Lucy Locke – A thirty-seven year old woman who is happily married and the mother to two children. She lives with her family in a large, rambling house atop a cliff on the Devon coast.

Lucy had a traumatic childhood and a tumultuous adolescence and early adulthood. For the past nine years she has been in a loving and stable relationship with her husband, Daniel. Lucy is going over the accounts of their family business and lamenting that they are in serious financial trouble. Then… a knock on the door.  Their sailing yacht has been found abandoned out to sea – with no one aboard. When, incredibly, it seems like her husband Daniel has taken their seven year old son Fin with him, Lucy is gutted. She enlists the aid of an old flame who works with the RLNI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) to take her out to search for them. The storm is raging and no sane person would be out in this… how can her husband and son survive?

Then, it becomes apparent that her teenage daughter was with them as well. Her world has been turned into a waking nightmare.

D.I. Abraham Rose – A lonely man. A tough man with over thirty years experience on the police force. Never married, never had children, though these are things that he had always longed to do… He is a large man, tall, with a craggy face who wears ill-fitting suits. He often quotes the bible, at least to himself. And, now… Abraham is terminally ill. A fact that he has kept secret from his co-workers.

This case is heart-breaking. He feels deep sympathy for Lucy Locke and he is devastated by the apparent fate of her two children. As the harrowing case evolves, he begins to question his own beliefs…

In a word…. TENSE! Yes, this is a psychological thriller, but it is more than that. It is a breakneck action thriller as well.

There was a lot of pain described in this novel, both physical and emotional. It was visceral, and can almost be felt by the reader.

The suspense is meted out drip by drip, all the time building. You think you know the characters, but don’t be mislead, they might surprise you. The author cleverly lets you become fond of the character Lucy Locke, then he makes you doubt her, then he makes you love her again, then you question whether you should… What is going on?

D.I. Abraham Rose was a fantastic character. One which, in other circumstances, I would like to get to know better. I loved his budding relationship with the elderly woman, Bibi Carter. A woman who could provide friendship and much needed emotional support to help assuage his loneliness.

The ending of this fast-paced thriller contained violence and heart-stopping suspense – so be warned. The epilogue mitigated the tension and offered some much needed closure.

I believe this suspense-fueled thriller will be on my ‘Best Reads of 2022’ list. Highly, highly, recommended.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Scarlet (an imprint of Penzler Publishers) via Edelweiss – at my request, for my own reading enjoyment and the writing of this review.

ISBN: 9781613162712 –  ASIN:   ‎ B09CYC36HS –  343 pages

Here are the three different covers for “The Rising Tide”. My favorite is the cover on the far right.

SAM LLOYD grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. His debut thriller, The Memory Wood, was published to huge critical acclaim in 2020. His second thriller, The Rising Tide, was published in 2021 and will be published by Scarlet in March 2022 and by Doubleday Canada in May 2022.

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