The girl beneath the sea A thriller

This decent series launch from Edgar finalist Mayne (the Naturalist series) introduces Sloan McPherson, a diver employed by the Lauderdale Shores PD to recover corpses and evidence from Florida waters. When 23-year-old Stacy Miller is garroted and dumped in a canal, the off-duty Sloan, who was in the canal at the time and oblivious to the crime, becomes a suspect. Loose ties to the victim, plus a reputation blemished by her outlaw uncle, Karl McPherson, a drug smuggler serving a three-year prison sentence for a parole violation, ensure that local police and the DEA keep her under surveillance. As Sloan investigates the murder, she's aided by her treasure hunter father and the dogged, if shady, DEA agent responsible for Karl's arrest. Targeted by vicious killers, Sloan becomes entangled in a dangerous sunken treasure hunt involving a drug cartel, a crooked lawyer, and renegade intelligence operatives. Distinctive characters and a genuinely thrilling finale compensate for contrived and improbable situations. Readers will look forward to Sloan's further adventures. Agent: Erica Silverman, Trident Media Group. (May)

Archaeology PhD student Sloan McPherson grew up in an infamous family of treasure-hunting scavengers and works part-time as a diver for Lauderdale Shores police department. While she's on a solo dive for her academic work, the body of a murdered woman is dumped into the ocean on top of her. Sloan quickly learns that she knows the victim and becomes both a suspect and a target of the killer, who stole her ID from the site. She eventually partners with George Solar, the potentially crooked cop who once jailed her uncle, to unravel a conspiracy. Mayne writes with a clipped narrative style that gives the story rapid-fire propulsion, and he populates the narrative with a rogue's gallery of engaging characters as Sloan battles extragovernmental operatives, drug cartels, and shady local businessmen along with sharks, alligators, and tropical storms. The main partnership between Sloan and the crusty cop has real verve and will provide excellent material for future entries. VERDICT Edgar-nominated Mayne ("Jessica Blackwood" series; Dark Pattern) introduces a winning new series with a complicated female protagonist that combines police procedural with adventure story and mixes the styles of Lee Child and Clive Cussler.--Jon Jeffryes, Grand Valley State University, MI