Dark Waters

A delicious slice of tartan noir. With a likeable and realistic central character. And Inverness is an interesting and atmospheric location. A dark and mysterious plot great stuff.

Oh wow, what an opening sentence.
'When she still had all of her arms and legs'
I just wanted to delve right into this book and find out what had happened to her arms and legs, and boy was this a fast page turning read that kept your mind racing throughout. There's quite a bit of gory details, so if you're squeamish then I wouldn't recommend.  However if, like me, you don't mind some gruesome, spine chilling settings then I'd put Dark Waters high on your 'To Buy' list.


We are introduced to DI Monica Kennedy and DC Connor Crawford who are investigating a dead body found in the River Beauly, and this is where the story gets even more interesting.  Obviously I don't want to give too much away, but the twists and turns are brilliantly plotted.  
I found the characters were strong and believable.  I could easily see myself having a cuppa and a chat with Monica, a drink in the pub with Fisher or road trip with Annabelle.

All in all, this is one of the best murder mysteries I've read in quite a while.

Thankyou to Random house UK, Vintage Publishing and Netgalley for my proof copy in exchange for an honest review.

We start off the book with Annabelle who is visiting Scotland from London. While she is driving along a young child appears on the road which causes Annabelle to crash her car.  When Annabelle wakes up, she is a strange place and is terrified. 

Meanwhile DI Monica Kennedy is recovering from the horrors of her last case and has being taking a break from MIT. She gets a call from Detective Superintendent Fred Hately that a body has been found. Joining her are DC Conor Crawford and DC Ben Fisher who are presumed to be ok after the last case but that isn’t the truth and they are both still recovering themselves and a new member DC Maria Khan joins the team. 

While they start to investigate another body is found and things start to develop in the case and maybe Annabelle’s disappearance is linked to their current case. 

DI Monica Kennedy is fabulous character. She is dedicated to her job but also her daughter. She is such a strong character. She also has her own secrets which seem to way heavy on her and we are shown flashbacks to some of these. Also I liked how Crawford and Fisher weren’t just side characters and it actual shown how they had being dealing with things. 

Annabelle was a strong character as well. The trauma she goes through is awful but she never gives up the battle for up life. 

I loved the how the author described Scotland. I pictured being there with the characters and certainly made me want to visit the actually area. 

I would say this book is a horror book as well as a crime book as the case the characters are dealing with is quite gory. 

I throughly enjoyed this book and will certainly read the author’s future books. 

I received a ARC from Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for an objection review.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had overtones of a horror book, and I would say it may not be for everyone, certainly not for the feint hearted .I thought however it was very believable and the characters were well written, and interesting.To be honest I couldn't read it fast enough, I was desperate to find out what was going to happen next.Certainly gruesome in places but also very exciting I loved it. and would definitely read more books by this talented writer.

Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Haunting, dark and evocative -Scottish noir at its very best. Well, this one certainly had me gripped from the first page. Partly this was due to the atmospheric resonance of the Highlands setting, and partly due to Halliday's impeccable plotting and pitch-perfect plotting. Imagine Val McDermid and Ian Rankin having an existential crisis, or, a dark night of the soul, and you get something approximating G.R. Halliday's 'Dark Waters'. Bleak and chilling, this crime novel is on another level of darkness to most I have encountered. Forget disturbing and the usual metaphors associated with descriptions of stories of this genre, this is the novelistic equivalent of an all too real, visceral almost, icy finger up one's spine. There is a murderer on the loose and it is up to the wonderfully realised, DI Monica Kennedy to apprehend the killer. This is no cosy mystery, however, and G.R. Halliday certainly pulls no punches in his descriptions of the gruesome, murderous activities of a depraved serial killer. Try and look away but you can't. At least I couldn't anyway. This was a real-page turner which provided a unique window into the twisted psyche of the murderous, inhuman 'other'. A plot to die for, I devoured every page in one sitting. Absolutely fantastic.

Dark Waters, what a thriller! The brooding menace in the Scottish forests got me thinking of the film Deliverance and I was quite expecting a couple of pipers to break out in to Dueling Bagpipes. Then it got even more sinister with the Doc in the caves. For some strange reason an old gag came to mind, ‘A towny leans on a farm gate looking at a pig in a field. He says to the farmer, “That pig has only three legs”, to which the farmer replied, “Well, you wouldn’t want to eat it all at once!” ‘
I do have a couple of issues with the plot and it relates largely to do with the abandoned garage and the quarry scrap heap. Firstly, the grisly discovery in the garage seemed very at odds with where the victim ended up. I would have expected all ‘procedures’ to have been carried out away from prying eyes and ears. Secondly, if the garage was abandoned where did the lifting tackle come from to stack the scrap cars in the quarry?
Niggles aside, a fantastic thriller, one which will be hard to beat.

This was a brilliant book although I'm not sure where the author got their ideas for the storyline which was original and pretty gruesome. The chapters with Annabelle contrasted very well with the day to day murder enquiries by Monica and her team. Crawford and Fisher were excellent, well rounded characters, you knew little about them but what you did find out was interesting and very real.. Once I was two thirds of the way through I was eager to reach the conclusion and when this didn't arrive,  even as far as 80% through the book, I knew that more revelations would appear. The police trio reminded me of another book I read recently with Weaver and Ross. Some of the characters were certainly scary and Annabelle's captivity was played out to such an extent that you could feel yourself in that lonely room unbelievably frightened that you would never be able to escape. I look forward to reading more from this excellent author.

DI Monica Kennedy has two mangled bodies in her case load. Still dealing with her own personal demons from the last case which saw her and her young daughter, Lucy, in danger can Monica be focused enough to solve the crimes? 

A young girl has been in a car accident and wakes up being held captive and she starts to fear for her life and before long Monica has more in her plate to deal with. 

I absolutely loved the first book but this one was even better. Very savage and dark, exploring how crazed some people are! Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

A very interesting read with some creepy sounding characters in it and some very strange ones,  had a slight his have eyes feel to it