In The Deep by Loreth Anne White-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 25, 2020

I hope you don’t find him. And if you do, I hope he’s dead and that he suffered…

Real-estate mogul Martin Cresswell-Smith is the best thing that has ever happened to Ellie. After her daughter’s devastating death, a divorce, and an emotional breakdown, he’s helped her move as far as possible from the grief, the rage, and the monsters of her past. Ellie imagines her new home with Martin in an Australian coastal town will be like living a fairy tale. But behind closed doors is another story—one that ends in Martin’s brutal murder. And Ellie seems almost relieved…

Naturally, everyone thinks Mrs. Cresswell-Smith is guilty.

Senior Constable Lozza Bianchi has reasonable doubt. She sees evidence of a twisted psychological battle and a couple who seemed to bring out the worst in each other—adultery, abuse, betrayal, and revenge. If anything Ellie says can be believed, that is. As the case takes twist after spiraling twist, Lozza can’t shake the gut instinct that she’s being manipulated. That Ellie is hiding something. That there are secrets yet to surface. Lozza has no idea.

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REVIEW:IN THE DEEP by Loreth Anne White is a contemporary, adult, psychological thriller focusing on Canadian heiress and children’s book artist Ellie Hartley Cresswell-Smith, and the investigation into the murder of her husband, real estate mogul Martin Cresswell Smith.

Told from several first and third person perspectives including Ellie Hartley and Senior Constable Laurel ‘Lozza’ Bianchi, IN THE DEEP follows Canadian heiress Ellie Hartley in the months following her whirlwind romance with Australian real estate mogul Martin Cresswell Smith. Within days after meeting Martin Cresswell, Ellie Hartley reluctantly agrees to a working European vacation culminated by their marriage in Las Vegas, Nevada. Four months will pass before Ellie joins Martin in Australia where her life is about to spiral out of control. Frequent unexplained blackouts blamed on the use of alcohol and drugs finds our heroine the prime suspect in her husband’s murder, a murder predicated on secrets and lies. As the investigation, by Senior Constable Detective Lozza Bianchi, into Ellie’s husband’s murder takes on a life of it’s own, the author pulls the reader into the backstory and history of Ellie’s life including her first marriage, her controlling father, her friendship with Dana Bainbridge in Vancouver BC, and her descent into madness at the expense of her own happiness and sanity.

IN THE DEEP takes place in Agnes Basin, New South Wales, Australia where Ellie becomes suspicious within minutes upon arrival. Although welcomed into the bosom of small town life, Ellie finds herself on the outside looking in, and the unenviable target of her new husband’s anger and rage. Not all is well in Ellie’s less than well-ordered life but she never expected to find herself on the defensive with strangers who meant more to her husband than she could ever have imagined.

Loreth Ann White pulls the reader into a suspense filled, psychological thriller of murder, deception, secrets and lies, intricate games of life and death. With a colorful, energetic and eclectic cast of secondary and supporting characters, IN THE DEEP is a complex and detailed story with so many twists and turns- you won’t be able to stop reading until the very end.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy