Swimming in the Shadows

by Diane Janes

Overview

A young woman’s past is about to catch up with her in this gripping tale of suspense

Susan McCarthy is a health centre manager in the Yorkshire Dales, engaged to be married to geography teacher Rob Dugdale. Her life couldn’t be happier. Except Susan McCarthy isn’t Susan McCarthy at all, but Jennifer Reynolds, a young woman who has succeeded in escaping a deeply unhappy past.

Then a TV programme is broadcast examining the mystery of three women who disappeared without trace, one of them being Jennifer Reynolds. The following day, a local teenage girl is found dead, and the town becomes the centre of a major murder enquiry. With her fiancé Rob under suspicion, and terrified she’ll be recognised from the increasing national press coverage, Jennifer fears that the idyllic new life she has worked so hard to achieve is about to be destroyed.

When more bodies are unearthed, Jennifer realizes that in order to discover the truth she will have to revisit her troubled past – and put herself in grave danger in the process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727884312
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	12/01/2014
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Born and brought up in Birmingham, Diane Janes spent many years in the north of England and now lives in Devon. She is the author of two previous crime novels and several non-fiction investigations into real-life historical mysteries. Her debut, The Pull of the Moon, was shortlisted for the CWA’s John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel of 2010.

Editorial Reviews

10/13/2014
Jennifer Reynolds, the heroine of this intricately plotted romantic suspense novel from British author Janes (The Pull of the Moon), escapes an unhappy marriage and humdrum existence by setting up a new identity and relocating to Lasthwaite, a quiet town in the Yorkshire Dales. Years later, she is managing a health center and is eagerly anticipating her wedding to a local teacher, Rob Dugdale, who knows nothing of her past. When a TV documentary airs about three women who went missing and were never found again, including herself, she fears that she’ll be exposed by the media coverage. The murder of a 15-year-old girl, who was on her way home from the school where Rob teaches, focuses further attention on Lasthwaite, adding to her worries. After a second body appears, Jennifer must decide whether to try to preserve her new life or reveal her true identity and risk losing everything she has successfully built. The action builds to a chilling yet satisfying ending. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Spooky, twisting, and strange, this suspenseful mystery is guaranteed to keep readers glued to their seats.

Booklist

Spooky, twisting, and strange, this suspenseful mystery is guaranteed to keep readers glued to their seats.

Booklist

2014-11-06
A runaway wife finds her new life threatened when the murder of a schoolgirl brings the police to her doorstep.Jennifer Reynolds goes from the frying pan straight into the fire. She leaves her stern, unloving parents for Alan, an antiques dealer whose trinket-filled living quarters seem at first a refuge from her parents' obsessively clean house. But Alan treats Jennifer like a backward child, missing no chance to belittle her. So one day, simple Jennifer simply takes off. A series of dead-end jobs under a string of temporary identities keeps body and soul together until the death of an old school acquaintance, Susan McCarthy, gives Jennifer the chance at something more permanent. Since Susan died in France, no death certificate has been recorded in England. Armed with enough vital statistics to apply for a birth certificate, Jennifer becomes Susan. By the time she reaches Lasthwaite, a resurrected Susan McCarthy has a car, bank accounts and enough work history to apply for a real job as manager of Lasthwaite Health Centre. She also finds real romance with kind, solid Rob Dugdale, a teacher at a local secondary school. Susan is hesitant about accepting Rob's proposal—after all, as Jennifer, she already has a husband. But she longs for a real home and family. She's already on edge when a local television station airs Disappeared!, which tells the story of three unsolved missing persons cases, including Jennifer's. But the murder of Rob's student Julie Peacock threatens to push her over the edge—especially when the police learn that Rob was the last person to see Julie alive. Janes (Why Didn't You Come for Me?, 2011) sets up a clever puzzle only to trash it with a solution as improbable as it is long-winded.

Kirkus Reviews