Looking For a Good Book

Sloan McPherson and her partner, former navy diver Scott Hughes, were once part of the Underwater Investigation Unit. The unit disbanded, but Scott and Sloan have found themselves working together again. This time, though, it hits close to home as Fred Stafford, a family friend of Sloane’s, is missing.

Finding Stafford will be a challenge as he was notorious for going off alone, often diving and exploring new places. But finding Stafford will turn out to be the easier job. Finding out who Stafford really is will not only prove to be a daunting task, but it will unsettle Sloan as she’s known Fred for many, many years. A simple search and rescue turns into a high-stakes thriller.

This is my first experience with an Andrew Mayne novel (it was recommended by another author whose books I have enjoyed) and I was slightly surprised to see that this was the fifth book in a series. Thinking back on it, it makes sense that this is part of an on-going series – I can see that there’s history between the characters that’s both mentioned outright and hinted at. But it never occurred to me during my reading that I was missing a piece of the puzzle.

For the most part I enjoyed this adventure. The major characters were strong and unique.  They all seemed pretty singularly focused on the task at hand so I didn’t get a lot of sense of them as people with lives outside of the job. Perhaps that’s my way of indicating they were a little two-dimensional. But I didn’t mind.  I didn’t need to see these people outside of the work they do.

I did feel that we spent a lot of time setting up the set-up. Learning about the dangers of diving and how to do it safely. Our story doesn’t really kick in until we’re well into the page count, but once we got there, it definitely held my attention.

I’m not a diver or fan of diving (I’ve never been diving) so this theme doesn’t especially cater to me, but it doesn’t put me off either.  This is one of those books that, if I happened to pick up another volume in the series or another book by the author I’d be interested in reading it, but it doesn’t make me eager to seek out more books in the series or by Mayne.

Looking for a good book? Dark Dive by Andrew Mayne is a thrilling mystery with members of an Underwater Investigation Unit at the center of a murder investigation that reaches back a few decades.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Dark Dive

author: Andrew Mayne

series: Underwater Investigation Unit #5

publisher: Thomas & Mercer

ISBN: 9781662506451

paperback, 299 pages