Can water wash away all crimes, or will clever detectives and sleuths be able to dredge up the truth once and for all? In these mystery novels, the water isn’t necessarily the killer — but it plays a major role in the crime. There’s something haunting about novels where a body floats downriver, never to be seen again. Or maybe the water is a convenient excuse or a perfect alibi — a boating accident, a powerful current, rough waves and inconveniently located rocks … Did the victim swim to safety, or did they meet an untimely demise under the watery depths? Dive into these five mysteries set by oceans, rivers, and lakes and see what secrets wash ashore.
Crooked River by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
When several severed feet — with the shoes still on — wash up on a tropical beach on a Florida island, Agent Pendergast is on the case. What happened, and why? Where did these feet come from, and who are the victims? And, Pendergast wonders with horror, are the victims still alive?
New York Times bestselling authors Preston & Child tackle this unsettling mystery with a crime scene that spans seas and continents. Full of red herrings, dead ends and a sadistic antagonist, Crooked River is perfect for fans of police procedurals and disturbing crimes.
(Read an interview with the authors here.)
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
The House Across the Lake introduces newly widowed Casey Fletcher and her search for solace from her grief. She aches to get away from the city and seeks refuge at her family’s lake house in Vermont. Soon she questions her decision when memories of her husband haunt her at every turn. But her salvation is her growing interest in the couple across the lake who live in a newly built home.
Not long after Casey befriends the wife, Katherine, after saving her from drowning, the beautiful woman goes missing. The lake has a history of odd disappearances and unexpected drownings, and everyone assumes Katherine has met the same fate. Still, Casey doesn’t buy it, and in a classic tale brimming with Hitchcockian suspense, she soon discovers the unfathomable truth.
(Check out BookTrib’s coverage of Sager’s books here.)
The Empty Kayak by Jodé Millman
The Empty Kayak follows the relentless investigation of a missing person case on the Hudson River that exposes closely guarded secrets and social media malice and threatens to leave a young girl without a father. Detective Ebony Jones is called to the scene of a lost kayaker and discovers she has a close connection with the missing person and his family. The only witness to this accident is the man’s distraught fiancée, an aspiring social media diva who is intent on sharing the raw emotion of her loss with her growing number of followers.
After long, cold hours of searching along the river, hope of finding the man alive wanes, but a voice in the back of the lead detective’s head grows louder, insisting that this is more than just a tragic accident. Only the river knows the truth of what really happened, but Detective Ebony Jones is determined to find out.
(Read BookTrib’s review here.)
The Blue by Lucy Clarke
A friend group’s yacht trip around the world turns from paradise to a nightmare. Lana and Kitty are searching for freedom, and so they set sail on The Blue, which takes them from the Philippines to New Zealand. Dreams start to come true when Kitty and Lana find romance among the crew of travelers searching for adventure. But things quickly turn sour when someone disappears overboard after a fight with a crewmember. Dark secrets are brought to the surface out on the open ocean, where moral dilemmas abound. Nobody knows who to trust, what the truth is, and how to keep up the facade of their perfect lives when everything threatens to unravel.
Hell Bay by Kate Rhodes
When a storm strikes the Isles of Scilly, ferries to take people on and off the island are shut down. Grieving after experiencing a traumatic event while working for the murder squad in London, DI Ben Kitto is ready to resign from his job. So his relaxing time on the island seems like a perfect idea until the body of a 16-year-old girl washes up on the bay. Ben knows the storm hasn’t let anybody on or off the island, so her killer must still be lurking. Everyone is a suspect, nobody is to be trusted and lives are in danger with a murderer ready to strike again.