The Water Doesn't Lie by Kim Booth BOOK REVIEW #TheWaterDoesntLie @K_B_Author #BookReview

 

Even the water can give up its secrets...

When a body is found early on a Sunday morning, fully clothed, face down in a lake, initial enquiries tend to indicate a tragic accident has occurred.

Detective Sergeant Barry Dalton attends the scene and at first, with no visible marks or injuries on the deceased, all appears to be in order, but a post mortem on the body starts a chain of events that will expose dark secrets from the past that have remained concealed for many years.

DS Dalton and DI Gibb investigate and uncover a series of further deaths that certain people are at pains to be recorded as sudden deaths or accidents to assist the offender and to avenge the previous wrongdoings.

What is the reason why the circumstances of the deaths have been manipulated? Who is responsible and why? What are they trying to conceal?

The more enquiries Dalton and Gibb make, the larger the puzzle gets.

The trigger point to the enquiry lies in the water...

A crime story that will keep you guessing until the end.

The Water Doesn't Lie by Kim Booth was published in paperback on 23 June 2023. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review. 

I was intrigued by this novel when I read the author's biography. He spent many years working in the Police Force in Lincolnshire, and most of the book is set in Lincoln. Having lived in Lincolnshire myself for over thirty years,  I was compelled to read this one. 

Chapter One takes the reader back to 1984, to Lannercraig Children's Home on the outskirts of Glasgow. Young Thomas Ferguson, a resident of the home can take no more and the scenes described are emotionally challenging and quite heartbreaking. Thomas' death is officially recognised as suicide, but DS Douglas Beattie has his suspicions, the boy had unexplained bruises on his body.

Fast forward to April 2005, and the CID office at Lincoln Police Station. Dog walkers have found a body in the lake at Hartsholme Park on the edge of the city. It soon becomes clear that this is a murder case and DS Barry Dalton and DI Alex Gibb are on the case. Further investigation into the identity of the body leads them to Glasgow, and to DS Jim Callender who was part of the Lannercraig Children's Home case back in the 80s. It seems that the body found in Lincoln was fully involved in what became a serious and shocking case of child abuse at various children's homes in Scotland, involving the Church.

Working together, these detectives discover that there are more deaths, all linked to the sexual abuse case, but are they all murders?  If so, who is doing this, and why?

This is a carefully plotted police procedural that deals with some of the darkest and most sensitive of issues, yet is done with care and empathy. There's no getting away from the crimes that are described, and their impact on lives, but this author skilfully creates a story that is both gripping and intriguing. It feels so authentic, and the author's own history of working in the police has most definitely enabled him to create a plot and characters that the reader can truly believe in.  There's a large cast of characters but each one is created with care and attention. 

Be prepared for the unexpected and a few twists. It's a fairly long novel at around 400 pages but I raced through it and found it an engrossing and easy read. I'm looking forward to the next book in this series. 

Kim Booth was born in Lincolnshire UK. After several jobs and a brush with the law decided to join the Lincolnshire Police where he served 35 years mainly in investigate roles.

These roles included many years as both as Detective Constable and Detective Sergeant in the CID. He went on to serve in specialist roles including the Drug Squad. He further specialized in a conducting surveillance in the Regional Crime Squad (later National Crime Agency) Detective Sergeant in Special Branch and later Detective Inspector Head of Special Branch. He then moved on the be Detective Inspector Head of the Economic Crime Unit of the Lincolnshire Police dealing with all types of fraud, money laundering, and internet crime. During this time he also supervised offences of pedophilia conducted buy offenders on the internet and the detention of suspects. After retirement he was retained to investigate a $350 million PONZI fraud and traveled to work with other law enforcement agencies in the Bahama US of A, Japan, Canada and New Zealand, He has over the years specialized in fraud investigation and been involved in many murder investigations including two serial killer enquiries, several kidnaps and extortion's, the successful investigation of the only murder by postal IED in the UK and the arrest and conviction of three contract killers. After leaving the police he worked as a Corporate Security Manager for a well know international holiday company for a number of years. Currently he has has started to fulfill and long standing intention to write true crime and crime fiction books. He lives in the city of Lincoln