I'm always in for a solid detective thriller and after highly enjoying my time with the first book of the Underwater Investigation Unit series earlier this year I just couldn't say no to reading the sequel. The Florida police diver angle had me immediately intrigued, and after an intense and action-packed first book, I had high hopes for an entertaining second round... And Black Coral turned out to be exactly the exhilarating dose of action and detective thriller I was desperately craving!

One of the things that makes this series stand out is the fact that it isn't just your average detective thriller. The main character Sloan McPherson is a police diver and not your typical detective, and on top of this she has a very colorful family background. She is a strong, stubborn and resourceful woman and she is definitely one of the reasons this story works so well! Especially with her not being afraid to think outside the box and follow her instinct even if it means stepping on important toes or facing danger. Following Sloan is a guarantee for hours of entertainment and action-packed reading!

You can technically read this as a stand-alone, although you won't be able to understand the character background and dynamics fully... So I would personally advice reading these in order. That said, I loved the diving angle in Black Coral, which is an element that really makes this series stand out for me. On top of this, we have a serial killer hunt and lots of action, danger and suspense involved... What more to wish for?! I did enjoy the first book a tiny bit more, but as a whole there is no denying that this was a very satisfying thriller read. If you like your thrillers fast, action-packed and exhilarating, this is definitely a series to put on your radar!

I've read a couple of Mayne's other books, so when I saw that he came out with a new series, one about a scuba diver cracking cases, I was intrigued. Especially because Sloan McPherson knows about alligators (not to be confused with crocodiles) and I found that to be super interesting.

In general this book was decent, especially when read in a Crime Junkie vein (I pretty much compare all crime ANYTHING to Crime Junkie these days). I love that Sloan has a fighting spirit and doesn't always do what she's told and her background story (she's the daughter of a PIRATE) was really fun.

However I just couldn't give my attention to this book. I'm not sure WHY. I did enjoy it. But I just found  myself finding better things to do than read it. Do I think others will love it, maybe more than I did? Probably. I'd say read it for yourself to figure out what you think. And although this is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone. Enjoy!

Great second book in the series, I liked it even better than the first one! Sloan McPherson is a great character, with solid development. I’m excited for the next entry in the series!

I had not read any previous books in this series but from the background story it seems that there was at least one. I found the main character a bit one layered and tough to have her carry you through the story. That may have been because I was just introduced to her in this novel. The diving aspect was interesting as was the mystery as to what happened to those teenagers all those years ago.
I loved the book cover which is what drew me to the story but found it a chore at times to keep going and follow the plot as I didn’t feel connected to the characters. It seemed one dimensional.

Mystery

Finding a new author or series that I get excited about turns me into a kid on Christmas. These Underwater Investigation Unit books are my newest addiction. They are just spectacular. Mayne starts off each book with a bang and keeps us on edge excitedly turning pages to an exhilarating conclusion.

Sloan gets called to a site to dive and collect a body from a car crash. The issue, it's a major alligator hang out and the biggest gator in the area has recently been sighted in the pond. Sloan recovers the body not without some hair-raising events and runs head first into an even bigger mystery. This one having roots from 30 years ago.

I don't want to say too much about the new case the team gets involved in and spoil anything. Suffice it to say, it's certainly juicy. This book centers around Sloan, so we don't get as many interactions with her colorful family, but we do get an addition to George and Sloan's team - Hughes. He makes a great addition and is a great counterpoint to Sloan and George. We learn enough of Hughes' backstory to know that there is a lot more to him.

Centering these investigations around the ocean was a brilliant move by Mayne and adds so much to the story. The sea and all its creatures are a mystery to many of us and Sloan's adventures under the water add a great element of atmosphere that sets this series on it's own outstanding level.

If you are a mystery/thriller fan at all - these books are a MUST!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for my ARC of this book.

Well that was something different and hugely enjoyable. 4.5 stars rounded down to 4(explained later and a minor gripe stopping it being a 5 star read)

Sloan McPherson is a police diver working in Florida. She works for the Underwater Investigative Unit and is assigned to a case of a car going off a bridge into a pond.

When she dives and discovers the car, she also discovers a van with four bodies inside nearby. It turns out they are the bodies of four young local people that went missing 30 years ago after returning from a rock concert. Everyone writes it off as an accident but Sloan, despite warnings to leave it alone, follows all the leads and believes they were murdered. When she links them to previous historical missing person cases, she is convinced she has stumbled across a serial killer from the past.
When a fresh female body is discovered shortly afterwards in the Everglades she knows the killer is still alive and, the news of his past may have awakened his dormant killing spree. Can she and her team catch the killer before he kills again or worse, catches up with Sloan?

This was a hugely enjoyable take on the thriller/police procedural/ serial killer genre. The whole underwater team thing sounded quite niche when I read about it in the blurb but it works perfectly and gives a nice fresh angle on the genre.

Sloan is a fantastic central character and carries the book extremely well, despite her youth, her flaws and her mistakes along the way.

The story is excellently put together and told. No fat on this one. Pacing too was excellent. Plenty of room for the story to breath but while at the same time always being a page turner.

I loved the ending too. I feared I may have been set up for a disappointment but it ended beautifully.
My only minor gripe with the book was, too often her superiors made stupid calls and decisions, the opposite of what she wanted to do and , while occasionally they were right and pointing out her lack of experience, mostly it felt forced and more a plot device than based in reality. It’s a very minor gripe though and only accounts for a tiny portion of the book.

I haven’t read the first I’m this series but will be definitely seeking it out.
If you enjoy this genre(which I do immensely) and are looking for something a little different then this one is definitely for you.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Andrew Mayne and Thomas and Mercer for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Another Heart-Stopping Thriller for the Detective Sloan McPherson

The heroine, Detective Sloan McPherson, arrives at the scene where a vehicle went in a small lake. She was on call for law enforcement diver support. Her job here was to recover the body in a submerged vehicle. She recognizes this location and asks if this is Pond 65. Pod 65 is a popular spot for alligators, especially for Big Bill, a 1,000 pounds and 13 feet apex predator. Of course, Big Bill makes an appearance during the recovery operations. As Sloan evades Big Bill, she swims headfirst into a sunken SUV. When she makes it to shore sans Big Bill, her gut tells her that the body just pulled from the lake wasn’t the only one in this lake. I was hooked from this point on.

The main storyline is jammed packed with action with intervals of inter law enforcement agency squabbles and detective work on competing investigations on multiple murders and yacht equipment thieves. All of these aspects are mixed into an engaging story with adequate twists and turns in each of the above aspects. I wanted to continue to read this novel late into the night.

In this novel, a new character is introduced. A new hire for the Underwater Investigation Unit (UIU) Scott Hughes is a former Navy diver with local police experience. Sloan believes he was added to counterbalance her adventurous underwater activity, not an unreasonable assumption.

The B-storyline is as rich as the first novel in the series. There is a little less on her father but more detail with Run, Sloan’s boyfriend and father to her daughter, and the daughter, Jackie. For Scott, his character goes from supporting to a contributing member of the UIU; much is learned about him and his relationship with his wife and daughter. These storylines increased my enjoyment in reading this novel.

There are not any graphic intimate scenes. There are murders with a serial murderer, but almost all violence is described after the fact so it is not as edgy. There is low but definite level of foul language. These aspects never rose to noticeable level for me. As this is the second book in the series, I found all references to events in the first book were adequately explained so this book could be read before the first novel in this series.

There is one aspect that some readers may find objectionable. Even Sloan states that her diving has many bad habits that are deeply ingrained in her. I read one review on the author’s first novel that diving was just implausible to downright dangerous. My thoughts are that this is not true crime, and I am reading this novel for entertainment. These questionable scenes increased my heartrate and intensified my thrill in the action. I see these as pluses and not minuses.

Overall, this novel is a great summer read as it sure kept my interest through to the end. I am eagerly waiting for the next novel in the series. I rate this novel with five stars.

I have received a free e-book version of this novel through NetGalley from Thomas & Mercer with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.

This is book two in the series. This one doesn’t have quite as much action as the first one. It had a good mystery, I thought the ending was a bit rushed. I still enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

This book is so good. I just needed to start with that.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to read the first book in this series, The Girl Beneath the Sea, and I became immediately immersed into this world of underwater investigations. I loved the story, the characters, everything. When I saw the opportunity to read this second book, I grabbed it, hoping it would be as good as the first.

It delivered. Sloan McPherson continues to develop into a badass underwater investigator, aided by her mentor Solar. Their unit even has a new hire, Hughes, who is an excellent addition, more thoughtful than Sloan, but just as motivated. The three of them stumble onto a serial killer, and have to do some serious investigating, above and under water, to not only prove they can handle the case, but catch this pretty horrific murderer.

The pacing of this book is perfect - you’re kept on your toes, and constantly engaged in what’s going on. The writing immerses you completely in the story, whether that’s with Sloan underwater trying to gather evidence while keeping a giant alligator at bay, or trekking through the Everglades in an attempt to hunt a killer’s lair. Added to that is the suspense and mystery portion, which is just enough of a challenge to the reader to keep you pulled in.

The parts of those story I loved the most were the underwater portions - the descriptions are vivid, and Sloan is in her element. I would actually have preferred more of that, because it’s just so well done, and sets this series apart from others. The UIU needs to be featured! Along that note, the side case seemed a bit of an afterthought, and could have been incorporated better.

The other component of the story that I loved, though, was the interactions between Sloan and the important people in her life, Jackie and Run. These glimpses make her more real, and add an interesting dimension to her character. They’re very much appreciated by me, and I’d love for this development to continue.

A final note before I wrap this up is about the ending. It felt a bit rushed, like there should be one more chapter before the epilogue. Please, show that resolution, maybe even Sloan and company finally getting some respect from the other law enforcement members they’ve tangled with. Even if not this, there needs to be something, because it’s too abrupt as is.

Ultimately, I cannot recommend this book -and it’s predecessor- enough. Read it. You will not be disappointed by these characters and events that unfold around them.

Black Coral is the second book in a series about Florida underwater diving detective, Sloan McPhearson. This was a fun fast-paced read with lots of twists and turns. A def brain candy book. I look forward to, hopefully, a third in the series! Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for a chance to read this book!

An excellent follow-up to the first installment of the Underwater Investigation Unit series. Mayne brings back our favorite dysfunctional privateer family and introduces an exciting cold case the UIU works with other agencies to solve.

The writing has matured in this book and the storytelling is fast-paced and engaging. Mayne does an amazing job with atmospheric prose and you really feel like you're with Sloan in the Everglades and during her dives. I can't wait for book 3!

I couldn’t finish the book. I had a hard time getting into the plot and connecting with the characters. I put it down more times than I picked it up.

I really enjoy a book that takes hold of you from page 1 to the end. This is that type of book. Sloan McPherson is an underwater detective for the Underwater Investigation Unit. She and her team discover a van with 4 teenagers that has been in a pond for many years. Every one believes that this was a fatal accident caused by drug use or reckless driving, but Sloan suspects that it is murder. Add to this a new murder has happened and Sloan believes the 2 are connected. Problem is the suspect knows that Sloan is moving in and will do anything not to get caught.
With all the twists and turns of the plot, I was engrossed from start to finish!
I would recommend.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am morally conflicted about reading this book. On one hand, fuck cops, and not in a fake white liberal way, in a empathetic way, where I am truely angry and deeply saddened by police brutality. On the other hand, supernatural thrillers scare me too much, and I am in the mood to be SPOOKED, like heart pounding page gripping spooked, and I have always had a deep love for crime thrillers. I donated the books amount to a therapy fund for black woman to counteract the unwilling support I’m showing for the police institution

The book doesn’t address the black lives matter movement in any capacity. If the publishers are reading this review, I highly suggest having a page in the front of the book listing charity’s to donate to, or donating a part of the books profits to the cause. These problems don’t go away simply because you look away.

The only way in which this book comes marginally close to dealing with the black lives matter movement is through the portrayal of how the main character, Sloan McPherson, learns to see suspects as human. There is a heavy emphasis on the underlying humanity of the suspects, which Sloan learns to recognize throughout the book.

Characters 2/5

Sloan McPherson is a mixed bag. She is written by a man, and although it is clear that he researched life as a woman, there is one big area in which it absolutely misses the mark. She is “not like other girls”, I mean she straight up says “i was more into spear fishing than Saterdays at galleria mall”. The other area in which his depiction of womanhood fell short is his depiction of Sloan as a woman in a male dominated industry. There is one incident of sexism, and it is handled very poorly, when she talks to her superior later, he calls her response a tantrum, and she then agrees with him.

Despite the fact that he very much missed these major marks, there are other areas in which I felt he did very well. Yes, she fulfills the “not like other girls ” trope through her rejection of femininity, but it was amazing to see is how her masculinity affected areas of her character that are normally held sacred by writers. So often masculine woman in media melt into soft, conventional, feminine woman through the love of a man, and motherhood, however in Black Coral, the ways that she engages with her boyfriend and daughter is distinctly masculine.

Pacing 4/5

This book grabbed my attention between its alligator teeth and refused to let it go. I mean, seriously, in my note pad of things to mention in this review I wrote the following “GRIPPING AND CLEAR TENSE MOMENTS” “THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME” “AAAAAA ITS SO FUCKING GRIPPING I CAN’T”. You never wonder about stake in a action scene. The odds, and dangers are incredibly clear and so terrifying that my heart would like overtime pay for how quickly it had to beat. Despite having such amazing moments of action, I found the balance between action and more investigative, slower paced parts of the book to be perfect, it gave you enough pay off at the right time.

My only complaint in terms of pacing is that the suspense was disrupted by info dumps, especially ones that allude to the first book, some of the references where well integrated, others felt like being smacked in the face with a clump of seaweed while you were napping on a gently rocking boat.

Immersion 5/5

This isn’t normally I category consider when I review books, but immersion is essential in a scary book, and honestly? He could not have done a better job submerging me into this crime ridden Miami. Despite never having been to Miami, or really been involved in marine life at all, I could feel the cold sliminess of the mucky waters, I could taste the salt in the air, and feel the grimyness of the trailer park settle into my skin.
Writing Style 3/5

He has a very strong personal voice that really comes through in this novel, its dry, sarcastic, and fast paced. It worked incredibly well for the action and investigative scenes, often adding to the sense of bewilderment and fear. However, I found with the more emotional, person orientated, conversations the writing style detracted from the emotions. It felt quite jarring to hear the dialogue between a mother and her daughter be written with the same tone of voice that a dead body is described in.

I personally really enjoyed this book, it was the perfect book to curl up with while there was a thunderstorm outside and a plethora of dogs on my bed.

3+4+5+2/4= 3.5 stars,

This second entry in Mayne's "Underwater Investigation Unit" series continues the riveting blend of adventure and thrills. Sloan McPherson is a police diver with keen intuition and blunt social skills. In the course of finding answers in one case, she discovers a van underwater filled with four dead teenagers who disappeared 30 years ago.

In South Florida, alligators generously populate the waters. Sloan takes on "Big Bill" in a tense and propulsive early scene. There is tremendous pressure to solve the crimes while battling bureaucracy between law enforcement agencies. Sloan is no slouch and combats sexism, breaks rules, and follows her gut, steadily making inroads where others have failed. Then she heads to the gator and snake-infested Everglades. There are more bodies. Many more bodies.

When a man convincingly confesses, Sloan and her small three-person team press on and ultimately face down the worst serial killer in Florida's history. This is fast-paced with some exciting and taut confrontations. Sloan is a fine character with a colorful family.

This series is perfect for readers who love mysteries and also a fast paced story. I had to finish this story in one day. The main character is such a badass!

This book kept me captivated till the very last page. Very Suspenseful! Even my husband would love it and he doesn't like to read!

Loved this one . I just love all Maynes books. I loved the setting and the main characters and they always have good plots.
Thanks for letting me review this book

This book was such a fun and wild, wild ride. I'd highly recommend reading the first book in this series. I absolutely adored the setting and how the author described Florida and the gloomy pond. Overall, this was a thrilling installment in the underwater investigation series and I would recommend to thriller readers who are craving an interesting and atmospheric setting.

Sloan Patterson is a detective and a diver. While out on a boat burglary case her and her team recover a van with 4 bodies of teenagers in it. First it is thought to be an accident, but Sloan proves it was murder decades ago. When another body is discovered, Sloan determines a serial killer is still active. I enjoyed this book because it was different. I've read many mystery and thrillers but never from a diving perspective. Something new and interesting.