Books

I've just finished Kate Charles' Deep Waters. I've enjoyed all her previous books because they always seem to have added depths. This one in spite of the title seemed to lack that certain something. It was still good but I did not find it as enthralling as her previous work.

Curate Callie Anson moves into the Vicarage temporarily while the roof of her flat is repaired after a gale. But Callie has to ask her friend Frances to look after dog Bella because the vicar's wife - Janet - doesn't want her in the house. Callie's growing relationship with Mark Lombardi is to the fore in this story as is his colleague, Neville Stewart's recent marriage to Triona. The apparent cot death of a baby belonging to a celebrity couple is the reason for Neville cutting short his honeymoon and causing a rift with his wife.

Celebrity is very much a theme in this novel and the two crimes involved take second place to this and the relationship problems of the policemen and their families. There is almost an unfinished air to the whole book with many loose ends. It seemed as though the author had been limited by space constraints and that the book should have been about 50 pages longer. I did enjoy it but I felt it lacked this author's usual polish and depth.