Review by Wy_Bertram -- Waves Break (on Unknown Shores)

[Wy_Bertram]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Waves Break (on Unknown Shores)" by Barry Litherland.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Enough time had gone by for Phil Tyler to believe history would stay history, but when familiar faces begin to turn up, the past starts to unravel, along with whatever peace Phil had made with it. Suddenly, the journalist finds himself in the middle of his biggest story yet, a story that would do a lot of damage to very powerful people. Powerful people who are willing to play rough to keep their activities away from the public eye. Inevitably, it will end where it all began – the past crashing into the present. If only this time, Phil can stop the tragedy before it strikes.

In Waves Break (on Unknown Shores), Barry Litherland thrusts his pseudo-detective, Phil Tyler, into yet another tense and intriguing plot. I’m sure I haven’t read the books in the correct order as this story seems to occur before Shifting Sands, another one of Litherland’s books that features Tyler as the main character. I enjoyed the read regardless. The cryptic blurb piqued my interest, but it was my experience with the author’s work that drove me to pick this one up, and I was not disappointed.

The story structure was quite familiar. Litherland briefly presented his characters under the lens of normalcy before a sudden wave of chaos arose, altering everything in its path. The narrative alternated between the past and present, and the author skillfully merged both storylines somewhere before the climax. With a host of memorable characters and a poignant tragedy unfolding in the background, Waves Break had a bit of intrigue nestled in every page.

In addition to the exciting plot, I quite enjoyed the author’s writing style as well. It was neat and well-edited, and I only found a few typographic errors. I’d hate to say the story was predictable, but some aspects of this book were quite similar to Shifting Sands – not that it stymied the pleasure of reading in any case. In all, I have no major complaints, hence my rating of this book is four out of four stars.

The title is a bit wordy but vague and poetic are some of the interesting aspects of Litherland’s writing. Waves Break (on Unknown Shores) is a ride. A hard crime thriller with a bit of romance and heartbreak, and characters whose stakes and pitfalls easily become the reader’s.

It’s a perfect fit for anyone who enjoys gritty, small-town mystery novels.

Unsurprisingly, this book contains generous amounts of profanity. Nothing bizarre, but reader discretion is advised.

Happy reading.

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Waves Break (on Unknown Shores)
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[Bigwig1973]

I didn't know that Phil was a "detective" in his other books! I will have to check them out!