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So many new crime writers make their mark with an impressive debut then seem to burn out with their second or third book, as if they only had one striking book in them. Caroline Carver is a welcome exception to this rule, and the success of her debut Blood Junction and its successor Dead Heat is firmly consolidated with this third novel.

The virtues of the earlier books are firmly in place, with a crammed narrative dispatched with real panache. Journo India Kane is happy to take on an interesting assignment: she is to voyage on the Greenpeace vessel Sundancer, en route to highlight the transgression of a whaling fleet. But disaster strikes: a massive storm hits the ship, and in reduced visibility, Sundancer is sunk by a tanker. India survives, but her friend Ned is not so lucky. But what was the mysterious tanker that destroyed Sundancer? India vows to track down the vessel, for which no records appear to exist. On a dangerous quest to track down the owner, she is begins an odyssey that takes her to the wilds of Western Australia. And in the sultry heat, India finds a reckoning that will leave her a changed woman.

Unlike more parochial British thriller writers, Carver paints on a massive canvas, and the various locales are conjured with great vividness. India Kane may break no new ground as a heroine, but she is a solid conduit for the reader, and there's no gainsaying that Black Tide is an exhilarating read.