Setting – Isle of Anglesey, in Wales, is 260 square miles of stunning scenery with mountains, lakes, and beaches. It is an island steeped in Arthurian legend, and folklore, with a dark history of Roman and Viking invasion.

Laura Hart – formerly a Detective Chief Inspector for the Greater Manchester Police, and their top hostage negotiator. When her husband was murdered on the job, she resigned from the police, packed up her two children, and moved back to her home, Anglesey, Wales. She has been diagnosed with PTSD, and carries on conversations with her dead husband, Sam.

DCI Gareth Williams –  52 years old, works for the CID in Beaumaris. He’s a local man who has always lived in the beautiful island of his birth. His marriage recently failed due to his wife’s infidelity. He didn’t really blame her though, as his work hours and the fact that he couldn’t give her the children she wants, were contributing factors to the split.

Michael – at seventeen he is in WAY over his head. He has fallen in with a dangerous gang working out of Manchester – along with his elder brother Callum. The two brothers, along with ‘Red’, a volatile, and very violent criminal, are in the process of doing a drug deal on the Isle of Anglesey.

Geoff and Steve – both in their sixties, they have a business taking cruises out to Puffin Island on the Menai Strait several times a day.

Beth – a primary school in her twenties who has chosen a tragic day to take her class on a school trip.If it is a tension-filled, high octane crime thriller you are looking for then look no further!

With sympathetic characterization, and an engrossing plot this would make a stellar action/suspense thriller movie.

Flashbacks to the day of Laura Hart’s husband’s death, gave valuable background to her character.

The unpredictable, unstable, and unhinged personality of the head villain, made the dire hostage situation very tense. The slow start picked up exponentially with boat chases and car chases, all the while fearing for the hostages well-being.

The growing attraction between Laura and Gareth was a welcome addition to the story, but I really didn’t like how Laura dwelt on this at times when she she was highly stressed and fearing for her son’s life. This seemed unrealistic to me – there is a time and place for everything.

A crime thriller with exciting adventure scenes, “A Dark Tide” will no doubt be enjoyed by many readers of both sexes. I for one, will definitely put book two of this series on my TBR list.

This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Avon Books UK via NetGalley.

  ISBN: 9780008524838 – Pbk. ISBN:  ‎9780008524821 – 384 pages

This title will be published by Avon Books UK on May 12, 2022 and by Harper Collins in North America on Nov. 15, 2022.  It is available to pre-order now!

Something I learned from reading “The Dark Tide“: “…the area of the sea before the horizon was called ‘the offing‘. In the old days, ships that were about to arrive were said to be ‘in the offing‘. Nowadays, the phrase had become part of everyday language.Simon McCleave is a million selling British crime novelist. His first book, ‘The Snowdonia Killings’, was released in January 2020 and reached No 1 in the Amazon UK Chart and selling over 200,000 copies. He has gone on to pen seven subsequent novels in the DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller Series.

Simon has just signed a deal with Harper Collins to write a new crime series based on the Isle of Anglesey, the first of which is titled “Dark Tide“.

Simon McCleave was originally born in South London. When leaving University, he worked in television and film development. He was a Script Editor at the BBC, a producer at Channel 4 before working as a Story Analyst in Los Angeles. Simon then became a script writer for television and film. He wrote on series such as Silent Witness, Murder In Suburbia, Teachers, Attachments, The Bill, Eastenders and many more.

Simon lives in North Wales with his wife and two children.

Connect with Simon McCleave via his website, Facebook,  Instagram or Twitter.