This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Wasn’t crazy about this one. Found the first half of the book quite a drag to read, not sure such a long build up was necessary. Thought the 2nd half was much better, and liked the plot, but did find it slightly predictable about Bud being involved somewhere along the way, and that her neighbour was working for M.

Picture this, a book opens with a journalistic expose on extreme couponing, and then within a few pages it magically morphs into an investigative mystery with some serious intensity. That, my friends, is exactly what you can expect from Dark Waters. What I enjoyed most about this book was that the protagonist is actually a reporter rather than an officer, which allows for a fresh perspective in an occasionally overdone genre. It facilitated a focus that rested entirely on the characters rather than the process, and genuinely made the minutiae come alive.

This shift in focus also allowed for a full exploration of the suicide forum story line, as well as for the motivations behind both the victims and assailants. It was fun though, to see the coppers popping up around every corner, working as a reminder that Alex’s actions bordered on criminal herself as at times they toed the line of obstructing justice rather than obtaining it.

I really enjoyed how Alex reared her head from doing fluff pieces to investigating a series of murders staged as suicides. But, more than anything I particularly appreciated how Alex not only recognized the constraints of the patriarchal system she was working within but used that system to her advantage. The interplay between Alex, her editor, and her cocky male colleague created enough tension in those character driven moments to keep the plot from ever feeling stagnant. Now add in her complicated love life, a lonely existence, and her son living away from home for the first time and you’ve got a recipe for excitement – forget the multiple murders!

The writing is fun, varied, and the dashes of outside perspective keep you on your toes. Alex is easy to empathize with, you feel her pain as a mother and how the paranoia of such a case can seep into every aspect of your life, and end up utterly wrapped up in the depths of the investigation. Would I recommend it? Oh hells yes! It punchy, complex, and one heck of a ride.

Read it mystery lovers – this one is hard to guess!

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would highly recommend this book to my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!!!!

Apparently Dark Waters is the third book in the Alex Devlin series. I had no clue that this book was part of a series, so obviously this is the first of the series that I have read. It was fine to read as a standalone, I didn't feel like I was missing a bunch of backstory or anything.

Alex, working as a freelance journalist comes across what at first appears to be a double suicide. Of course Alex decides to do some digging and gets the feeling that this story will be big. She continues digging for information along with digging herself a hole.

This book started off slowly, but quickly picks up pace and sucked me in. Despite this being book three, I easily got to know Alex throughout the book and it kept me reading until the end.


Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.

Alex feels like she’s stagnating since she left London, so when she hears a story on the news about two men who’ve been discovered dead in an apparent suicide pact, she’s desperate to sink her teeth into a good story and decides to investigate.

The story is well structured, an easy-to-read, plot-driven novels with a dark plot exploring topics such as suicide, mental health and murder.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I really enjoy Mary-Jane Riley's writing. All three of her Alex Devlin books have been very easy to read, with plenty of description to paint a vivid picture in my head of characters and places without taking anything away from the pace of the plot.

Alex Devlin is a fantastic character - a feisty journalist with a nose for mystery who throws herself into her job 100% but still manages to maintain a strong sense of family. There are some larger-than-life flamboyant characters in Dark Waters too, providing some light-hearted humorous moments. There's one particular character I would have loved to see more of (since he features more heavily in the previous books) but he's still there in the background.

I highly recommend Dark Waters. I found myself racing through the pages and had to remind myself to breathe! A couple of twists and turns made me sit upright as I really didn't see those coming. This series is getting better and better, and the main characters are definitely growing with each book. As with the previous books, Dark Waters left me wanting more (in a good way).

Can this be read as a standalone? Yes, it probably can. But I would suggest you buy (and read) all three books in this series so far anyway!

Dark Waters is the third book in the Alex Devlin series. This is the first book in the series that I've read...and I'm glad I did. This is an enjoyable mystery with an interesting plot and some dark surprises. Well-written and nicely paced, it made for a very enjoyable evening of reading. I got to bed quite past my usual time because I couldn't put this book down. Worth it!

Two men are found dead on a rented boat in the Norfolk Broads. Local investigators say the men were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. The deaths appear to be suicide. Alex is a reporter and jumps at the chance to cover the case for The Post. Why would a wealthy businessman and a former priest commit suicide together? The case goes down a dark path involving internet suicide forums, dark secrets and revenge. It turns out that 40-year old secrets might be closer to home than Alex realizes.

I like Alex Devlin as a main character. She is intelligent, self-reliant and feisty. She's totally dedicated to getting the story and investigating, even when the situation gets dangerous. Her family and work relationships are complex and complicated, but that just makes the character seem more realistic.

I definitely enjoyed this book! This is the first book by Mary-Jane Riley that I've read. I will definitely be back-tracking to read the first two books in this series!

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from HarperImpulse via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Two men are found dead on a little cruiser moored in the Norfolk broads(small waterways surrounded by marshes,meadows and woodland).
At first sight it looks like a suicide pact,although a strange one as both men don't seem to have a lot in common. Alex Devlin,a not so very successful journalist,is intrigued by the setup and starts digging....the past has an ugly habit to emerge when you don't expect it...
What makes this a fabulous read,apart from a very good storyline that keeps your guessing,is the personality of the main character. Yes,she is a nosy journalist,but she is not a monster,she feels guilt,empathy,compassion. It is a welcome change to all the detectives,inspectors,reporters,amateur sleuths who are arrogant, so sure of themselves, rude or absolutely obnoxious...
I really liked it!

I'm beginning to really loath these books that seem to all have the same format - journalist who is taking a break from journalism that somehow stumbles into a murder investigation and in turn then thinks they are detectives. Really boring and not at all my cup of tea - especially with characters like these.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was totally blown away with the first two books in this series that centre round Alex Devlin and spiders out into her family. Now with the hustle and bustle of London behind her as she has returned to Sole Bay to give a hand to her mum, who is looking after her father that has the tell tale signs of dementia. She is close enough to call in but far enough away to get on with her own life too.
Working as a free-lance journalist she accidentally stumbles across what appears at first to have been a double suicide but with a little digging she soon gets the feeling that this story will go big. Well she would be daft to turn down potential easy money if she can loosen tongues before anyone gets a whiff of the story. The more she digs and the bigger the hole gets and the only trouble with holes is that you can fall up to your neck in them yourself!
Oh my words have this family had it rough in the past and it seems like what they gain in one hand is taken away with the other. I did love the return of one of the main characters from the first book, no more said on that one though except to really get the full impact of this family dynamics read all three books because references are made back to past events that are too vague to grasp exactly what has gone off. The story dips back into the past as Alex pieces it together like a jigsaw but with all old jig-saws there is always that one vital piece missing.
It may start off at a steady pace on the peaceful Norfolk Broads but by heck buckle up because when it picks up speed it doesn't slow down. There are some real touching scenes and life changing acceptances for the whole family to come to terms with. The last page though made it a perfect read for me. It felt right. That made it cracking writing. A superb book again!

I received a digital ARC of #DarkWaters from #NetGalley for an honest review.

This book opens with a very detailed and gruesome description of the decomposing state of the human body. However, don't let this put you off. It is definitely not the trend of the rest of the book, and it is only for a couple of pages.

Having never read anything by Mary-Jane Riley before I wasn't sure what to expect. I am pleasantly surprised.I quickly became engrossed in this book and it was definitely a page-turner for me. There were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, and although I was right about who was behind the deaths from quite early on, there was an unexpected twist at the end which I didn't foresee.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes this genre. The book is part of a series but can also be read as a standalone. I don't feel I missed out on any background story by not having read the previous books in the series. I would happily pick up another of the Alex Devlin series in the future.

An engaging mystery that stands out among the many books I read in the genre. There were lost of twists and turns and the ending was not what I expected. Recommended!

A thoroughly enjoyable read. Alex Devlin is a free-lance journalist and happens across a crime scene where two seemingly unconnected men are found dead in a boat on the Norfolk Broads. The verdict is suicide but Alex believes there is more to the deaths than initially obvious. She is right.

Her investigation leads her rushing around, asking for assistance from her previous boss Bus Evans and previous co-worker Heath who flirts endlessly with her. The truth of the suicides and other deaths takes her close to home and opens her up to danger.

Alex is a well-developed character and during the course of the novel has to deal with her sister returning, her father facing dementia and recovering from her boyfriend leaving her again.

Enjoyable and recommended. Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Impulse and Killer Reads and Mary-Jane Riley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Dark Waters was an enjoyable mystery. It had many twists and turns that will keep the reader intrigued.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Anyone who knows me, knows that for my day job I travel all over the country. Not everyday, but enough to make things interesting, Before I had the National gig I was a regional Manager for over five years and my patch, 'The Midlands' stretched from Exeter to Norwich - don't ask! Now I always find myself drawn to books which are set in areas I know and while I don't have a great knowledge of the Broads, I do know Norfolk and the premise of the book really intrigued me so I was delighted to join the tour.

Well, I must say, what a book. On her way to visit her parents, journalist Alex Devlin happens upon a newly discovered crime scene and her natural investigative instincts are immediately ignited. Even more so when she discovers the identity of one of the two victims. Now the police are quick to write the whole thing off as a suicide, the circumstances, including notes to family members making the case seemingly open and shut. But Alex is not so easily convinced and refuses to let things lie. Her investigations lead her to places well beyond her expectations and put her directly in the sights of a killer.

Exciting stuff indeed. Now I love when a book looks at a crime from a slightly different angle and who better to do that than a journalist? They can get in places the police perhaps can't due to process and procedure, ask the awkward questions and visit the sites that are prohibited without the presence of a warrant. And Alex does all of this and more, always just that half a step ahead of the investigating officers,  Berry and Logan. Yes. You read that right.

I really liked Alex. She is pretty grounded person and yet she is not without her family issues. Her father suffers early onset dementia and hardly recognises her half of the time, her son is miles away spending time getting to know his biological father and her sister ... Well I won't give any spoilers but let's mark their relationship as 'complicated', her sister's story both harrowing and worrying at the same time. And yet, in spite of the concerns she has for her family, Alex is determined, tenacious and committed to getting to the truth of the story, no matter the consequences, and believe me when I say they could be pretty dire.

Mary-Jane Riley has done a great jobs of setting the scene for the reader. There can't be that many of us overly familiar with the Broads and the boats and barges that traverse them, and yet she has created enough of a sense of place to be able to picture them and place yourself in the heart of the action. There are also scenes set in 1970's Cambridge University which inform the main story. Recreating that time, of the characters who inhabited that world and the sense of entitlement that they eschewed, certainly from one or two of the less likeable characters, has been done really well and you can feel the authenticity of devil-may-care attitude and the madness of their actions.

While this is not the most fast paced read, it is after all centred around the apparent joint suicide of two seemingly unconnected people who met on an internet forum, it still captured my imagination as a reader. The quallity of the writing made me want to read on and Alex is a character I became invested in very early on. I should advise that this is the third book in the series and while it may give some element of spoilers to the previous books (I am only guessing there) I don't think it would be enough to stop you reading this as a stand alone. There were moments towards the end that had me on the edge of my seat, the tension slowly building throughout until a final showdown with a very dangerous man. There were also intriguing threads littered throughout which kept the reader guessing until the end, such as whose was the mysterious voice recounting the days at Cambridge?

And if there is one other thing which drew me into the book it is Heath Maitland, Alex's colleague on the paper she was freelancing for. He is a brillaint character, plays perfectly off Alex, and there is that spark there between them which is irresistible. Gven the way in which this book ends, I can't wait to see where this relationship is taken next.

Wow! This was great! I got an ARC from Netgalley of this book. It’s the first I’ve read of the Alex Devlin series and the first by Mary-Jane Riley. I will say I thought I had it figured out early on who the “bad guy” was, but no, Riley surprised me! She kept the twists and turns going all the way to the end. I was definitely intrigued to keep reading and see what happened! I was a bit confused with the chapters that changed narrators and went back in time. I just had to go back and reread those once I figured out what was going on. That’s the only part I couldn’t understand what was going on. Once I caught on, I loved it!! Great book!!

I enjoyed this book a lot - never read anything by the author before but would definitely seek more out.

There's a parallel storyline which doesn't feature heavily in the book but is a nice accompaniment - there's definitely Secret History vibes about that tale and I wanted to learn more!

One negative is that there seemed to a lot going on with main protagonist; single parent, sister with checkered past, poorly dad, dodgy relationships - what a weight she must have on her shoulders! There was almost too much to get a real sense of her character - that said, she was likeable and I liked the suggestion of romance for her.

"Nothing was black and white in life, nothing was certain."

Alex Devlin has moved from London where she previously worked as a journalist for THE POST. She fills her time doing a bit of freelancing, feature stories, etc. Her father suffers from early onset dementia and her sister, Sasha, is being released from the psych institute where she was committed. Alex returned to Sole Bay to be close by to help them out.

Her quiet and somewhat lonely life is disrupted, however, when two men are found dead on a pleasure boat off the Norfolk Broads. Her investigative instincts kick in when she discovers that the two men were chatting online about suicide. When she learns the identity of the men, she calls her old boss in London and begs to be put on the story but another reporter, Heath Maitland, is sent down instead. Alex and Heath agree to a quid pro quo as there is something that Alex wants him to do for her in exchange for her doing a lot of the legwork for the story. Abruptly, both are called off by the home office, but Alex can't let it go. She's figured out some interesting connections...

This was a mystery with a lot going on in the plot. Many different characters -- some who featured in the previous 2 books in the series (which, unfortunately, I have not read). That said, there was enough information about some of the backstory so that I didn't feel entirely lost. It moved along quickly with the pieces slowly coming into place. Of course there is no one that Alex can work with or trust while she is busy ferreting out the truth. Goes to show, again, that the past won't stay buried.

I enjoyed this and will definitely look for another in the series should there be a 4th book. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the e-book ARC to read and review.

Two seemingly unconnected men are found dead on a boat in a quiet vacation spot, the seaside town of Sole Bay is rocked. Journalists flock in but a local freelance writer, Alex Devlin has the edge: she's one of the first of the media to arrive after hearing about the deaths on the radio. As national and local papers quickly lose interest in the story, despite one of the dead being a famous magazine owner, Alex's "journalistic instincts" tells her there's more to the story. 

But the deaths aren't the only thing Alex is trying to figure out. Heath, a flirty reporter from The Post, agrees to help her figure out the story but is then suddenly put on a new desk. Then disappears completely. Lin, Alex's best friend in Sole Bay, keeps turning up at strange times. Not to mention, Alex is trying to juggle being there for her mother as she cares for Alex's father and his early on-set dementia and getting her house ready for visits from her son and her sister. Everything else falls by the wayside when Alex begins to find clues that link the two men, however. 

No one wants Alex to work this story, especially the closer to the truth she gets. Once she starts piecing the story together, Alex isn't even sure she wants to know the whole truth--especially when it starts bringing her closer to home. Not being able to outrun the past is a theme heavily portrayed in Dark Waters. Part mystery, part domestic thriller, Mary-Jane Riley weaves together a multi-layered tale that spans generations. A light, quick read for fans of shows like 'Broadchurch'.