Why a Booktrail?
2000s: The fourth book in the Sea Detective Series
The Driftwood Girls
What you need to know before your trail
Two missing women. Two decades apart. A gripping and atmospheric mystery that journeys from the dramatic lochs of Scotland to the icy depths of the North Sea…
Kate and Flora Tolmie have always lived with a mystery: what happened to their mother, Christina? Twenty-three years ago, she vanished without trace from coastal northern France, leaving her young daughters orphaned and alone.
Now Flora is also missing. In desperation, Kate searches her Edinburgh house, and finds a piece of note paper with just one name: Cal McGill.
Cal is a so-called sea detective, an expert on the winds and the tides, and consequently an exceptionally gifted finder of lost things – and lost people.
Kate hopes that Cal might not only find her sister, but also unlock the mystery that has overshadowed both women’s lives: what happened to their beloved mother all those years before?
Unfortunately, Cal doesn’t think he can help. But that’s only because he hasn’t yet realised that the dark undercurrents of the case will ultimately lead him back dangerously close to home
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Follow the Sea Detective BookTrail style around Scotland
The Driftwood Girls takes up to Scotland and around the Highlands. To a place called GRAVE – well it’s really called Garve but the Sea Detective misreads the sign and that sets the scene quite honestly for the rest of the novel.
The journey up to the Scottish Highlands takes him through some of the most stunning scenery – Torridon, Aviemore and Sandalwood Bay. Interestingly there are some grim facts about death and burial along the way. Oban and John O’Groats are the only places in Scotland where Burials at sea are allowed legally apparently!
There is a jaunt over to France and Texel Island off the Netherlands – where the sea throws up some real surprises!
Booktrailer Review
The fourth in the Sea Detective series – I don;t think it matters too much if you haven’t read the earlier books but it does help. The ‘sea detective’ is Dr Cal McGill, who is an oceanographer but not in the normal sense of the word – he uses his understanding of the power of water, waves, currents and seas not to mention weather in order to solve crimes or mysteries set at sea.Quite a unique premise isn’t it!?
Here he’s investigating the disappearance of Christina Tolmie which happened some 23 years earlier. She was a charity worker with two children. What makes it more compelling still is the fact she was the girlfriend of his friend Alex, who is now sadly dying.
The premise and settings of the novel are what stand out for me. The sea is a powerful beast, water can kill and is the one thing we need to survive. I got really interested in the sciencey bits (nothing to spoil the story – they really make it stand out!)
There’s themes which lead all the way from Scotland to an island over in the Netherlands and this provides a international wave of intrigue. I did find certain parts a bit dragged out and there seemed to be dips at certain parts of the story. This felt like the sea however – up and down so it actually worked well in that sense.
Good but best to read the others in the series first
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Driftwood Girls (The Sea Detective Book 4)
Destination/location: Scotland, France, Texel Island Author/guide: Mark Douglas-Home Departure Time: 2000s
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