Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

Erin Locke is a documentary filmmaker engaged to Mark, a handsome banker. She’s working on a film about what happens to prisoners on the cusp of release and has three subjects lined up: Alexa, a forty-two year old convicted for assisting her terminally ill mother’s suicide; Eddie, a gangster who picked up the mantle of the infamous Richardson gang after their downfall and who has been convicted of money laundering; and Holli, a wayward and some might say feral young woman, convicted for arson after the London riots.

Mark loses her job just as they are planning their wedding and her documentary - her big break in the business - is being filmed. Struggling to find a new job they have to cut back on their wedding, but still fly to Bora Bora for a two-week honeymoon. While there they go diving and find something in the water, something sinister that will change their lives forever. They decide to keep it, the temptation too great, and it is here that the story really picks up.

Returning to the UK they need to capitalise on their find and launder the profits. But the original owners are never far behind and soon Erin feels threatened and can sense them closing in. Meanwhile, aspects of her documentary are going awry, bringing her to the attention of the police, exactly what she doesn’t need when engaged in illegality and becoming involved in the underworld.

Something in the Water is brilliantly told and plotted, the author juggling the twin threads - their discovery of something in the water, attempts to launder the profits, while dodging the dangerous owners, with Erin’s documentary and its own brush with illegality - which eventually intertwine and impact on each other. The characters are believable and Erin’s relationship with Alexa, both bonding over their pregnancies - Erin with Mark, Alexa via IVF - is touching and emotional.

But what I really liked about this is the obvious research the author has carried out and how she uses it to great effect throughout the novel. Examples include the lifestyles of the rich and how money makes life much easier in ways readers might not realise, which is fascinatingly illustrated; the minimum depth one should dig a grave so the body is undiscovered; the qualities of diamonds and how much each are worth; how art is used by the super-rich as an investment portfolio. I don’t know how accurate all this is, though it seems authentic - though the minimum depth of a grave I know from my own writing research and can attest to. While as a former documentary film maker myself, I can say that her depiction of Erin’s work in documentaries is also spot on and I really enjoyed this aspect of the novel as well.

Something in the Water is a very compelling story. The author is somebody to watch and I will definitely be reading her next book.

5 out of 5 stars