Review: The High Tide Murder

The High Tide Murder by Emylia Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cat and Jayden are having a weekend alone in The High Tide hotel overlooking Trebaron Cove. But things aren’t going to plan. First Cat meets Summer, a girl she went to school with who is now a social media influencer, at the hotel to post some content with her surfer boyfriend and they agree to meet for drinks (and maybe dinner), instead of a romantic dinner at deux.

Then two couples arrive, Kathy and Drew Schofield and Steve Bradshaw with his girlfriend Mae. Ostensibly the couples have come to celebrate Drew’s retirement from the Police and their wedding anniversary, but there seem to be undercurrents between the two couples, Steve having been recently let go from the same police force. At dinner, the foursome are loud and obnoxious, resulting in the hotel owner, Elliott King having to intervene when they made a waitress cry.

Late that night during a storm there was a power cut and in the morning, Summer finds Drew’s dead body below his bedroom balcony. Was it a drunken accident or was it deliberate? Steve is convinced its murder, then Jayden notices that the Instagram post Summer made of the storm shows two men arguing on Drew’s balcony.

But there seems to be a plethora of suspects, let’s face it Drew was not liked in the police force (old-school copper seems to be the kindest epitaph). But as Ally and Jaden dig deeper it seems like Drew’s death may relate to something that happened many years ago, which may involve someone else who was at the hotel that night.

Another great yarn from the Shell House Detectives, although Gus is off-stage for most of the action.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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