A Drowning Tide is Sarah Lawton’s debut crime novel, set on the Isle of Wight where the author grew up and introducing protagonist Merry, a reclusive fifty-something woman who finds solace in writing cryptic crosswords as a living and the pleasure of wild swimming.
Merry’s life, though, is about to take a very different and unexpected path.
Missing person case
When her neighbour, Lucas Manning – son of her late best friend, Julia – goes missing, Merry finds herself caught up in the search for his whereabouts, questioned by police and forming an unlikely alliance with a private investigator called Gareth to look for him.
But what Merry doesn’t know is that finding Lucas will expose all her own deeply buried secrets, resulting in mortal danger and a thrilling twist.
Aphantasia
Author Sarah Lawton is one of three per cent of the population who are aphantasic, and therefore unable to form mental images of real or imaginary people, places or things.
For Sarah, her lack of visual imagination has drawn her to pursue a creative career and has been helpful to her writing rather than a hindrance. She seeks out real places to describe in her own words, and her memories are visceral rather than visual, relating to feelings, sensations and smells, which all contribute to the striking detail of her writing.
Close connection to the Island
Needing to write about somewhere she knew and still drawn to the water, Sarah chose to set her debut crime novel on the Island where she grew up, where the scent of the sea is never far away and, whilst picturesque, has, like most places, its dark side, too.
The novel is an unputdownable brainteaser, and readers can follow Merry’s journey whilst puzzling over the cryptic clues throughout.
About the author
Sarah Lawton grew up on the Isle of Wight before leaving to study at Southampton University.
After working multiple jobs, Sarah looked to expand her horizons spending a year travelling the world, after which she moved to London to pursue a career in the charity sector, specifically the learning disability sector.
On becoming a parent, she switched focus to writing online, including social media, blogging and writing for publications such as the Huffington Post and Mumsnet, as well as running a successful parenting blog for several years.
First novel published in 2021
Having attended a creative writing course, Sarah completed her first novel All The Little Things, a thriller which was published in 2021.
Like Merry in her book, Sarah loves puzzles and wild swimming. A more recent passion has been learning about ADHD, having received a diagnosis in 2022 and realising, like many people and particularly women, that a great deal of her life had been spent struggling with a disability she had no idea she had.
Sarah will be launching the book at the Medina Bookshop in Cowes on Thursday 19th September.
A Drowning Tide is published on 12th September in hardback (£16.99) by Black & White Publishing Ltd., part of Bonnier Books UK.
News shared by Nicky, in her own words. Ed
