When a client asks Slim Hardy to tail her husband who she suspects is having an affair when he disappears every Friday afternoon, he finds that all the husband does is stand on a deserted local beach and read out loud. However, it appears that that stretch of beach is reputed to be haunted by a girl whose body was found there, and there have been other deaths since.

The story was creepy and atmospheric on the whole but although it was supposed to be set in Lancashire, transatlantic elements, such as the town having a police chief, kept pulling me out of the story. ( )

What a unique story, and for it life of me I can't believe that Slim stayed sober enough to solve what the police thought were "accidental" deaths! Slim turned to PI after he was discharged from the service with a dishonorable qualification and now he hated than he had answered Emma Douglass's call to learn if her husband was cheating on her. With twists, turns, and a heavy hangover. it appears that Slim Hardy solved a cold case even when he was drunk!

Mysterious and evocative.
I seem to be on a run of sea oriented books lately, which is perfect as I spent today bobbing about on a boat in decidedly dodgy, unpredictable weather. I'm not good on boats, so I had my audiobook playing to distract myself - none other than The Man by the Sea. It wasn't difficult to picture the steep rugged cliffs and wild bays, as I bobbed about under dark skies.

Although this is only 214 pages, or 4hrs, 52 mins on audio, I didn't feel short-changed. It was long enough to get totally involved with PI Slim and his client Emma, and her concerns that her husband has been seeing another woman. Emma's husband, Ted, is leaving work early every Friday and she wants to know why.
Slim discovers that Ted is spending his Friday afternoons at the foot of the cliffs of Cramer Cove on the Lancashire coast, reading aloud from an old book. As his investigations proceed, Slim suspects that there may be a connection between Ted's behaviour and several unexplained deaths that have occurred in the area. He even starts to consider the possibility of a ghost in their midst.

There are a lot of possibilities woven into this mystery and some fabulous descriptions of the area around the cliffs. I loved the supernatural element of the narrative, which makes everyone second-guess themselves. Slim receives help from an elderly police officer who had been involved in the earlier deaths and I think he was probably my favourite character. Unlike other reviewers, I wasn't such a fan of Slim; his excessive drinking struck me as rather cliche for a struggling PA.

Excellent narration by Kevin E Green, who manages both male and female voices effortlessly and I am looking forward to The Clockmaker's Secret, the second book in the Slim Hardy Mystery series, read by the same narrator. ( )