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Jump to navigationJump to searchRevenge of the Tide by Elizabeth Haynes (view source)
Revision as of 16:51, 5 March 2012
, 16:51, 5 March 2012no edit summary
Genevieve worked as a sales executive by day and a pole dancer by night but her dream was to buy and renovate a boat where she could live. That was why she persisted in the pressured, chauvinistic world of software sales and the increasingly sleazy world of the private gentleman's club where she could earn a four figure sum each evening as well as getting a good workout. It was nip-and-tuck as to whether or not she made it but after a few months on the boat at a marina on the Medway she was feeling good enough about her life to hold a boat-warming party. It was planned as a mixture of the people she'd met at the marina and some of her sales colleagues from London. But on the night of the party a body washed up at the side of her boat and Genevieve knew the victim.
Do you know that feeling of dread when you pick up the second book of an author whose first book pulled you in and wouldn't let you go? You're longing for it to be of the same standard with hours of indulgent, satisfying reading ahead of you but you're equally conscious that it might be 'the difficult second book' which tells you quite clearly that this isn't going to be an author to follow. I loved Elizabeth Haynes' [[Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes|first book]]: it was our crime book of the year in 2011 and quite a few other reviewers endorsed our conclusions. The This book sat on my desk for days and then I thought that it wouldn't harm just to have a look, just to get an idea of what it was like...
I finished it in the small hours of the following morning.
I'll confess that I began by not quite believing in the idea of someone being a sales executive by day and a pole dancer by night but by the time I got to know Genevieve it seemed the most natural combination in the world. She's, well, not exactly ''hard'' but rather ruthlessly determined to realise her dream and if that means doing a few things that she's d really rather not do - then she thought about the boat. There are weaknesses - people to whom she becomes closer than is advisable, the realisation that she's physically vulnerable and her obsession with money - which brings her off the page as a great heroine but someone you probably wouldn't like in real life.
The supporting cast is outstanding too. From the heavy who we only ever know by his first name to the day-boss who intrudes into the night work and the fellow pole dancers - well, you feel as though you know them all. But - it's the plot you really want to know about, isn't it? Well, the book teases it out bit by bit as we discover the tangled situation when Genevieve was working and what is happening in the investigation into how ''that'' body came to the marina. eventually Eventually it all collides. It's not long before you discover that this is the difficult-to-put-down second book.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
