Excellent
5 out of 5 stars
Black Coral is the second book in the Underwater Investigation Unit series from Andrew Mayne, the same author who brought you the excellent books in the Naturalist series. Just like book one and all of the Naturalist books, Black Coral starts off fast and holds your head underwater for almost too long. Mayne is a master thriller writer and any time a new book of his comes out it’s an insta-buy from me.
One of my favorite things is when an author creates multiple worlds but ends up mashing them together. It doesn’t have to be a full on combination where two different teams work together like in Avengers – but just mentioning other storylines and characters always makes me smile. In Black Coral there was a mention of Theo Cray and I got this big smile on my face. He’s one of the main characters in The Naturalist stories that I mentioned above.
The actual story in Black Coral was fascinating. It had a lot of cold case investigation along with a main character who continuously followed her guy in trying to find out who killed these kids all of those years ago. Each twist and turn made this story even more interesting and I loved following Sloan as she tried to figure out how all of these different and seemingly unrelated pieces of evidence fit together.
It’s hard to write about a story that’s a mystery without spoiling it, so I’ll end my review here. Just know if you like decades old cold case files type stories and potentially uncovering a serial killer hiding in plain site – Black Coral is definitely for you.
Book Description:
For a police diver in Florida, solving a cold-case mystery brings a serial killer out of hiding in a deep, dark thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Naturalist.
Sloan McPherson and the Underwater Investigation Unit have discovered a van at the bottom of a murky Florida pond. Sealed inside the watery tomb are the bodies of four teenagers who disappeared thirty years ago after leaving a rock concert. To authorities, it looks like a tragic accident. To Sloan, it looks like murder. Every piece of evidence is starting to connect to a string of cold case vanishings throughout Florida. Clue by clue, Sloan navigates the warm, dark waters where natural predators feed, knowing that the most dangerous one is still above the surface – nesting and dormant.
But when a fresh young kill is found in the Everglades, Sloan fears that her investigation has reawakened a monster. How can she catch someone who’s a genius at hiding in plain sight? By acting as prey. The dangerous gambit is working – only too well. She’s being lured into a deception of the madman’s own design. Has Sloan set a trap for a serial killer? Or has he set one for her?
Black Coral by Andrew Mayne
Narrator: Susannah Jones
Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
Series: Underwater Investigation Unit #2
Published by Brilliance Audio on February 16th 2021
Genres: Thriller
Format: Audiobook
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Also by this author: The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1), Looking Glass (The Naturalist #2), Murder Theory (The Naturalist #3), Dark Pattern
Also in this series: The Girl Beneath the Sea, Sea Storm, Sea Castle
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