Gah this storyline was just fantastic! The characters were absolutely amazing and the suspense was perfect for this novel. A must read!

I seem to be going against the majority of reviewers in finding this very disappointing. The relationship between the two main characters just did not seem realistic and although it started well and was reasonably well written I just found it less and less believable
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WARNING SPOILERS
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In particular how had Reece survived so long ? Although Adrian's reaction to his rape was credible, I simply cannot believe that if as suggested this was the last of many such abuses against the rough tough dodgy criminal types portrayed, that at least one of them wouldn't have just killed Reece. Not to mention Catherine :/
And if Reece was so hard why did he move down south for no apparent reason ?

Recently I've started reading series from the beginning as a result of a free ARC, but this series won't be adding to the list...

As a stand alone title or as one following the lives of our policing heros from earlier books this one cannot be missed. It works as a stand alone read because the other characters are new and the story doesn’t really need the background from previous titles. A great reveal at the ending and one that will keep you guessing. Ms Diamonds books always keep you on the edge and this one is no different. Grabs you in from the start and doesn’t let go.

Woman in the Water was a good read. I really enjoyed Katerina’s writing style. From the discovery of the body (which nearly made me jump out of my seat whilst reading) through the gripping build up of the case surrounding the mystery woman via the relationship between Adrian and Imogen this was a rollercoaster read. It is certainly not for the fainthearted. There were some quite graphic scenes and one particularly brutal episode was hard to read and changed the focus of the book. Covering domestic abuse, corruption, rape, murder this is a dark disturbing read, but is dealt with in a sensitive way and I don’t think these are issues that should be shied away from. Definitely recommend.

This book was a brilliant read and one that is perfect to escape for a few hours and loose yourself.
Characters that fall out of the pages of the book and make you fell apart of the story, the setting is lovely and captured well with words.
A great read. that I would highly recommend.

This is the sixth novel in the Miles and Grey series. Whilst the story was quite gruesome, I have no liking for the detectives personalities. I have read other books in the series but this will be my last.

This enjoyable, page turning thriller/police procedural went beyond my expectations. It is well written, compelling, and activates more than just the adrenalin glands - it engages the heart and mind too. The characters are flawed - yes of course they are, they always are - but no neat answers are given, enough strands left unsolved that I was left thinking about them after the novel ended. It also deals with gritty, ugly subject matters, factually and unflinchingly. I was not prepared for what happened to the detective, but it made the novel better that it did. I would gladly read the next one, and I'm not generally a huge fan of the genre.

I absolutely loved this book. Great characters and another great plot. I have loved all of this authors books and i cannot wait to read the next one.

You just can't go wrong with a Katrina Diamond book. I've read quite a few and I enjoy every single one. This one, too, is great.

Really good detective thriller that kept me guessing and held my interest until the end.
Well written, captivating, enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the opportunity to read and review this interesting book. This is my honest review. All opinions are m'y own.

I love this series and this book had me completely hooked from the first page. We meet up again with Detectives Imogen Grey and Adrian Miles and learn more about their relationship. The book opens with Adrian finding the body of a partly submerged battered woman in the water. At first glance he thought she was dead but she was, in fact, still alive. He then discovered the body of a man further down the river and he was dead. The woman is taken to hospital but then disappears. Miles and Grey discover that the dead man was employed by Reece Corrigan, a local businessman, and on interviewing him they discover that his wife is the woman that Adrian rescued from the water. They realise that he is heavily involved with the death of Simon and with the assault on his wife and realise that he is a very dangerous man. This book is difficult to read at times as it deals with murder, domestic and physical violence and sexual assault but it is a book that I couldn’t put down and had me gripped until the very last page. A highly recommended read and I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This another action packed story by Katerina Diamond. Horrific in parts but the action is non stop. A series that works well.

Another in the Imogen Grey and Adrian Miles series, I’ve enjoyed the others and this didn’t disappoint either.
DS Miles finds a woman unconscious in the river, barely alive, he rescues her but she won’t tell them who she is or how she came to be submerged in water. The police, whilst searching the scene find the body of a man nearby - but why were they there and what happened to them? The unknown woman discharged herself and leaves the hospital, and they fear they will never find out who she is.
I won’t add any spoilers, but the story unfolds when DS Grey and Miles call on a local construction boss to ask some questions and see their Jane Doe at the house.
This is a hard hitting story of domestic abuse and cruelty done in a bid to be in total control. Have to admit, the end blew me away.
Can the police finally nail the culprit or will he continue his reign of terror?
Alongside this is the relationship between the two officers which is blossoming, but is threatened by the horrific violence Adrian is subjected to.
An emotional ride, but I look forward to the next instalment.

I didn't realise when I requested Woman In The Water that it was book number 6 in a procedural series; I do prefer to read this kind of series in chronological order, but given this was an ARC copy and I wanted to leave a timely review, I jumped right in. I will definitely go back and read the others in the series after reading this one, and although I think there would have been more depth and nuance to the characters and their relationships if I'd read the others first, the author writes the book in such a way that prior knowledge of the characters isn't absolutely necessary. 

Woman in the Water begins with the discovery of a woman's body in the river by one of our two protagonists, Detective Adrian Miles. At first, Adrian thinks the woman is dead, but when by some miracle she proves to be alive, she is rushed to hospital. When she comes round, the woman claims amnesia but has injuries consistent with domestic abuse, but before Adrian can investigate further, Jane Doe absconds from the hospital.. 

Close by to where the woman was found, a man's badly mutilated body has also been discovered. When Adrian and his partner, Imogen, investigate, they are shocked to come across Jane Doe as they make their enquiries - only the woman is pretending not to recognise them, and she's tried to hide her injuries. 

The rest of the novel deals with both the police investigation, and with the relationship between Adrian and Imogen. I love when an author knows how to balance the two elements, so that both add to the overall story and one doesn't dominate, and it's managed deftly here. The author doesn't shy away from graphic detail, and there are some very dark elements to the story, but I felt it was all handled well, and tastefully - there was nothing that felt gratuitous or unnecessary. 

I'll certainly be going back to the beginning of this series after finishing this novel - I really enjoyed the relationship between the central characters, and the story was well written and cleverly plotted. I would definitely recommend. 

Thank you to NetGalley, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A woman close to death is found by DS Adrian Miles at the edge of a river. She claims not to remember who she is, but she knows only too well. A few days later she disappears from hospital. I really felt for this unknown woman, right from the start. The irony of being saved by the policeman, but knowing deep down that she could never be saved by the life that entraps her. She was totally petrified of being identified – and found. “Maybe this time I can disappear. I have a head start and he thinks I’m dead,” she thinks.
Adrian and his partner, Imogen Grey, start investigating their prime suspect, a man who is pure evil. He is so powerful and seemingly untouchable –he terrified me. He causes utter misery. Their investigation leads them to question Leon, one of the suspect’s former employees, which leads to a shocking event which really threw me. And he inflicts such appalling cruelty on Adrian that it comes close to destroying him. This awful assault has huge ramifications for the case and takes its toll on Adrian’s relationship with Imogen.
I didn’t really warm to Adrian or Imogen, and found their relationship distinctly odd, almost a little unbelievable. This may have been because this was the sixth book in the Detectives Adrian Miles and Imogen Grey series, and I hadn’t read any of the others. The relationship, however, was a mere sub-plot, and the main action was compelling and very readable.

Woman in the Water by Katerina Diamond is the sixth entry in the DS Imogen Grey series but can easily be read as a standalone. DS Adrian Miles is called to the scene of a crime: a woman, barely alive, has been beaten within an inch of her life and left semi-submerged in the river shallows. His partner, DS Imogen Grey, joins him at the hospital where the mystery woman has been taken. The woman soon disappears, leaving the detectives without a clue as to who she is, who did this to her and where she is running to. Their investigation leads them to the home of the Corrigans. It becomes clear that Mr. Corrigan’s entourage live in fear of the man and injuries and missing persons are not uncommon. This mystery is well-written and often surprises the reader with unexpected details and events throughout, including a very surprising ending. I highly recommend this original police procedural. Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings on this book. Loved the start and was gripped, but then there were sections of the story that seemed dragged out and it lost my focus. But I’m glad o continued to read. This is one of those books you can put down and pick up again and read over a few days.

Thank you to Netgalley, Katerina Diamond and Avon books for my arc of Woman in the Water in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis: When a woman is found in the river Exe, barely alive and with no recollection of who she is and how she got there, Detectives Imogen Grey and Adrian Miles have to investigate. For Adrian especially this case feels personal. Their investigation leads them down a trail of corruption, trauma and pure evil. This might just be their toughest case yet.

Review: This is the 5th instalment in the DS Imogen Grey series. I've loved this series since I first read The Teacher a few years ago. Katerina Diamond immediately made a name for herself in the genre of crime thriller and she continues to thrive with this 5th instalment. This book was probably the best one yet! At first I thought the storyline was going to be a bit flat, the investigation is one in which the person doing the crimes is known to the police but they're trying to get enough evidence to charge, but the mystery instead was at the heart of the story, a story of cruelty, fear, and a huge secret. Katerina Diamond dealt sensitively with a number of serious traumatic experiences and it was very clear she'd done adequate research and showed compassion throughout. At one point in the middle of the novel my heart almost stopped, I couldn't breathe, it takes a lot for a book to affect you like that. I can't wait for the next instalment!

An extremely dark, daring and gripping crime thriller

Detective Adrian Miles is on his way home when he notices a group of people crowding around a riverbank. He investigates and discovers what looks like a corpse dumped in the water, but when he goes in to take a closer look, he is shocked to discover that the young woman he has found is badly beaten but alive. When she goes missing from her hospital bed a few days later, having refused to tell anyone what happened to her even when a second body (this one actually dead) shows up, Adrian and his partner and now girlfriend Imogen Grey have no idea how to track her down. Following their only lead, they end up at the home of the wealthy and powerful but threatening businessman Reece Corrigan, and when his wife walks in the room, they realise that she looks very familiar indeed... What follows is an investigation that will lead the detectives into danger and affect their lives in profound ways, as they struggle to discover what Corrigan is hiding and why the woman in the water doesn’t want to be saved.

This was a great crime thriller that grabs your attention right from the start with a dramatic opening and doesn’t hold off on the tension, excitement and danger throughout the story right until its edge-of-your-seat conclusion – in fact, I read the whole thing in one sitting! The characters were multi-layered and likeable and managed to avoid fitting into any of the lazy stereotypes that are often seen in these kinds of novels. Whilst this was the sixth instalment in a series, I had no problem following the plot and although I obviously had missed some character development (particularly the relationship between Adrian and Imogen), I still empathised with them. The feeling of danger and threatening aura was expertly written and there were enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing throughout the story.

My only criticism of this otherwise excellent book would be that there was one scene, in particular, involving one of the main characters that were extremely graphic and dark. Despite having never really been bothered by descriptions of violence and such, it was even almost too much for me, and would definitely be too disturbing and upsetting for some readers. Additionally, although it did add to the character’s development, some may find the detail included in the scene gratuitous and unnecessary.


Overall, this was a thrilling and unpredictable story that didn’t shy away from its dark subject matter. I will definitely seek out previous instalments in this series and would be up for reading much more by this author.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for review based upon my honest opinion.

This is the 6th book in the DS Imogen Grey series. I have not read any of the other books, but feel that this did not take away from my enjoyment of this book, it could easily be read as a stand-alone although I felt that knowing more
about the background of the characters would have been helpful.

In this book we find Imogen and her partner DS Miles investigating the case of a woman who is found clinging to life in the water by Miles. The woman claims that she does not know who she is, and their suspicion is further raised when another body, this time a man, is found not far from where hers was in the water this one deceased. This case takes us into some pretty deep and dark areas, with a depraved madman with a sense of over importance. DS Miles finds himself in trying to cope with a life changing, possibly life-shattering incident and try to keep it all together. Imogen starts to wonder if their relationship has come to an end as she starts to doubt their ability to partner one another in a professional, let alone personal manner as he spirals out of control. The ending of the book was twisty and I didn’t see it coming but also didn’t find the overall story held my interest as much as I wanted it to. Maybe if I had read the earlier books I would have felt more invested in the characters.