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Dangerous Depths

by Kathy Brandt

Dangerous Depths, by Kathy Brandt, continues a series on Hannah Sampson, who like Ms. Brandt herself, is a certified diver. In Dangerous Depths, Kathy Brandt familiarizes the reader with all the wonder a diver can experience beneath the water – as well as all the horror. The avid, perceptive mystery buff may realize who the perpetrator is in this volume before the heroine does, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable reading. Sailing or diving doesn't happen to be my thing, so at first I postponed reading this book – but once I started I read it through to the end. Dangerous Depths is a captivating read even for those of us more interested in dry heights than in watery depths!

Hannah Sampson is a homicide detective and diver for the Tortola Police, of which John Dunn is chief. The opening of Dangerous Depths features an explosion on the Caribbe, the nearby docked boat on which Hannah's best friend Elyse lives. Hannah manages to save her friend from a watery grave, but Elyse remains unconscious in the hospital. Dunn believes it was simply an accident. Hannah's intuition tells her it was attempted murder. So although Dunn assigns her to find out who's been stealing from wealthy tourists, Hannah still probes the death of her friend.

Hannah's inquiries take her to the people Elyse visited: Elyse was an environmentalist, concerned about anything which would disrupt the age-old coral reefs, the turtles which reached back in time to the dinosaurs, or anything else that could possibly destroy a natural beauty or habitat. Naturally, Elyse' activities made her some very angry business-oriented enemies. Hannah's search includes a prominent politician who is campaigning to be chief minister and the owner of an island where he and his wife can escape the paraparazzi, a gravel pit owner, a charter boat fleet owner, and a pair of young people who regularly distribute groceries via boat to the tourists. Hannah also takes her questions to Elyse' friends, like the woman getting rid of rats on one of the islands – an expert on toxins.

When Hannah eventually knows who the killers are and why, it has nothing to do with the tourist robberies, although that's also settled. Hannah escapes from a life-threatening situation and turns the tables on her pursuers. When it's all over, her friend Elsye is dead, and the culprits include some people Hannah never suspected. Kathy Brandt is an expert when it comes to portraying the difficulties and pleasures of undersea diving as much as she writes authoritatively about greed driving people to commit murder for monetary gain.

Alan Paul Curtis

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