‘Paddling in the Dead Sea’ by Carol Westron

Published by Pentangle Press,
26 October 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-91755500-5 (PB)

After many years of unhappiness and in fear of her life, Gina Grey finally flees from her abusive husband Doug. With her pet rabbit Bungy and a few clothes, she moves into a small studio flat in Galmouth - just 40 miles away from her oppressive spouse. She is terrified that he will track her down and knows that this may be a temporary stop. Nonetheless, she needs an income and has therefore applied for a job at the nearby Art College. Builder Bill Knight, her landlord, is still putting the finishing touches to other rooms in the large house. One is for his daughter Rachel, the others will be rented to her student friends Kathy, Chris and Nerissa. On the ground floor live two older ladies, Mrs. Johnston and Dr. Grim who were sitting tenants when Bill purchased the building.

Notwithstanding her own insecurities, Gina instinctively warms to the young people with whom she now shares a home, and particularly to Chris Harland.  After a difficult start in life, Chris became dependent on drugs and was recently remanded in prison on several charges.  The most serious allegation was dropped, embarrassing the police officers involved.  Since his release, Chris has tried hard to rebuild his life and recently enrolled on a Fine Arts programme at the same college where Gina hopes to find employment.  But mud sticks, and some of the college staff see the student only as a recovering addict and convicted criminal. Chris is also being watched, some might say hounded, by local police officers who feel his misdemeanours warranted a harsher punishment than just a few months on remand.  Meanwhile, the drug gang who exploited him are loathe to let him go and seek every opportunity to tempt him back into using drugs. Gina is aware that Chris is no angel, but she knows how it feels to be trapped, vulnerable and lack self-belief. She too must rebuild her shattered life whilst resisting her violent partner’s attempts to force her to move back in with him. As their confidence increases, Chris and Gina decide to confront their fears and their aggressors rather than hope for the best. It’s a brave thing to do and before long they find themselves in situations that are difficult, dangerous and might be deadly.

As always in Carol Westron’s writing, her rich variety of characters drive the plot as they delight, infuriate, and sometimes mislead the reader. There is also a clear focus on relationships positive and negative, with a specific focus on motherhood and mothering. Gina is the obvious, but not the only person who embodies the qualities of motherhood.  Her first-person narrative is inviting and emotive, and I loved her sometimes whacky and frequently self-deprecating humour. Some, whom one might least expect to exhibit maternal traits, also show an ability to mother and puncture preconceptions about this important theme.

Paddling in the Dead Sea is the second novel in the Galmouth Mysteries series.  Characters from the first book, The Fragility of Poppies, appear in supporting roles, but the book can be read perfectly well as a stand-alone. 

Witty, warm, tense and thought provoking it is a compelling read and highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels re set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 8 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. interview

www.carolwestron.com 

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.