Blog Tour: The Man in the Water by David Burton (Finally)



The Man in the Water
Author: David Burton
Publisher: UQP
Release date: October 2019
Pages: 256 pages
R.R.P: $19.95



On the first day of year 10, Shaun sees a dead body.

When Sean finds a body floating in the lake of a quiet mining town in outback Queensland, he immediately reported to the police. But when he returns to the site with the constable, the body is gone.

Determined to reveal the truth, Sean and his friend, will, open their own investigation. But what they discover is far more sinister than expected, and reveals are darkness below the surface of the small town.

My Review
Thoughts on the book: The Man in the Water is the new novel from award winning author David Burton. On the first day of year 10 Shaun has a shocking of the day and leave school early and goes to the local lake. There he sees a body floating in the water and when he goes to the local police station to report it he's made wait and then eventually they go back to the lake where the body seems to have disappeared. The policeman believes that he is making it up and doesn't take any more interest in it. Shaun decides that he's going to investigate with his friend will and they go back to the lake and discover a pair of boots sitting neatly under a tree. The two investigate who these boots may belong to and when a local boy goes missing they believe that it could possibly be his boots that they have found and that he has in fact been murdered. Their investigation heats up quickly from there and finally people start to take notice of what Shaun is actually saying. But when he tells a white lie to get his friend to help and it's discovered that that's not the case people believe that he is just doing this for attention and that it has something to do with the disturbing circumstances surrounding his own father's death. But when the body that he saw turns up in the middle of town he knows he is on the right track and will do anything to find out what happened. When he discovers critical evidence will anyone believe him and will he be able to solve this murder before the police?

A message thank you to AusYa Bloggers and UQP for allowing me to be a part of this amazing blog tour  for The Man in the Water by David Burton. Once again this was another post that I believed I had posted but it hadn’t actually gone through so I’m so sorry for that. This mystery Whodunnit is written beautifully and just flows so easily and is a fabulously quick read that has so many twists and turns you won't know which way is up. About halfway through I thought I knew what had happened to the body but I was so shocked when I learnt what actually happened. 

The book does tackle some hard issues such as grief, living in a small rural town, mental health, the hardships placed on young people and how hard it is in the mining industry. But in saying that David Burton has also done an amazing job of portraying a teenage boy and the things they can get up to and you can't help but want to reach into the pages and give Shaun a cuddle and tell him that everything will be ok and that he is not alone in the world. I can't wait to see more from David Burton in the future.

Rating: 4/5

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