This is not a fast-action thriller. The tension builds through evidence, interviews, and observation. The sea and tides are central to the investigation.
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Razor Tide
The Lantern Coast series · Book 1
Ten years ago, a night rescue off the Breton island of Kernaez went wrong.
Ten years ago, a night rescue off the Breton island of Kernaez went wrong. A boat sank. A boy never came home. Lieutenant Maël Larralde left with a shattered shoulder and a career held together by paperwork and distance. Now the Maritime Gendarmerie has sent him back — officially to audit coastal safety, unofficially because no one else wants the posting. On his first morning, a fisherman's body is pulled from a razor-edged inlet on a tide that should not have killed him. The island shrugs. The sea takes who it wants. When a second man turns up dead in the marshes, Maël traces a pattern no one is willing to see: smuggling routes through unlit channels, debts papered over by the fishing co-operative, and a web of unofficial lights that have guided boats to profit — and to grief — for years. The local gendarme wants a clean file. The co-op wants silence. The doctor who once kissed Maël in the dark by the slipway wants the truth — but not at the cost of the community she holds together. As winter storms close the crossings, Maël must decide how far to push an investigation that could break the island open — or bury itself, along with everyone who trusted him, in the next high tide. Razor Tide is an atmospheric literary thriller set on the Breton coast. First in The Lantern Coast Series.
Available as an eBook and paperback.
$6.99 USDBuy eBook$16.99 USDBuy Paperback
PublicationAvailable
FormatsKindle eBook & Paperback
Publication dateFebruary 18, 2026
Edition1st
Kindle print length376 pages
ISBN978-9190145012
Kindle ASINB0GP32XKBM
LanguageEnglish
ExtentFull-length novel
Paperback pages358 pages
Word count137,200 words
GenreCoastal crime fiction / investigative procedural
SeriesThe Lantern Coast series
Book in seriesBook 1
Story scopeBook one in The Lantern Coast series
ToneControlled, tense, unsentimental, quietly relentless
PublisherUTP House
Procedural investigations, small-community crime, maritime settings, and stories where conclusions are earned through detail rather than revelation.
Depictions of death by drowning, discussions of violence, and systemic negligence.
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Maël turned to him. “If I write this,” he said, “and if you testify, you know it may change how people look at you. Men who came to your loft, who trusted you with their birds and their secrets…” “Some will hate me,” Gwilherm said. “Some already do, they just wrap it in jokes. Some will say nothing and bring their birds anyway. I have no control over that. I do have control over whether I die with this staying between my ears.” Maël nodded slowly. “I can take a formal statement,” he said. “But I’d rather the first version be for me alone. So I understand it properly. Then we can repeat it with Roche, with a recorder, with the magistrate’s rules. Are you all right with that?” “I asked you here,” Gwilherm said. “I’m not about to get shy now.” “All right,” Maël said. He reached into his jacket, pulled out his notebook and a pen. The gesture was familiar; Gwilherm had seen it a dozen times on quays, in kitchens, in the clinic corridor. It meant things were about to be pinned down. “Start with where you were and when,” Maël said. “On the Avel Mor night. Then we’ll go through the lights, the other boat, and what you’ve seen since.” “You’ll write it in that neat little script?” Gwilherm asked. “I will,” Maël said.
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Audio sample in preparationComplete title informationRazor Tide
A coastal audit that turns into a murder investigation.
Ten years ago, Maël Larralde left the island of Kernanez with a shattered shoulder and the taste of failure in his mouth. A night rescue went wrong; a boat went down; a boy he promised to find never came home.
Now Maël is back with the Maritime Gendarmerie, supposed to be auditing coastal procedures and keeping his head down. Instead, a fisherman’s body is dragged out of a razor-edged inlet on a calm tide that should not have killed him. The island shrugs—the sea takes who it wants.
When a second man turns up dead on the cliffs, Maël sees a pattern no one wants him to trace: smugglers, debts, and an old tragedy everyone agreed to forget.
As storms close in, Maël must choose who to protect: his career, the woman he once loved and kissed in the dark by the slipway, or the truth he came back to drown.
Story
Maël turned to him. “If I write this,” he said, “and if you testify, you know it may change how people look at you. Men who came to your loft, who trusted you with their birds and their secrets…” “Some will hate me,” Gwilherm said. “Some already do, they just wrap it in jokes. Some will say nothing and bring their birds anyway. I have no control over that. I do have control over whether I die with this staying between my ears.” Maël nodded slowly. “I can take a formal statement,” he said. “But I’d rather the first version be for me alone. So I understand it properly. Then we can repeat it with Roche, with a recorder, with the magistrate’s rules. Are you all right with that?” “I asked you here,” Gwilherm said. “I’m not about to get shy now.” “All right,” Maël said. He reached into his jacket, pulled out his notebook and a pen. The gesture was familiar; Gwilherm had seen it a dozen times on quays, in kitchens, in the clinic corridor. It meant things were about to be pinned down. “Start with where you were and when,” Maël said. “On the Avel Mor night. Then we’ll go through the lights, the other boat, and what you’ve seen since.” “You’ll write it in that neat little script?” Gwilherm asked. “I will,” Maël said.
$6.99 USDBuy eBook$16.99 USDBuy Paperback
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