Sad Water
Bantam Books 1999
ISBN 0-553-57718-2
Christina says:
Historian Gale Grayson returns to England from Georgia with her
four-year-old daughter Katie Pru. With them is Nadianna Jessup, a gifted
young photographer who wants to work with Gale on an essay about a West
Yorkshire cotton mill. On the day Gale’s old friend Detective Inspector
Daniel Halford of Scotland Yard comes for a visit Nadianna sees a charred
body in the river near the mill, but local police is unable to find it
later. Then an artist vanishes who wanted to turn the village of Mayley
and the ruin of the cotton mill into a tourist attraction, a plan that
didn’t meet with universal approval. Against her will Gale is once more
drawn into a murder investigation.
Teri Holbrook keeps getting better. She has a special talent for
connecting historical events with a contemporary mystery plot. In her
first two books she confined herself to the family history of her heroine
Gale Grayson. In SAD WATER it’s the history of the Luddites, a desperate
group of craftsmen trying to fend off industrialization that robbed them
off their livelihood in the 19th Century. A fictitious Luddite
diary is the backbone of the story and Michael Dodd’s record reflects
the conflicts that lead to the death of several people more than a hundred
and fifty years later.
Usually I prefer to read mysteries with professional detectives because
if the hero is an amateur the authors too often resort to preposterous
means to throw bodies in the way of their sleuth. This series is a
pleasant exception. Gale Grayson doesn’t have to go looking for danger
against all reason to create tension. SAD WATER draws its tension from the
dynamics of a troubled community, from the relationships of the people
belonging to it, from the mysterious atmosphere of the West Yorkshire
landscape. Once more Katie Pru’s imaginary world is an important part of
the story. The little girl was established as a three-dimensional
character in her own right from the start, not an easy thing to accomplish
with a four-year-old.
If you enjoy complex stories, engaging characters and a historical
touch you ought to give Teri Holbrook a try. |
