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Bleak Water
Disturbing, atmospheric suspense novel from the author of Only Darkness, Silent Playgrounds and Night Angels:
‘Dark, edgy and compelling’ The Times
Beyond the new city centre developments, the old Sheffield canal is overgrown, run-down and deserted. Signs of regeneration creep along its towpaths, including a small, innovative gallery housed in one of the warehouses. But between the renovations it’s a dark and lonely place – the perfect site for an exhibition reworking Brueghel’s The Triumph of Death.
For Elisa Eliot, the curator, the chance to show well-known artist Daniel Flynn’s work at the gallery is a coup. But when a young woman’s body is found in the canal, Flynn’s nightmare images begin to spill out into the real world. Still affected by the murder of her friend’s daughter four years earlier, Eliza is drawn deep into the violence that seems to surround the gallery. Is this the work of a psychopath or is there a link between present horrors and the tragedy of four years before?
‘Dark, edgy and compelling’ The Times
Beyond the new city centre developments, the old Sheffield canal is overgrown, run-down and deserted. Signs of regeneration creep along its towpaths, including a small, innovative gallery housed in one of the warehouses. But between the renovations it’s a dark and lonely place – the perfect site for an exhibition reworking Brueghel’s The Triumph of Death.
For Elisa Eliot, the curator, the chance to show well-known artist Daniel Flynn’s work at the gallery is a coup. But when a young woman’s body is found in the canal, Flynn’s nightmare images begin to spill out into the real world. Still affected by the murder of her friend’s daughter four years earlier, Eliza is drawn deep into the violence that seems to surround the gallery. Is this the work of a psychopath or is there a link between present horrors and the tragedy of four years before?
368 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 2003
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44 people want to read
About the author
Danuta Reah
42 books15 followersDanuta Reah, who also writes under the name Carla Banks, was born in South Yorkshire. She comes from an academic family but opted out of formal education at the age of 16. She worked in a variety of jobs from barmaid to laboratory assistant, in a variety of locations, including a brief spell in Kingston, Jamaica. "I didn't plan my working life that way, but it was probably the best apprenticeship a writer could have."
She always wanted to write. Telling stories was an important part of her childhood. "Every child needs a skill in the playground - it's a survival thing. Mine was telling ghost stories. I got thrown out of the needlework class when I was nine because the needlework teacher couldn't cope with the ghoulish tales I used to entertain the class with."
She went to university as a mature student and then went on to teach adults in Further and Higher Education. She taught linguistics and creative writing, and in the course of this, refined her own writing style. "I didn't find my voice until I started writing crime. My first novel was based on a rather creepy encounter I had on an empty station platform one evening - it's a story I often tell when I do author events, but beware: it needs bright lights and a crowd."
She published her first novel in 1999, Only Darkness, the rights to which have been purchased by Escazal Films. Her novels have been published internationally: USA, Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Finland, Czech Republic.
Crime - or at least dissent - runs in the family. Her father was a refugee from Stalin's Belarus; one of her ancestors, John Woodcock, was hung, drawn and quartered in 1646 for his religious beliefs.
She is married and lives in South Yorkshire with her artist husband - and occasionally she draws cartoons about the writer's life!
Danuta Reah is past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association. She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and literary festivals, and has appeared on radio and television. For several years she was a member of the writers group LadyKillers, with Leslie Horton, Priscilla Masters and Zoe Sharp. LadyKillers did talks and readings around the country. The group disbanded when pressure of work made it difficult for them to get together, but they remain good friends and would consider appearing again.
She always wanted to write. Telling stories was an important part of her childhood. "Every child needs a skill in the playground - it's a survival thing. Mine was telling ghost stories. I got thrown out of the needlework class when I was nine because the needlework teacher couldn't cope with the ghoulish tales I used to entertain the class with."
She went to university as a mature student and then went on to teach adults in Further and Higher Education. She taught linguistics and creative writing, and in the course of this, refined her own writing style. "I didn't find my voice until I started writing crime. My first novel was based on a rather creepy encounter I had on an empty station platform one evening - it's a story I often tell when I do author events, but beware: it needs bright lights and a crowd."
She published her first novel in 1999, Only Darkness, the rights to which have been purchased by Escazal Films. Her novels have been published internationally: USA, Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Finland, Czech Republic.
Crime - or at least dissent - runs in the family. Her father was a refugee from Stalin's Belarus; one of her ancestors, John Woodcock, was hung, drawn and quartered in 1646 for his religious beliefs.
She is married and lives in South Yorkshire with her artist husband - and occasionally she draws cartoons about the writer's life!
Danuta Reah is past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association. She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and literary festivals, and has appeared on radio and television. For several years she was a member of the writers group LadyKillers, with Leslie Horton, Priscilla Masters and Zoe Sharp. LadyKillers did talks and readings around the country. The group disbanded when pressure of work made it difficult for them to get together, but they remain good friends and would consider appearing again.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 11, 2022
Dödvatten
March 15, 2013
Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s utterly magnificent sixteenth-century painting “Triumph of Death” sets the stage for Danuta Reah’s novel “Bleak Water”. Eliza Eliot is the curator of a gallery in Sheffield, U.K., where an exhibition of gruesome graphics work inspired by Bruegel’s masterpiece and entitled “The Triumph of Death” is about to open. Eliza is an ex-lover of the artist, Daniel Flynn, whom she met the year before, at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The “art” plot is linked to events from four years before, when a young girl was found murdered. Another thread involves a thirteen year old girl, Kerry, her half-sister, and her father, who are all connected to that murder. There is also a police procedural thread, focusing on DCI Roy Farnham and DC Tina Barraclough investigating the murder of a young woman who lived in the building where the gallery is located, on the Sheffield Canal. All the bad, evil things going on in the plot are linked to the Canal (hence the title of the novel).
Ms. Reah handles the complex plot quite well, until the ending, which I find hopelessly contrived. It is supposed to tie all loose ends of the plot, but it does it at the expense of plausibility. The only other strength of the novel is that every single character is imperfect in some way; they all have something to be ashamed of, as we all do.
The atmosphere of the novel is dark, oppressive, and foreboding. A lot of the action happens at night, when people cannot hear and see clearly, and when one’s sense of safety is compromised and the feeling of danger heightened. The book is full of descriptions of lying awake and scared at night, hearing strange sounds, echoes, steps in the darkness, hushed whispers, and creaking floors. “Chills creep down the spine”, indistinct mumbles ooze from behind the walls, door handles suddenly turn, etc. I find these literary devices cheap, pretentious, and ineffective.
The major weakness of “Bleak Water” lies somewhere else, though. The novel tries to make a connection between death as portrayed by Bruegel and evil. There is no evil in “Triumph of Death”. As terrifying and haunting as it is, the painting is quite matter-of-fact. It clearly shows that death comes for everybody; it comes for kings, peasants, and beggars, and it may come at any time, when we are eating, sleeping, or making love. An artist character in the novel calls the Brueghel’s picture a “fifteenth-century video nasty”. Well, it is true only for people who do not get the picture’s main message – death is a part of the natural order of things. It is life that is connected to evil.
If you want to see a real work of art based on a Bruegel’s picture, see Lech Majewski’s 2011 movie “The Mill and the Cross”.
Two stars.
Ms. Reah handles the complex plot quite well, until the ending, which I find hopelessly contrived. It is supposed to tie all loose ends of the plot, but it does it at the expense of plausibility. The only other strength of the novel is that every single character is imperfect in some way; they all have something to be ashamed of, as we all do.
The atmosphere of the novel is dark, oppressive, and foreboding. A lot of the action happens at night, when people cannot hear and see clearly, and when one’s sense of safety is compromised and the feeling of danger heightened. The book is full of descriptions of lying awake and scared at night, hearing strange sounds, echoes, steps in the darkness, hushed whispers, and creaking floors. “Chills creep down the spine”, indistinct mumbles ooze from behind the walls, door handles suddenly turn, etc. I find these literary devices cheap, pretentious, and ineffective.
The major weakness of “Bleak Water” lies somewhere else, though. The novel tries to make a connection between death as portrayed by Bruegel and evil. There is no evil in “Triumph of Death”. As terrifying and haunting as it is, the painting is quite matter-of-fact. It clearly shows that death comes for everybody; it comes for kings, peasants, and beggars, and it may come at any time, when we are eating, sleeping, or making love. An artist character in the novel calls the Brueghel’s picture a “fifteenth-century video nasty”. Well, it is true only for people who do not get the picture’s main message – death is a part of the natural order of things. It is life that is connected to evil.
If you want to see a real work of art based on a Bruegel’s picture, see Lech Majewski’s 2011 movie “The Mill and the Cross”.
Two stars.
August 25, 2018
This is a much more polished novel than the other Danuta Reah books I have reviewed on my blog on Sheffield novels: https://stevek1889.blogspot.com/2014/... . The plot is well worked and the police procedure on the whole convincing; though I am sure these fictional coppers are more prone to jumping into bed with suspects and witnesses than they ever would be in real life!
It has all the elements that fans of crime fiction expect: gruesome murder, a detective with psychological flaws and a past (Tina Barraclough, from other Reah novels), fake leads and suspense. At one point in the novel a character is in extreme peril and a murderer is moving around in the corridor outside as she struggles with the door; this was when the door to the room I was in opened with a loud clunk and I didn't half jump!
Personally, I am not a massive fan of genre fiction – it seems like fiction to a formula. I'd prefer not to read novels that mimic other novels. And I don't particularly set out with a desire to read about sadistic killings. This novel is, however, worth a read – especially if you do like crime fiction and suspense. The cover image (of the edition I read) and the title are a bit rubbish, and don’t much relate to the theme. Something like The Art of Death and an eerie image of the Sheffield and Tinsley canal might have been better.
Another small flaw is that Reah struggles at times to find ways to tell all the back-story – and there is quite a bit that the reader needs to know. This is a dilemma for a writer. Do you use the supposedly outmoded “omniscient narrator” approach – the disembodied voice of the author telling you what happened in the past, or do you try to get the characters to reveal it? Reah uses two approaches: simple flashbacks with a heading, in this case “Madrid,” or through a slightly artificial “this reminded her of the day that...” kind of way – mostly it is done reasonably successfully, but once or twice comes across as a bit forced.
It has all the elements that fans of crime fiction expect: gruesome murder, a detective with psychological flaws and a past (Tina Barraclough, from other Reah novels), fake leads and suspense. At one point in the novel a character is in extreme peril and a murderer is moving around in the corridor outside as she struggles with the door; this was when the door to the room I was in opened with a loud clunk and I didn't half jump!
Personally, I am not a massive fan of genre fiction – it seems like fiction to a formula. I'd prefer not to read novels that mimic other novels. And I don't particularly set out with a desire to read about sadistic killings. This novel is, however, worth a read – especially if you do like crime fiction and suspense. The cover image (of the edition I read) and the title are a bit rubbish, and don’t much relate to the theme. Something like The Art of Death and an eerie image of the Sheffield and Tinsley canal might have been better.
Another small flaw is that Reah struggles at times to find ways to tell all the back-story – and there is quite a bit that the reader needs to know. This is a dilemma for a writer. Do you use the supposedly outmoded “omniscient narrator” approach – the disembodied voice of the author telling you what happened in the past, or do you try to get the characters to reveal it? Reah uses two approaches: simple flashbacks with a heading, in this case “Madrid,” or through a slightly artificial “this reminded her of the day that...” kind of way – mostly it is done reasonably successfully, but once or twice comes across as a bit forced.
January 26, 2024
Eliza Eliot, creator of a small innovative gallery has pulled off a significant coup with a chance to exhibit The Triumph of Death, the work of a well-known artist Daniel Flynn.
Both the gallery and Eliza’s flat are housed in one of the old warehouses beyond the expensive and redeveloped canal basin that seemed to be the demarcation line between new Sheffield and old Sheffield. In this dark and lonely area, the body of a young woman is found just 24 hours after Eliza had attended the funeral of her friend Maggie Chapaman, whose nine-year-old daughter, Ellie was found murdered on almost the same spot four years earlier,
Whilst Eliza is the main narrator, giving insight into the artist Danial Flynn by flashbacks to her time in Madrid, and her friendship with Maggie as she undertakes to clear her friend’s belongings from her rented flat where she discovers the long campaign waged by Maggie against her child’s killer, who is shortly to be released from prison. We also see another side of the story from the point of view of Kerry Fraser, friend of Ellie, and daughter of Mark Fraser, Ellie’s killer.
DC Tina Barraclough who is the investigating officer is fighting her own demons, and it appears fighting a loosing battle, which is slowly coming to the attention of her superior Roy Farnham, who is in charge of the murder hunt.
The story has many interesting characters, moody Jonathan Massey, the gallery director, Cara the single mother, and stroppy gallery assistant Mel Young. As the story unfolds the complexity of their lives in relation to each other is skilfully woven into a fascinating mystery, as is the feeling of menace which surrounds the gallery, but overriding everything is the brooding presence of the canal.
Atmospheric and rich in characters. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
Both the gallery and Eliza’s flat are housed in one of the old warehouses beyond the expensive and redeveloped canal basin that seemed to be the demarcation line between new Sheffield and old Sheffield. In this dark and lonely area, the body of a young woman is found just 24 hours after Eliza had attended the funeral of her friend Maggie Chapaman, whose nine-year-old daughter, Ellie was found murdered on almost the same spot four years earlier,
Whilst Eliza is the main narrator, giving insight into the artist Danial Flynn by flashbacks to her time in Madrid, and her friendship with Maggie as she undertakes to clear her friend’s belongings from her rented flat where she discovers the long campaign waged by Maggie against her child’s killer, who is shortly to be released from prison. We also see another side of the story from the point of view of Kerry Fraser, friend of Ellie, and daughter of Mark Fraser, Ellie’s killer.
DC Tina Barraclough who is the investigating officer is fighting her own demons, and it appears fighting a loosing battle, which is slowly coming to the attention of her superior Roy Farnham, who is in charge of the murder hunt.
The story has many interesting characters, moody Jonathan Massey, the gallery director, Cara the single mother, and stroppy gallery assistant Mel Young. As the story unfolds the complexity of their lives in relation to each other is skilfully woven into a fascinating mystery, as is the feeling of menace which surrounds the gallery, but overriding everything is the brooding presence of the canal.
Atmospheric and rich in characters. Highly recommended.
-----
Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
June 22, 2019
Very good. Keeps you guessing till the end. Highly recommended.
July 27, 2008
Eliza is a gallery curator, preparing the final touches on an exhibition she's hosting of a former lover's work, "The Triumph of Death". The exhibition, when it opens, is somewhat overshadowed by the body of a woman, found in the nearby canal. As the police investigation commences, Eliza becomes chilled by the strange parallels between the body in the canal, the death of her friend's daughter several years before, and even with the exhibition itself.
This was an excellent and creepy mystery - almost all the characters have secrets to hide, and most of them aren't terribly nice. I really liked Eliza's reflections on the artwork, and thought that all the relationships in the book were handed very well - there are no too-easy happy endings here.
This was an excellent and creepy mystery - almost all the characters have secrets to hide, and most of them aren't terribly nice. I really liked Eliza's reflections on the artwork, and thought that all the relationships in the book were handed very well - there are no too-easy happy endings here.
October 17, 2012
I love this book. It is so atmospheric, scary, realistic. The denouement of a thriller is always tricky territory, and I'm not sure I really believed it, but the writing is superb, the characters utterly real.
December 29, 2016
pitkäveteinen ja sekava
August 8, 2011
Excellent murder mystery story set in present day Sheffield. Would read some more of hers.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews