When Ben Kitto discovers the body of a young woman, buried near the ruins of an old isolation hospital on the island of St Helen's, he is convinced the killer is hiding in plain sight … and determined to take more lives. The breathtaking, gripping new instalment in the Isles of Scilly Mysteries series…
DI BEN KITTO RETURNS…
A SACRED ISLAND
Winter storms lash the Isles of Scilly, when DI Ben Kitto ferries the islands’ priest to St Helen’s. Father Michael intends to live as a pilgrim in the ruins of an ancient church on the uninhabited island, but an ugly secret is buried among the rocks. Digging frantically in the sand, Ben’s dog, Shadow, unearths the emaciated remains of a young woman.
A SHOCKING MURDER
The discovery chills Ben to the core. The victim is Vietnamese, with no clear link to the community – and her killer has made sure that no one will find her easily.
A KILLER ON THE LOOSE
The storm intensifies as the investigation gathers pace. Soon Scilly is cut off by bad weather, with no help available from the mainland. Ben is certain the killer is hiding in plain sight. He knows they are waiting to kill again – and at unimaginable cost.
From the very first page it pulls you straight into the salt-tinged world of DI Ben Kitto; this time, facing perhaps his most emotionally wrenching case yet.
The novel opens with the discovery of the body of a young girl. Buried on the shore of the island of St Mary's. No child has been reported as missing, Ben and his team have no idea how the body got there.
Almost at the same time, a newborn baby is left on the steps of the police station, bundled carefully in a blanket, with no note, no clue, nothing. Ben feels that the two events feel somehow connected, though how, he can’t yet see.
As the investigation deepens, whispers begin to surface about illegal migrant workers and conspiracy theories believed by the young people of the islands. Mai is a young Vietnamese woman whose story runs parallel to Ben's investigation. Her chapters are some of the most haunting and powerful in the book. The author gives her a voice full of fear and fierce determination as she endures captivity and dreams of freedom.
What unfolds is a story about control, exploitation, and survival, but also about compassion and community and about how far people will go to protect one another, even in the darkest of times.
Kate Rhodes paints the Isles of Scilly beautifully. You feel the pull of the tides, the clatter of rain on windows, the creeping unease when the power goes out. It’s both gorgeous and menacing.
Ben Kitto is a detective that I really like, he is decent, a man wrestling with duty and the ghosts of past cases. His home life with Nina and baby Noah adds real heart; he’s not a brooding loner, but a man constantly trying to balance love and justice.
The author juggles the whodunit intrigue with social relevance, making this more than just a murder mystery; it’s a story about people who fall through the cracks, and those who refuse to look away.
Deadman’s Pool is dark, and at times brutal, but it’s also tender and deeply humane. The contrast between Mai’s desperate plight and Ben’s quiet determination is what gives the book its power. By the end, I was emotionally drained; the best kind of crime novel experience.
McDermid’s New Blood panel at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for her debut, Crossbones Yard.
She has been nominated twice for the prestigious CWA Dagger in the Library award, and is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group.
She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker Dave Pescod, and visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child, which gave her the idea for the critically acclaimed Isles of Scilly Mysteries series.
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