The mystery in itself is not one I’d dare to speak of in review – I’m not the spoilers type of guy. But it’s that this stands out in my memory that makes the scenes crafted atop them so unforgettably good. There’s sprawling jungles of rigging, labyrinths of crates, a devil’s sanctum in the bilge water – all of it still only as background to the plot. There’s naught but sea and boat, but you wouldn’t believe it. And it’s the imagery, in a captive story-telling arena aboard a boat, that really lights a fire on the page. But in that choice of comparative language, there could truly be no better one that which Turton has dreamt up. His true genius is in simile, which he wields as a sharp knife to your mind, jabbing you with apt imagery and letting the vivid colours, the stark – sometimes brutal – scenes that are oft described as one thing like to another. Turton’s expertise lies in the words he uses to craft a scene, surely meticulously plotted down to their singular place in a sentence themselves. From every cleverly chosen word that pulls you into the depths, further out to sea, Turton’s writing is a true marvel. The flames that licked the leper’s rags only a taste of horror to come … and a scene that gripped me hard with a startling, eerie sense of place. The beginning introduces us to a bleak scene, coloured in intrigue, mystery and horror. Turton paints a taut, colourful canvas on the page with deft, short strokes of the pen.

A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board. With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger onboard. Livestock is slaughtered.Īnd then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.Ĭould a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?

Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.īut no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. It’s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed.

Devil and the dark water review