Revenge of the Tide - Elizabeth Haynes

Genevieve is living the dream that she and her father always wanted. She is taking a year out of her hectic life in London to live on a large canal boat and renovate it. After five months and a lot of the work done she decides to have a  party to celebrate figuring it would be a good way to get her London friends and boat friends to get together. All goes well until later that night when she finds the body of her best friend floating in the water next to her boat. She has an inkling as to who did it but can't tell anyone. As more threats appear the man who is supposed to be protecting her is out of touch. She has no choice but to rely on Detective Jim Carling to help her without telling him everything.

Sorry, but I couldn't help make comparisons to her first book Into The Darkest Corner. She uses the same writing techniques so it's hard not to. Basically it's the flashbacks she is using. Like the protagonist in the first book we don't really know that much about Genevieve's past life but the flashbacks reveal it as the plot moves forward. With the first one I didn't particularly like the character in her past but those events changed her and she grew up quite a bit making her someone I liked and felt for. With Genevieve I didn't particularly like her from these flashbacks too but since they went back less than a year the more I learned the more I hated the character. She was selfish, manipulative and willing to do just about anything to get what she wants. Plus she put everyone around her in danger. I went from liking her at the start and enjoying her pet project to thoroughly disliking her by the end. If she had been killed off I wouldn't have been upset about it.

I was intrigued enough by the story line to keep going with it though. It was easy to guess what she was hiding but there must have been something more to it than that. When the truth was finally revealed it was a bit disappointing. I was expecting something more imaginative than what it was. The red herring would have been far more exciting in the end.

If the author hadn't used the exact same techniques I don't think I would have been so quick to compare. I might have been a little less disappointed than I was despite very much liking her first book. However, it doesn't take away the fact that by the end I didn't care what happened to her character. I cared more about the others living on boats and that might have been the main reason I kept going. It won't stop me from reading any other books that she writes in the future but I might be a little less excited about their release.