Deadly Tide by Sandy Curtis

Publisher's Synopsis

When her father is arrested for murder, Samantha Bretton takes over as skipper of his fishing trawler, the Sea Mistress, determined to clear his name. Brisbane cop Chayse Jarrett, guilt-ridden by the death of a young woman on his last assignment, goes undercover on the vessel, and soon realises that Samantha is hiding something. Secrets that could implicate her father in more than murder. Secrets that Chayse becomes reluctant to uncover.

As Chayse and Samantha fight their attraction to each other, the case takes a sinister twist and she is forced to relive the horrors of her past. Then, in a night as deadly and unpredictable as the ocean that threatens his life, Chayse finds new allies, but now faces danger from old and bitter foes.

Before that night has ended, even enemies will discover that things are not always as they seem...

My Review of Deadly Tide by Sandy Curtis

The murder of a deckhand on the Kladium, a prawn trawler working out of the port of Bundaburg is the catalyst of a dramatic thriller on the waters off the Queensland coast. The skipper of another trawler, "Tug" Bretton stands accused of the crime, but the case is of even greater interest to the police because of an ongoing link between the Kladium and a suspected smuggling operation.

Chayse Jarratt is an undercover cop who gets a job on Bretton's trawler with two purposes on his mind. Firstly, to find out who the killer is and secondly, to uncover the questionable activities taking place aboard the Kladium. His skipper is Samantha Bretton, Tug's daughter. She has taken over the operation to keep her father's business going while he is laid up with a broken leg.

Samantha wants to track the Kladium herself. Her father is accused of murder because of that boat and she wants to clear his name, as misguided as her efforts are. Days at sea trawling for prawns are swapped for shadowing the movements of the Kladium in a clumsy attempt at intimidation. The attempt backfires and suddenly, Sam and Chayse find themselves in a grim battle for survival. This is simply the opening salvo in a long and bitter battle at sea. The crew of The Kladium aren't going to just sit back and allow their operations to be jeopardized by a nosey woman and her crew. They're hiding something big and are prepared to stop at nothing to ensure that their secret remains safe.

As I pointed out in the opening paragraph, Deadly Tide doesn't simply stop at being a thriller, it also provides a pretty mean romantic storyline too. Readers who enjoy the sidelight of a whirlwind relationship that flies quickly from cold indifference to breathtaking love that plumb incredible depths of passion will be delighted by the development of the relationship between Chayse and Sam.

Their relationship is not without its potential hiccups. From the early pages it is made clear that Sam is hiding a secret, something from her past that affected her deeply. This past experience makes her hesitant in allowing Chayse to get to close to her. For his part, Chayse sits on his own potential bombshell, that being his true identity as an undercover cop. He knows that it won't go over well if Sam were to find out that he has been using her and her boat as part of an undercover investigation.

Right from the opening pages things move quickly with an easy style luring you into the story. Both Chayse and Sam guard their dark secrets closely giving us a pressing reason to keep reading. Also spurring us on is the secret of The Kladium. Just what is it that they are smuggling, if in fact they are smuggling anything at all.

I also enjoyed that descriptions of life on a fishing trawler which made for some very interesting reading. The few days that went by relatively quietly on the trawler served the very important purpose of giving us an ideal world scenario from which to compare with the horrors that were about to follow.

Keep an eye out for one character in particular who plays a small but vital role in the story. Rogan McKay is the brother of Ewan McKay, the murdered deckhand. Rogan is the owner of a pleasure cruise company and poops up from time to time, proving to be a likable, levelheaded ally for Chayse and Sam. He will return in a later book, Deadly Deceptions, where he will play a much larger role and his character will be greatly expanded.

Although I can take or leave the romance aspect of Deadly Tide, I enjoyed the book for the terrific suspense that it generated. Sandy Curtis writes with a lot of flair seamlessly combining a furious well-constructed thriller with an emotion charged love affair.