When a young woman makes a distressing middle-of-the-night call to 911, apparently running for her life in a quiet, exclusive beachside neighbourhood, miles from her home, everything suggests a domestic incident.

Except no one has seen her since, and something doesn’t sit right with the officers at Hampstead County PD. With multiple suspects and witnesses throwing up startling inconsistencies, and interference from the top threatening the integrity of the investigation, lead detective Casey Wray is thrust into an increasingly puzzling case that looks like it’s going to have only one ending…

And then the first body appears…

IN A NUTSHELL
A tightly written police procedural mystery. Perfectly controlled pace. Nice balance of uncovering the mystery and getting to know Casey Wray, the lead detective. No melodrama. No voyeuristic violence. Just a good plot, well-drawn characters, an engaging lead detective and growing tension right up to the final chapter.

Rod Reynolds was a new author to me. I found his books in my local Public Library and thought I’d give them a try. He’s a British author who has set all but one of his crime stories in the US, often taking his inspiration from real crimes. ‘Black Reed Bay‘ is set in Long Island and was inspired by the Gilgo Beach serial killings on Long Island. ‘Black Reed Bay’ is not just a dramatised police procedural version of a True Crime story. The police procedural element it there and it’s well done, but the energy of the book is centred around getting to know Casey Wray, a Detective with the Hampstead Police Department. 

This is quite a literary novel, in as much as it’s character focused, occaisionally introspective, is written in a low-key style and probes larger themes about loyalty, identity and our ability to see the people around us clearly. It’s also a very solid genre offering. That mix is unusual but very welcome. I get the same kind of feeling when I’m reading an R. J. Ellory novel (another Brit who writes American crime) although Ellory leans a little more towards the lyrical. 

I found ‘Black Reed Beech to be a very engaging novel. The mystery was solid. The police officers and the people whom they interviewed all felt real. The writing was skillfully simple, avoiding melodrama and clichés, making every word count. The pacing was perfect. Pushing me forward and raising the tension continuously. I believed in Casey Wray, the main character, and was absorbed in how she experienced the world.

I’m about to start the second Casey Wray book, ‘Shatter Creek‘ (2025).