‘The Troubled Deep’ by Rob Parker

Published Raven Books,
16 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-52668190-4 (HB)

Forced to retire on medical grounds at the age of 40, Cam Killick is an ex-marine and ex-SBS officer who suffers from PSTD and struggles to rebuild his life. He is happiest when he is underwater and at night prefers to sleep submerged in a bath of water with a snorkel serving as his breathing apparatus. A loner by nature, he seeks solace in the company of his devoted dog Nala.

The Brindley mystery has fascinated Cam for years. They were a family who appeared to have it all – a successful husband, adoring wife and two young children. One summer evening, they attended a party in Norwich and were later seen getting into their car and driving away. But tragically they never arrived back at Brindley Hall and, along with their car, were never seen again.

Forty years later, following his move to the Norfolk Broads, Cam has a theory that the Brindleys might have gone to a watery grave in Hickley Broad. Employing the strategies taught to him as a marine, he goes scuba diving for their car and finds it – empty. Where are the Brindleys? As far as the police are concerned, the discovery of the vehicle heralds the end of the mystery. Could there be pressure from above to keep the case closed? When a group of vicious thugs beat Cam up and warn him to let sleeping dogs lie, his resolve is far from dented. Luckily, he has an ally in DS Claire Rogers who is just as anxious as him to find out what happened to the Brindleys – even if it means risking her job.

The first in a new series featuring Cam Killick, The Troubled Deep – weighing in at 353 pages – is high in descriptive passages and much leaner when it comes to dialogue. A ratio of approximately 60 to 40. Cam Killick’s determination not to give up, along with the help he receives from DS Claire Rogers and a pair of odd-ball conspiracy theorists, who almost steal the show at the eleventh hour, is offset by an intriguing rogues’ gallery of characters. The Troubled Deep is an absorbing crime thriller that closes around the reader like a riptide and never releases its hold until the end.

At the heart of the narrative is a beguiling mystery that culminates in an explosive, action-packed finale. High in thuggery and violence, it makes for an excellent Sunday read.
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Reviewer: Jared Cade

Robert Parker is a married father of three, who lives in a village near Manchester, UK. The author of the Ben Bracken books A Wanted Man and Morte Point, and the standalone post-Brexit country-noir Crook’s Hollow, he enjoys a rural life on an old pig farm (now minus pigs), writing horrible things between school runs. He writes full time, as well as organising and attending various author events across the UK - while boxing regularly for charity. Passionate about inspiring a love of the written word in young people, he spends a lot of time in schools across the Northwest, encouraging literacy, story-telling, creative-writing and how good old fashioned hard work tends to help good things happen.

Jared Cade is the bestselling author of Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days. He is a former tour guide for a luxury bespoke travel company, escorting parties around Agatha Christie’s former home, Greenway, which is now open to the public courtesy of the National Trust. He is also the creator of the Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury mysteries –
The Elusive Dietrich, Murder on London Underground, Murder in Pelham Wood and Deadly Fortune which is landing in August 2025. His latest book Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives is longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association’s ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction Award.