The Drowning Ground
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
James Marrison's chilling debut will plunge readers into the secrets, fears and lies of a small community. Perfect for fans of hit TV series Broadchurch and The Missing.
'DARK, GRIPPING AND UNEXPECTED' LINWOOD BARCLAY
A man is found dead with a pitchfork through his neck.
When DCI Guillermo Downes is called to the scene he realises he knows the victim.
Because a decade earlier, Downes made a promise to the families of two missing girls that he would find their daughters, and this man had been a suspect in their disappearance.
And as the ripples from his death spread through the local community, there is fresh hope that the detective might finally make good on his promise.
But it soon becomes clear that there's a darkness at the heart of the investigation more dreadful than either could ever have imagined . . .
Praise for The Drowning Ground:
'An Argentinian DCI in the heart of middle England brings a thoughtful outsider's viewpoint to a murder that has troubling links to unsolved crimes from the past. Guillermo Downes's intelligent, intuitive police work keeps the pages turning' Sunday Times
'An intriguing debut ... the plot [has] a strength and texture that help set it apart . . . Taut and told with panache, it ushers in a suitably spiky police hero' Daily Mail
'Marrison's tense début expertly evokes a sense of place . . . the highly unusual denouement will catch readers by surprise' Publishers Weekly
'A gripping thriller . . . a readable, complex tale, astutely paced . . . If the mark of a good whodunnit is that you can't actually guess whodunnit, then The Drowning Ground does its job well. Despite following the plot closely, I was still taken aback' The Herald
'Move over Morse' Oxford Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Something wicked is afoot in Marrison's tense debut, set in the quiet, picturesque villages of the English Cotswolds. Chief Insp. Guillermo Downes gets on the case after the discovery on a remote hillside of the body of a man with a pitchfork stuck in his throat. The victim Frank Hurst had been leading a secluded life since the death of his second wife under suspicious circumstances five years earlier. Hurst's grown daughter, Rebecca, who left home after her step-mother's death, cannot be traced. The murder, coupled with intimations that the cold cases of two missing girls may be warming up, leaves Downes with his work cut out for him. Marrison, who was educated at the University of Edinburgh and now lives in Buenos Aires, expertly evokes a sense of place through descriptions of Cotswolds life. Downes's reminiscences of his Argentinian heritage lend color. The highly unusual denouement will catch most readers by surprise.
