Moving forward to the present day and Nell is still obsessed with the Brighton Mermaid, and with Jude’s disappearance. Supporting her task is her hobby of tracing family trees and gathering DNA samples, all in pursuit of a familial connection and a name for the Brighton Mermaid.

Clearly a racist, Detective John Pope’s boorish arrogance and sneering venom quickly gravitates to Nell’s protective father, Mr Okorie, and his bullying and suspicion in turn have irrevocable effects for the entire Okorie family, making their journey to dysfunctional breakdown understandable. I apologies to the author and publisher for the time it has taken to provide this review all I can say is…life. Corria o ano de 1993 quando Nell e Jude, melhores amigas, são confrontadas com um corpo de uma jovem negra morto na praia. I’m writing this review from a very interesting place today, because I have just come away from a weekend spent at the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference in Lancaster where one of the highlights of the weekend for me was listening to Dorothy Koomson in conversation about her writing with RNA Chair, Alison May.

Sometimes I think there are two people in my head – the one who does ridiculous things, and the other one who doesn’t stop her. But if you are waiting to hear our review before giving it a go (thanks, we are honoured), then we here is our honest opinion with as little spoilers as possible.

When she gives up her job to carry on this work, she begins to uncover things that certain people really don’t want anyone to know about. Twenty-five-years later, a forty-year-old Nell has left her job with one ambition in sight; a dedicated year long pursuit to find the identity of the Brighton Mermaid whose body she discovered and an answer to the mystery of Jude’s disappearance. Quando, finalmente, tudo é revelado, não sei, mas houve ali uma nota que não consigo precisar e que me soou muito off. Fear not, it all ties back into the story and you cannot put the book down for the last 50 or so pages, but the initial thrill ebbs away a little in the middle.I don’t want to spoil it for other readers so there isn’t too much I can say about the ending, it did come to a satisfying conclusion, a conclusion that made sense. With few leads to go on, the Police closed the case without cracking it, and so it remains one of those unsolved mysteries that become part of local folklore, but Nell struggles to let sleeping dogs, or even sleeping mermaids, lie. This is a long book but it kept my attention well, jumping between past and present, and between different viewpoints.

As the timeline from 1993 progresses Pope’s focus gradually turns to Nell and his continued refusal to accept her father’s innocence with his son, Aaron, still doing his bidding further down the line. Onto the book I really enjoyed this murder mystery, I loved the setting of Brighton and I love both Nell and Macy. Ora, se todos os livros dela forem assim, nem vou pensar duas vezes em ler todos os anteriores e os futuros livros que, acredito piamente, vão surgir. Our lead character, Nell, is a Black woman, so she receives the wrath of policeman John Pope on both counts. Half-way through however it seems to become a little convoluted, focusing on many different details of the family’s life and losing sight of the crime waiting to be solved.Written from the perspectives of two sisters you see a dark, twisted tale unfold as a terrible event rips a family apart and the far-reaching consequences this has for all involved. So ending and plot reveal did lose all credibility for me really but I suspended disbelief and enjoyed it all the same. She doesn’t let anyone get close, has never really settled and been working to save enough money to take a year off to solve the twenty-five-year-old mystery. I love a good thriller but I don’t think I’ve read one with much family drama – it sounds like a fab combination!

Dorothy Koomson is the award-winning author of 14 novels including more than 12 Sunday Times bestsellers. m. after sneaking out to attend a party without their parents permission when they discover the body of a dead young woman on Brighton beach. Como é que um homem decente, adulto, com filhas, que já receava por Jude por não gostar da forma como o padrasto olhava para ela e outras jovens, ajuda uma miúda de 14 anos a fugir de casa?

The novel simmers with tension and an undercurrent of darkness' (Daily Express) 'The Brighton Mermaid is a breathtakingly brilliant, twisty belter of a book and you need to read it!