The mystery is rather generic. A beautiful girl is found dead in a pond, and the police are struggling to find the culprit. For the most part, the story was as generic as it sounded. But the last 150 pages or so really turned it around. The mystery became a lot more dark and real, dealing with issues about how men prey on women, and the action was powerful and exciting.
The characters were from a diverse range of backgrounds, with our protagonist Garvie being half white and half Barbadian, and Detective Inspector Singh being a practicing Sikh. This was was something that really stood out to me, because the mystery genre has always been overwhelmingly white.
Sadly I didn't click with the characters as much as I wanted to. I found Garvie rather obnoxious and quite flat in terms of personality, and the other characters felt very two-dimensional as well. I struggled to connect to any of them (other than Singh in some parts) and I think that majorly prevented me from fully engaging with the story.
I admit I'm starting to forget what happened already, so I'm unlikely to bother with the sequel. Thankfully it's a book that fully works as a standalone, and I enjoyed reading something a little different for a change.
Diversity note: Protagonist who is mixed race (half Barbadian) and protagonist who is Sikh.
Warnings: rape, murder, sexual harassment, physical abuse and violence
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