The tale is set convincingly on a Welsh island where isolation and insularity have endured despite increasing interconnections with the mainland. The changeable sea weather is almost a character in its own right. Longtime inhabitants regard newcomers with suspicion and faithfully nurture long held resentments against each other. It’s a classic cosy mystery setup with a touch of the neo-gothic: middle-aged Kate goes back to her village for her grandmother’s funeral and learns her only aunt’s suicide fifty years ago might have been murder. And it might have involved the snobbish older ladies everyone calls The Weird Sisters.
Kate soon uncovers a plethora of suspects, and of motives. There are so many characters, indeed -
and some of them long dead - that a cast list would be handy. Many of them get their
own short scene or two of largely inner monologue, leading readers to believe
they’ll be important to the slowly unfolding plot. Their memories of their
exact whereabouts (and those of other suspects) on the fatal weekend fifty
years earlier are surprisingly specific. When everyone has their moment in the
sun, it’s hard to much care when the supposed main character, Kate, is left wandering
for long stretches, asking the occasional, largely ineffectual, question. She gets into a couple of dangerous situations but her reactions water down any tension that has arisen.
I expected to like this novel more than I did. It’s a genre I generally enjoy, and it was getting good mentions online. Yet it’s not a happy synthesis of the island-crime-cosy and the neo-gothic family saga. An essential element in both story types is reader investment in the protagonist’s quest for the truth, but there was nothing particular to like or dislike about Kate. No reason to root for her, no motivation to care about the suicide/murder victim particularly.
A sketch map of the island would add
to the classic locked-room feel.
Secrets in the Water
Alice Fitzpatrick
STONEHOUSE PRESS
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