The dark tide by Andrew Gross

The Romanian publishing house Paralela 45 has gathered, in the “Bestseller” collection, a lot of books by successful authors from abroad, authors that many Romanians haven’t heard of. One of these books is Andrew Gross’ “The dark tide”. With a macabre cover showing a man pushed away from the stairs in the blast of an explosion, with an equivocal title that doesn’t give any clue on what the book might be about, but with a very interesting description on the fourth cover and a shiny yellow border saying “Bestseller” on the first cover, the book seems interesting enough at least for being browsed.

The browsing extends to buying the book, decision that in the end turns out to be quite inspired: the lecture was definitely worth it. “The dark tide” is written in a dynamic and timely manner, with no useless descriptions or empty metaphors. The whole novel is pure action going on straight ahead, with no interruptions.

The book begins with an explosion. The Grand Central Station is the target of a supposed terrorist attack, and the explosion in the 9.30 A.M train automatically vanishes hundreds of persons who were heading towards their workplaces. Charles Friedman, insurance agent, was supposed to be in that train at the fatal hour, but his name is not to be found on the list with the corpses of the identified persons. However, after a few days of waiting with no sign from him, his family concludes that Charles died whether during the explosion or soon after it. After a while, Karen Friedman, his widow, pulls herself together and decides to watch the documentary on the terrorist attack in Grand Central, willing to see the disturbing scenes from the last few moments of hundreds. At a certain point she sees a man looking a lot like Charles, trying to escape from the cameras and make his way through the crowd. She is soon positive with the fact that the man is actually her husband, therefore she decides to find out more about why and where did he go after escaping the explosion.

Besides her rookie investigation, Ty Hauck, a NYPD detective, is given a murder case that took place in the same day with the explosion, somewhere at the periphery. Karen and Ty’s roads reach a crossroad and that is the moment when they start finding a lot of common details. Stuck in the middle of the stories, the two discover a huge conspiracy planned by people that Karen used to trust. A good plan, a fraud worth millions of dollars and a lot of blood spilled in order to cover any marks of the harm done.

The novel is well structured from the beginning to the end, and every new element brings an unexpected surprise. The countless twists and the new characters’ discoveries manage to keep the reader at bay.