It is said, though I do not know the source of the quote, that a brave soldier never looks back. I take this to mean that it’s a bad move generally to revisit past glories and/or failures, and that one should always look face forward. The past has passed; it’s history; what’s done is done and there’s no need to dwell on what might have happened if circumstances and feelings were different. If this was indeed the case, then therapists would be out of business and writers would run out of material to write about. Sometimes, though, we find that, in the end, we have no choice but to look back and consider our life choices in relation to where we are now.
Her Ocean’s Grave is the first book in a new crime fiction series from author Dana Perry. In it, she introduces a compelling new character who comes to realise that returning to where it all began is the most important step many of us need to take if we are to understand ourselves and our place in the world.
Abby Pearse faces this kind of dilemma when, after a decorated career in the New York Police Department comes to a tragic end, she finds herself back in her hometown of Cedar’s Cliff, Martha’s Vineyard as the island’s police force’s sole detective. While not exactly a hotbed of crime, Abby has enough to keep her going, despite not fitting in and others being suspicious of her position and notoriety. But Abby knows her job, and when a young girl goes missing, Abby wastes no time getting to the truth of what happened to Samantha Claymore.
Abby’s personal life is a bit of a mess. Recently divorced, she struggles with an alcohol addiction that follows her around like a shadow. Bouts of sobriety are punctuated with blow-outs which cost Abby both her marriage and her position in the NYPD. Coming home hasn’t really helped because she’s estranged from her mother, who’s in a nursing home, and her father has been dead for some time. The only person she feels she can talk to is her father’s ex-business partner Stan Larsen, whom she calls ‘Uncle Stan’. Memories of past events haunt her as she patrols the streets of Cedar’s Cliff, with one particular traumatic incident rearing its ugly head during the course of her investigation into Samantha’s disappearance.
Abby must form a working relationship with Teena Morelli, a uniformed cop who resents Abby for taking the detective job she felt was hers by right. She doesn’t know whether or not she can trust her boss, Chief Wilhelm, because of his past association with Samantha’s father who died in suspicious circumstances years earlier. And then there’s Lincoln Connor, a local journalist looking for a big scoop, whose presence is an unwanted distraction in Abbey’s life and investigation. With a number of characters who have secrets of their own, Abby has a lot on her plate sorting the good guys out from the bad.
The plot has a pleasing amount of twists and red herrings, more than enough to satisfy fans of crime fiction and police procedurals in particular, and will certainly have you flying through the chapters until the end. I feel there is more to come from Abby Pearse, not just in the way of crimes to investigate but in her personal development. At the end of Her Ocean’s Grave, Dana Perry sheds a little light on Abby’s history and suggests that the detective’s greatest battles and triumphs are ahead of her.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers of Her Ocean’s Grave for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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