Mersea Island. Over 2,500 acres of farmland, marshland, and several caravan parks. Usually, it is home to 7,000 people. But for the August Bank Holiday weekend, it is home to two more residents: DS Tomek Bowen and his daughter, Kasia, looking to make the most of the end of the school holidays, the end of summer, and the end of Tomek’s extended time away from work.

But when a body is discovered tethered to a buoy one morning, Tomek is pulled into the murky world of murder and death sooner than anticipated. Cut off from his team and the rest of the police force, Tomek is forced to put his years of experience into practice. But as the tide comes closer, severing connection with the outside world, can he catch the killer before they strike again?

Death’s Breath is the fantastic eighth book in the DS Tomek Bowen Essex Murder Mystery series by Jack Probyn. If you love fast-paced British police procedurals filled with memorable characters, mind-bending twists that will keep you guessing, and oodles of black humor, you'll love this series. Fans of JD Kirk, Mark Billingham, and JM Dalgliesh can't put this book down.

THE SETTING: Mersea Island, a seemingly tranquil retreat off the Essex coast, hides a web of secrets beneath its picturesque surface. As the tide rolls in, it reveals crumbling boathouses and rusting fishing gear, relics of a once-thriving community now marred by evidence of crime. Narrow lanes wind through quaint cottages, where the laughter of children is overshadowed by the ominous presence of a shadowy figure lurking in the dusk. Here, amid the charm and isolation, the island’s true nature waits, ready to ensnare the unwary.