IN THE DEEP

A troubled heiress is charged with the murder of her newlywed husband.

Two years after the drowning of her young daughter and the subsequent collapse of her marriage, Ellie Tyler is beginning to put her life back together. She meets Martin Cresswell-Smith, a property developer, in the lobby of the hotel her family owns in Vancouver following a disastrous dinner with her father. Martin seems to offer all that Ellie needs: a second chance after years of self-medicating through her depression and a bit of romance. Ellie ignores slight indications that Martin might not be all he claims to be and offers to become an investment partner in his struggling plans for a resort development in Australia, which she can fund because of her father’s wealth. The two marry quickly, but once Ellie arrives in Australia, everything unravels. Death threats toward the couple signal the resort is clearly not wanted by the community, and Martin becomes abusive. Ellie suspects he might be drugging her to disorient her. But before she can determine what to do, Martin’s brutally stabbed and tortured body is found floating in the marsh he owns, and Ellie becomes the prime suspect. In her latest thriller, White deftly shifts from the present-day murder trial to flashbacks of Ellie and Martin’s relationship, as well as from Ellie’s point of view to that of Lozza Bianchi, the local police officer investigating the murder. This page-turner is tightly written with a moody sense of place in the small coastal community, but it is the numerous twists that will keep readers thoroughly absorbed.

A satisfyingly creepy psychological thriller.