Slack Water
(2026)(The third book in the DI Cat MacNeil Hebridean Mysteries series)
A novel by Phillip Strang
Slack water. A calm loch. A diver goes down and doesn’t come back.
Dougie MacMillan — thirty‑four, husband, father — was working cage four on the turn of the tide. Twenty‑two minutes of CPR couldn’t save him. The crew swear it was a simple foul. A tragic accident. The sea doing what the sea does.
DI Cat MacNeil doesn’t buy it.
She’s been back on South Uist for three years, policing the island she promised she’d never return to. She knows the loch, the wages it provides, and the people who depend on it.
She also knows who was standing at the gas panel, controlling Dougie’s air.
Her uncle.
The post‑mortem won’t commit to a cause. A compressor ran forty‑three unexplained hours. And under a quarter‑million fish, someone is hiding the truth — the truth Dougie was about to expose.
Cat can chase it. She just can’t chase it and stay on the island.
Slack Water is the third Cat MacNeil Hebridean Mystery: a tense, atmospheric crime novel about family loyalties, island secrets, and the cost of telling the truth.
Genre: Mystery
Dougie MacMillan — thirty‑four, husband, father — was working cage four on the turn of the tide. Twenty‑two minutes of CPR couldn’t save him. The crew swear it was a simple foul. A tragic accident. The sea doing what the sea does.
DI Cat MacNeil doesn’t buy it.
She’s been back on South Uist for three years, policing the island she promised she’d never return to. She knows the loch, the wages it provides, and the people who depend on it.
She also knows who was standing at the gas panel, controlling Dougie’s air.
Her uncle.
The post‑mortem won’t commit to a cause. A compressor ran forty‑three unexplained hours. And under a quarter‑million fish, someone is hiding the truth — the truth Dougie was about to expose.
Cat can chase it. She just can’t chase it and stay on the island.
Slack Water is the third Cat MacNeil Hebridean Mystery: a tense, atmospheric crime novel about family loyalties, island secrets, and the cost of telling the truth.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Phillip Strang's Slack Water