Part of Jim Clemo
First published 2017
Detective Jim Clemo returns from mandatory leave to investigate what appears to be a simple accident. Noah Sandler, a British teenager, was pulled unconscious from Bristol's Feeder Canal. His best friend Abdi Mahad, a Somali refugee, witnessed what happened but refuses to speak. The two boys have been inseparable since childhood, making Abdi's silence all the more puzzling. What initially looks like a prank gone wrong transforms into something far more serious when tragedy strikes. The case explodes into a public confrontation that exposes the rising social tensions between communities in Bristol. Two families find themselves fighting not just for their sons but for the truth itself. They discover the cost of that truth may be higher than either family imagined, forcing them to confront painful realities about loyalty, prejudice, and the bonds that both unite and divide us.
Genres: drama, mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller, social-issues
Vibes: dark, emotional, gritty, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-perspective, found-family, mystery-unraveling, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Bristol, Feeder Canal
Period: contemporary
432 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: death, racism