Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for the Shadow Sands by Robert Bryndza. Thank you Little Brown Book Group for inviting me to participate.
***There are different covers for the UK & US books. The first cover shown is the UK cover, and at the bottom of the post, the US cover is show.
Title: Shadow Sands
Author: Robert Bryndza
Series: Kate Marshall, #2
Published: November 2020, Sphere Books (UK) / Thomas & Mercer (US)
Format: ARC E-copy, 384 pages
Source: Publisher
Summary:
The internationally bestselling author of Nine Elms and The Girl in the Ice is back with a nail-biting new Kate Marshall case, a woman with a dark secret and a powerful sense of justice.
When Kate Marshall finds the bloated body of a young man floating in the Shadow Sands reservoir, the authorities label it a tragic accident.
But the details don’t add up: why was the victim there, in the middle of the night? If he was such a strong swimmer, how did he drown?
Kate is certain there is more to this case than meets the eye. As she and her research assistant Tristan Harper dig deeper, they discover a bloody trail that points towards an active serial killer hiding in plain sight. People have been silently disappearing for years, and when another woman is taken, Kate and Tristan have a matter of days to save her from meeting the same fate.
My thoughts:
This is the second book in Robert Bryndza’s Kate Marshall series and I just love this series. I have been a fan of this author ever since discovering his other crime fiction series, The Erika Foster series, which I also really enjoy, and I have to say, as much I love Erika Foster, I might just love Kate Marshall even more!
I will say, as I typically do when it comes to reading series, that while of course, this book can be read without reading the earlier book, I HIGHLY recommend reading the first book, Nine Elms, before reading this one. Yes, Robert Bryndza does give some bare-bones highlights of what happened in that first book, but as there are some parts that hinge on knowing the full story, you will only have a richer experience with this second book having read the books in order. But that’s just my opinion. Perhaps if you read this one first, it will entice you to pick up the first more because you enjoyed it so much.
Anyway…this book starts off with a bang and never lets up. I found myself completely captivated and never once did my attention span wane. I dare say, this second book might be even better than the first and I really liked that one. I think the character development continues to be strong here, and not only do we learn more about Kate Marshall, but we also learn quite a bit about her assistant, Tristan.
One of the things I really love about this series, and we really see it here in this book, is that it’s not all based on the movement of the case. There are subplots that allow us to get to know our characters – Kate, Tristan, and even Kate’s son Jake – and at the same time, keep the book moving forward. I was particularly interested in the subplot involving Jake and will be curious to see how that one plays out moving forward.
As for the main case that Kate and Tristan find themselves involved in, this one really kept me guessing. There were so many moving parts to it, and all the twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering if the young woman, who Tristan has a connection to, was going to make it. My heart was definitely pounding a few times throughout this book…I love books that evoke that type of reaction.
This book is certainly chilling and dark – aren’t books that involve serial killers usually? But I loved it and ended up reading it in one day – I just could not put it down! Robert Bryndza proves he is once again at the top of his writing game and I cannot wait to see what comes next for Kate Marshall and gang. I’m just bummed I have to wait a whole year to find out! If you like engaging, dark, gritty thrillers, I highly recommend giving this series a go!
Books in this series:
- Nine Elms
- Shadow Sands
- Darkness Falls – due out late 2021
About the author: Robert Bryndza is the author of the international #1 bestselling Detective Erika Foster series. Robert’s books have sold over 3 million copies and have been translated into 29 languages. He is British and lives in Slovakia.
Authors Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads
