curious to get more information about Detective Kennedy and what motivated her.
A gritty read, but well worth it. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This book was better than the first one, but still not my cup of tea. It was very dark and even though I love the location of the book, I did ndot enjoy it.

Not having read book 1, this was quite difficult as I didn't know anything about DI Monica's past. In sating that, I concentrated only on the investigation.

2 dead men and one missing woman, Annabelle, and one cop Monica form the characters of the book. Story was graphic in its description and told from Annabelle and Monica's viewpoints.

It was disturbing at some points. And I had to tread carefully. The investigation was detailed and Annabelle as the victim had some harrowing tales to tell.

Tension was plotted carefully on the pages until the very end. One of my most disturbing reads.

I love books set in Scotland and this is great because of the way the author describes the place-it’s very engaging.

The characters are strong and well written so that you care about what happens to them.

I will keep an eye out for further books by this author.

An absolute page-turner, I really enjoyed my time. I Will definitely read from this author again.
If you're looking for a summer thriller to get lost in, this is perfect.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

I really enjoyed this book and will give it a huge thumbs up. With a great story line and excellent main characters - I would highly recommend this book.

You may have seen my last review where I shouted about how much I loved, From the Shadows (the first book in this series) well, if I loved that book this latest book just totally blew me away. The author has really grown and developed the characters and this story was amazing. The best crime thriller I have read in a long while. I want to make clear that this second book can easily be read as a standalone.

I do have to say that this second book is very graphic and very dark so if you are a little queasy then this may not be for you but I was totally gripped, horrified and scared all the way through just the way I like it.

DI Monica Kennedy is back on the case. She’s taken a break after her last case but when she gets the call that she is needed she is straight onto it. Paired up with Crawford, who we met in book one and assisted by Fisher with a new recruit Khan they are soon up against it.

The Sinclairs run a successful business so when Sebastian Sinclair goes missing but there is no big media circus this leaves Monica a little perplexed and rings alarm bells. It’s not long before his mutilated body is found followed shortly after by another missing person, Gall. Both men had appeared to have drowned but the damage to the bodies and their missing limbs are unexplainable.

Annabelle Whittaker loved to drive. Going on a road trip from London to the Scottish Highlands is a big adventure but racing along a private road she has to swerve fast and as her car smashes into a tree she’s knocked out. She is rescued and brought inside to recover but little does she know that she is living the nightmare of her life. Annabelles biggest mistake is that no one actually knows that she has gone away. No one is missing her and therefore no one is looking for her. The killer leaves her with her mobile phone but that just adds to her misery as there is no phone signal in her prison.

Annabelle is a great character and I really found myself rooting for her. She tried all available tactics to escape. Even when the odds were stacked against her and she knew exactly what the killer is capable of she never fails to give up.

It’s a race against time for the detectives to hunt down the killer and more importantly to locate Annabelle before getting to the root of the evil.

I loved the fact that in this second book we got to know a lot more about the victims. The first book covered a lot more of the detectives’ side of the story but with this one whilst we get to know a lot more about DI Monica we also spend a lot of time in the Scottish Highlands entombed in tunnels under the mountains and importantly we get to see things from the criminal perspective.

I could go on and on and on about this wonderful book all night. It’s a big 5 stars from me and I hope there is another in the series very soon.

The book started slowly but quickly became a page turner. There is a series here and a flawed heroine whose personal life is well woven into the plot. I was not sure how much I enjoyed the alternate character stories but it became clear early on that convergence was being aimed at. The characters were a mixture of originality and central casting but that possibly helped and fictional , course story text. Am I being tantalize by the unknown fate of the main villain? I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who regularly reads cop driven novels and can guarantee that this one does not fall short on involvement and engagement.

When I requested that book I did not realise that this was a sequel.

I tried to read it anyway but came across so many references to book one that it became hard to read I assume the story is going to be very good I sadly just cannot give a full opinion as I did not get to read it properly

What a cracking good read. It kept me turning the pages late into the night. An atmospheric crime story set in Scotland. Who knew there could be people like that living there! Definitely worth a read and one I can recommend.

I must admit, I am still reeling over this book, a disturbing dark psychological read, this one had my heart pounding and often forgetting to breathe. It had a feel of the movie “Deliverance” to it which completely creeped me out then and now!!!

A twofold story, that of DI Monika Kennedy and that of Annabelle. Annabelle took off on a road trip to the Scottish Highlands and that’s where her nightmare begins having swerved to miss a young girl in the middle of the road. We follow Annabelle on her nightmare horrifying situation which is described so well, you nearly feel like you are right there with her sharing those feelings/emotions/fears. DI Kennedy is investigating the case of two victims, both dismembered pre-mortem, Monika has to push aside her own personal trauma to focus on the case in hand.

An absolute gripping read which will keep you up to the early hours, this book was a great police procedural book with a psychological/horror element to it. Full of twists and turns, a real page turner, however, I will not be in a rush to visit the Highlands any time soon!

My thanks to the Author publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
This is the second book in this so far excellent series and while there are some references to the previous book it can easily and enjoyably be read as a standalone story. Our heroine returns to the serious crimes department to investigate a series of gruesome murders in the Scottish highlands. Monica Kennedy is fast becoming one of my favourite characters, the book is well written atmospheric and gripping from start to finish. Descriptive whether it be the beautiful surroundings or the grim murders this is a quality read.

Annabelle loves to drive fast & has heard of the great private roads that cross the Scottish Highlands. When she finds the gate to one of these unlocked she can't wait to put her foot down. When a little girl suddenly appears in front of her, she swerves. The next thing she knows she is lying tied to a bed.

Detective Monica Kennedy has been having a break from the Serious Crime Squad after her last traumatic case when her boss requests her help. A body has been found with missing limbs. When another is found in a similar state it seems there is a serial killer at large.

I loved the setting of the book, especially dealing with the tunnels & dams created by the hydro in the fifties. Told from Monica & Annabelle's viewpoint this is a gory & gripping tale that I really enjoyed! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- I'm already looking forward to the next one in the series!