MYSTERY

Blood, Salt, Water: An Alex Morrow Novel

Little, Brown. Dec. 2015. 304p. ISBN 9780316380546. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780316380553. M
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Helensburgh is a sleepy, picturesque town hugging Scotland's coast—just the sort of place where the locals wear expensive cardigans and buy free-range eggs. But it's definitely not the type of community to endear itself to Alex Morrow, the world-weary Glasgow detective appearing in her fifth crime thriller (after The Red Road) from the always dependable Mina. Alex reluctantly travels to Helensburgh to trace the whereabouts of a corrupt businesswoman who vanished while being targeted by a national law enforcement sting. Roxanna Fuentecilla was beautiful, tempestuous, and, thanks to cell phone records, last known to have been within range of the seaside village. When the dead body that surfaces in a local lake turns out to be someone other than Roxanna, Alex realizes that the town's posh façade hides a rotten core of deceit and despair.
VERDICT Supplementing procedural elements with doses of psychological suspense and wry social commentary (the vote for Scottish independence, class tension, and even the foibles of those following gluten-free diets all come under her gimlet eye), Mina delivers another atmospheric, well-crafted mystery. [See Prepub Alert, 6/21/15.]
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