DROWNED LIVES

Set in and around the dark, misty canals of Lichfield, Booth's incredible novel is awash with mystery. When council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an old and odd man demanding help in healing a decades-old family rift, he sends the stranger away. But then the old man is murdered and the police arrive on Chris's doorstep to asking questions to which he has no answers. As he begins to look into the circumstances of the murder, Chris uncovers a deadly secret in the silt and mud of the local canals that he will realise was better kept buried. As usual a strong sense of history and landscape and a layering of historical periods in the story of one family including the 1990s in which the story is set. As usual, the plot twists are satisfying. 426pp, paperback.