Dead Water

By Simon Ings

A conspiracy that dates from World War Two starts to unravel in the aftermath of an act of piracy: a genre-defying thriller from a critically acclaimed British author.

Off the coast of Sri Lanka, a tramp steamer is seized by pirates. The captain has his wife and son aboard and knows that their survival depends on giving the pirates exactly what they want. But what can they possibly want with his worn-out ship and its cargo of junk?

On the island of Bali a tsunami washes up a rusting container. Inside, the mummified remains of a shipping magnate missing for 30 years and a hand-written journal of his last days locked within his aluminum tomb.

Through the dusty industrial towns of India's Great Trunk Road, a disgraced female detective tracks a criminal syndicate. Her life has been ruined, but she will have her revenge.

In a backstreet Mayfair office, an automated distress signal is picked up on a private satellite network. A ship is missing. A Dead Water ship.

Dead Water is the key to everything. A code name for a covert operation initiated during World War Two. But why is it unravelling now, and what will the consequences be?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corvus
• Release date: Aug 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781848878914

Simon Ings

Simon Ings is the author of eight previous novels and two works of non-fiction, including the Baillie Gifford longlisted Stalin and the Scientists. His debut novel Hot Head was widely acclaimed. He is the arts editor of New Scientist magazine and splits his time between a sweltering penthouse in Dubai (not his) and possibly the coldest flat in London. simonings.com @simonings

Reviews for Dead Water

[liehtzu_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a ride?! Part travelogue, part history of arctic exploration, part mystical surrealism, part industrial espionage, part social commentary - and that doesn't even approach a disquietingly in-depth knowledge of container shipping. Should't work, couldn't work - yet it does. Great pace (in fact a bit hard to follow sometimes) with characters I grew very attached to (spoiler, don't get too attached to anyone) all hidden inside a credible (to mind) plot.