Dark Tide

Dark Tide is the second Elizabeth Haynes novel, with the protagonist Genevieve having bought a houseboat on the Kent coast and trying to put together a new life after extricating herself from a difficult job and a difficult relationship in London. A body washes up near the marina in the opening chapters. The body is someone Genevieve knew.

Haynes's structural signature in Dark Tide is alternating chapters that gradually fill in the past while the present-day suspense builds. The technique is well-used here. The London-flashback chapters cover the year where her financial-firm job slowly drifted into adjacent territory, and the way the past pressure on her becomes the present-day danger is handled with the patience that distinguishes the British psychological-thriller tradition. Fans of Sophie Hannah's Charlie Zailer mysteries or Belinda Bauer's Blacklands will recognize the careful interior-procedural register.

The closing chapters land. The Kent coast geography is genuinely well-rendered.

Four stars. Recommended for readers of contemporary British psychological thrillers. The Dark Tide Elizabeth Haynes novel is best read after her debut Into the Dark Corner; her stronger Human Remains is the cleanest introduction to her sensibility.