Death in Dark Waters

Ackroyd and Thackeray #9

by Patricia Hall

The Carib Club is one of Bradfield's most popular night clubs, especially in the local black community-but it's in the heart of a Muslim district. Members of the local mosque are keen to get the club closed down, so when, after a night out clubbing, Jeremy Adams is knocked down by a taxi and left in a coma, the pressure on the Carib Club starts building. Jeremy had taken ecstasy tablets before the accident happened and his father, wealthy local businessman Grantley Adams, wants to know who supplied him with the pills.

DCI Michael Thackeray is put on the case but when none of the boy's friends seem willing to talk he finds himself getting nowhere fast. Meanwhile Thackeray's girlfriend, reporter Laura Ackroyd, is conducting her own investigation into Bradfield's drugs problem. A young boy has died after falling from a tower block on the Wuthering Heights housing estate-the police are blaming the accident on a heroin overdose, but his friends swear that he was clean.

A gripping and thought-provoking mystery, Death in Dark Waters is the latest to feature Patricia Hall's acclaimed Thackeray and Ackroyd, and is sure to please fans of this always fascinating, intelligent series.

Genres: Mystery

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Patricia Hall is the pen-name of journalist Maureen O'Connor. She was born and brought up in West Yorkshire, which is where she has chosen to set her acclaimed series of novels featuring reporter Laura Ackroyd and DCI Michael Thackeray. She is married, with two grown-up sons, and now lives in Oxford.

Reviews

[Lila · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read too many of this series recently so am going to take a break. They are pretty good but the Ackroyd/Thackery relationship issues are dragging on very slowly.

[Rennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dingy. Not bad characters but just a dismal, depressing tale.

[Charty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this series at the start, but I feel like there isn't really advancement in the Thackery/Ackroyd romance or in the day to day lives of the main cast, period. Thackery is morose, guilty, stubborn and a good cop. Laura is spunky, headstrong and passionate. Every book has them do this dance, will they continue their relationship or won't they? They move in, they move out. Someone is in danger and all is forgiven. Until you get the next book and it's the same old, same old. Laura whinges on about how unfulfilling her job is, she worries about Joyce, who is old, stubborn and idealist. The Heights are always a problem. It would be nice to get some of the issues resolved, or at least take them in a fresh direction. The complete-ist in me would like to read the whole series but at this rate, I don't know that I want to spend much time or money tracking down the more recent releases.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read all the books in this series. There was a two-year span between the last book I read and this one, and I'm convinced that the boiler plate the author uses didnt change too much! This book reflected the same scenario as the last one w/the same depressing story. She didnt wrap it up too well in the end either. Very disappointed.

[Patty]

I am extremely fond of the Ackroid/Thackeray series. I have just read four or five of the previous books. They are slim reads. Of course, Thackeray is a Yorkshire man, stubborn, and with his own private demons, to his romance with Laura, the journalist who is at the center of the books, does not run smoothly.

[Linda Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

English mystery. Inspector Thackery and journalist Ackroyd solve the mysteries of several deaths in a poor project.

[Gary Van Cott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book and the previous book in this series are quite depressing with virtually nothing good happening. This one lightens up a bit, but only a bit, at the end.