Customer Reviews

Dark Water Dive: An Underwater Investigation

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some books are made to take on a long plane or car trip. DARK WATER DIVE is one of them. The heroine, Hannah Sampson arrives in the British Virgin to take a job as an underwater investigator for the local police force. Ideally, she will escape the hideous crime scene she encountered regularly as a Denver officer. Of course, she promptly gets involved in a couple of murders, a bunch of robberies, and a dangerous dive into a cave off limits to tourists. While solving the crimes, she still finds time to romp on the beach, enjoy romance, make new friends, live on a sail boat, and play with her dog, Sadie.

A hot-shot young cop tries her patience when he drives the police boat full throttle, and an environmentalist gets into too many faces for her own good, forcing Hannah to keep watch on her.

All this action, set against the back drop of the British Virgin Islands makes a light and lively read. Ms. Brandt's experience as a skin diver adds a touch of reality to the book. She gives a good picture of diving procedures, and the sensaiton of diving, without boging the reader down in a technical manuel. She also talks about environmental issues and touches on mental illness. This adds depth to DARK WATER DIVE. The plot has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reder guessing whodun it. DARK WATER DIVE is perfect for the beach, the airport, or Saturday afternoon. I enjoyed it.

Hannah Sampson is back in the British Virgin Islands. This time she is moving there, at least for awhile. Chief Dunn has offered her a job. She also wants more time to see how things develop with Peter O'Brien.

The town is being plagued with robberies. The police commissioner is riding Chief Dunn pretty hard to get that solved. Hannah wants to help, but then a tourist is reported missing by his wife. They had chartered one of Peter's boats, he owns a charter company. Hannah doesn't want to work on a missing person case, but Chief Dunn insists. She is pared up with Snyder, a very young detective who likes to drive the boats at top speed. At first Hannah feels the husband just didn't go home to the boat one night and will show up anytime. Then he is found murdered in the water. She begins interviewing all the couples on the boats they spent time with. They had all attended a party on a neighboring boat the night he disappeared. She is sure some of them aren't telling her the truth, but how does she figure who is lying and get them to tell the truth?

Can Hannah keep Snyder busy while she tries to solve this case?

She also gets her ex-partner in Denver to do some digging into the victim's past. It appears squeaky clean. She wonders if his marriage was really that smooth.

Plus Hannah isn't getting along very well with the other detectives on the force. They aren't too happy about working with a woman, and a foreigner at that. Are they trying to sabotage her first case?

Then Hannah begins to see some value in being pared with Snyder. She continues investigating and observing the various couples involved. She feels one of them will lead her to the killer. Can she stay out of harms way in the process?

Hannah is a great character. I love this series. It is so different. Even though I don't dive, I found it very interesting. It is such a well written book that you don't feel like she's giving you diving lessons throughout the books. So many authors try to teach how to do something within their book. She gave great tips throughout, but I found the mystery to be the most important part of the book. A refreshing change. The romance that is heating up between Hannah and Peter is terrific, too.

I highly recommend this book and the first one in this series - Swimming With The Dead.

Denver homicide detective and police scuba team member Hannah Simpson quits her job and relocates to the British Virgin Islands so she won't have to see kids shoot up or shoot at her. The team throws her a going away party and the next day everyone is helping when a call comes in that someone was shot and thrown in the reservoir. Since Hannah is one of the few fit to dive, she agrees to go into the black inky water where she finds the body and the gun.

The next day she is off to the British Virgin Islands where the water is so clear one can see yards in front of them. She learns quickly that paradise has its rash of robberies; with the victims being wealthy islanders pressure is high on the department to solve the cases quickly. Hannah is called out on a missing person's case. Alex Robsen is found caught underwater in the reef with a bullet in his head. Hannah is once again working homicide and even when someone is arrested, she follows through on a hunch that the wrong person has been incarcerated.

Kathy Brandt makes scuba diving in the sea feel so exhilarating; readers will want to take a trip to the Caribbean to see if it is as wonderful as it sounds. The protagonist is a tough, feisty and spunky individual whose honesty, tenacity and intuition make her a good police officer. DARK WATER DIVE allows armchair travelers to visualize the British Virgin Islands from a newcomer's point of view. This police procedural is so exciting readers will finish it in one sitting.

Harriet Klausner

This book is a must read for anyone who loves the British Virgin Islands. It goes very fast. The entire time you are reading your mind is actually in the islands. All the scenery is totally familiar and for a period of time you are enjoying your last vacation again.

Dark Water Dive was a typical murder mystery & it was easy to figure out whodunit before the ending although the "why" had a nice twist. I would have liked to see al ittle more development of other characters in the book, specifically the boss & the love interest. The diving was well done except for a couple of technical errors that you wont notice if you arent a certified scuba diver. Easy beach read that wont tax your brain too much trying to remember alot of characters & plot twists...

Kathy Brandt has developed excellent characters and a strong sense of the British Virgin Islands in this second book in the series. However, as with her first, the mystery is a little thin. While still very entertaining and a must-read in my permanent library, I wish the author would stop revealing clues so early that the reader knows the solution before the main character. This one had a small twist that I knew was a clue but couldn't figure out; the rest was as clear as the Caribbean water.

It is always good to read a novel which is set in a place with which you can identify. Tortola is my second home, a place to which I plan to retire sooner rather than later. Since my first read by this author (UNDER PRESSURE) some years ago, I was delighted to obtain another one (DARK WATER DIVE) and I was not disappointed with it. The story is interesting and, having had the opportunity to dive - only once - I can learn from and understand the situations in which Hannah finds herself. I expect that just as Dick Francis helps the average person to understand and feel a part of the horse-racing environment with his thrillers, Kathy Brandt might do so in a diving context. I have just finished SWIMMING WITH THE DEAD and I look forward to reading DANGEROUS DEPTHS. For a pleasing reading experience, I have no hesitation in recommending Kathy Brandt's BVI-based diving novels of which DARK WATER DIVE seems typical.

What a great name for this book, it takes Homicide detective Hannah Sampson from the dark and some time sicking work of being a Homicide Detective and out of the high and mighty Colorado Rockies to the calm Bristish Virgin Islands, but they are anything but calm, troubles always seem to be just around the corner. A must read - Larry Hobson-Author-" The Day Of The Rose"

Hannah Sampson has just moved down to the British Virgin Islands and taken a job with their police force. On her first day, she's sent to investigate a missing husband. She's sure he just spent the night with someone else, until his body turns up in the water with a bullet hole in his head. He doesn't seem to have any enemies. Furthermore, why would anyone want to kill a man on vacation?

When I read the first in the series, I complained about the characters. This time around, the characters seemed better, but the plot left much to be desired. It started off pretty slowly with some irrelevant things. There were two main sub-plots, one was under-developed and the other was over-developed and slowed down the main plot. In fact, it was just there to be preachy since the author admits at the end that it really isn't a problem in the BVI's. The main plot was enjoyable and had me confused for most of the book. I guessed the ending about 100 pages from the end and had to wait until Hannah could prove it to see if I was right. Even then, there was a twist I hadn't counted on.

This sounds harsh, but I really did enjoy the main storyline, characters, and setting. It's obvious the author loves the setting as she expertly brings the islands to life. I'm ready to hop a ship and spend some time sailing around them myself. This book is a great vacation read or a great read if you wish you were on an exotic vacation. Hopefully the author will perfect her plotting while continuing to bring the islands and their secrets to life.