We all find diving thrilling, right? So it follows that diving should be a great theme for a thriller - for a novel you can enjoy reading on a trip, and one with which you can identify.
I've become fascinated, if that's the word, by the various attempts of writers to come up with the definitive diving novel.
I've read quite a few now, mainly clunkers, with only Patrick Woodrow's Double Cross passing the test as a page-turner.
But now there's a new author on the block, also British, and on the evidence of Vertical Descent, Steve Turley has a pretty good idea of what is required from diving fiction.
His book is quite a big read at 400-plus closely written pages, and it's executed in that style that leaves few details to the imagination. However, it's authoritative, intelligent and reflects Turley's solid grounding as a technical diver and instructor, which makes the diving scenes convincing.
The same can't always be said of the dialogue, often the undoing of such books, but though sometimes stilted it doesn't interfere with the flow. The pace and style is maintained through to the end, and that is unusual.
I admit that when I first read on the back cover that the plot would revolve around Nazi treasure carried aboard a wrecked U-boat (that old chestnut!) I almost faltered in my task, but my persistence was repaid.
(By the way, note to publisher: back-cover blurbs are meant just to titillate - why give
away key events that happen towards the end of the book?)
I haven't dived off Corsica, but if the island has half as much varied and voluminous marine life and interesting wrecks as Turley suggests, I should probably rectify that at the earliest opportunity.
Steve Weinman
CheckPoint Press
ISBN: 9781906628024
Softback, 410pp, £9.95
