In Too Deep by Bea Davenport

Read from November 12th to 15th 2015.

Published June 1st 2013 by Legend Press

Format    Paperback - 256 pages

Review

Maura is a young lady living with her husband and child in what seems to be a sleepy,flowery'Midsummer Murders' style market town living the life of a woman who is 'looked after', spending her time buying makeup, magazines and cooking dinner for the family. A newcomer,a bright, ambitious reporter arrives in town after a campaign to get more publicity for the forthcoming summer fair - Kim.Kim is a larger than life character with no morals.Probably too full on for such a small place and it's residents that do not accept outsiders readily.Maura befriends Kim and I believe,relishes the adventure and excitement Kim has to offer and attracts.The friendship is looked down upon by the rest of the townsfolk. Maura's husband takes charge of that summer's annual medieval fair. Things start to take a turn for the worst for Maura and eventually for Kim also.Not going into this for fear of spoiling. This book is told in first person and is quick to reveal vital clues's to the plot and storyline from the get go. Five years on,why has Maura changed her name and left this town? She seems to be hiding from someone or something.Maura's life is now in total contrast to what it was until she is visited by a reporter. What made him come looking for her? Lots of questions all become clear as the story unfolds. Eventually the truth comes out and reveals the towns hidden secrets from five years previous. This book was,Bea Davenport's debut adult novel.I read her This Little Piggy first and was blown away by it.Loved the smoothness and flow. However I didn't feel this so much with In Too Deep.The book jumps from when the reporter found her and the events form five years before. I have read a few books that jump between time lines but felt this one lacked the continuity and flow to carry this off and I experienced confusion every so often.This is not to say I didn't like this book and don't want you to be put off by the three stars.I liked it a lot.It just didn't blow me away like her other works.I still enjoyed Bea's style of writing and her journalist background shone through again. I wasn't expecting the hard hitting content that bounced off the pages at me later in the book and gasped as I read it.I had only read the blurb on the back page which kept this part of the book a huge secret much like Maura's story itself. Wow,it was uncomfortable and a tender subject to tackle and I think Bea wrote it extremely well.Making me feel, was evidence that the book had drawn me right into this distressing topic and had 'got me'. All the same,I did struggle to read these pages and even skim read quite a few.Up till this point, I didn't feel anything for these characters but this topic made me feel. This book is well worth a read but you need to have a strong mind about you. A good debut novel.Constant suspense throughout even though it wasn't a favourite for me personally.I will definitely read more from Bea Davenport because if This Little Piggy was even better, what will future novels be like? fabulous? 3 out of 5 stars.