The Lines

DS Liam Kilshaw, Book 1

By: Matt Brolly

Narrated by: Samuel Roukin

Once you cross the wrong lines, there’s no turning back.

For DS Liam Kilshaw, a former marine who almost died on a mission gone wrong, returning to the sea was meant to help combat his PTSD. But when he’s called out with the lifeboat crew off the rugged Cornish coast at night, the dark danger of the waves comes crashing back. The body of a young man is floating in the water, and the zip-tie marks on his wrists show this is no tragic drowning—it’s murder.

It’s not the first suspicious death to shock the tight-knit community: the identical discovery of a young woman with connections to a county lines drugs gang leads Kilshaw to suspect the killings must be linked. But as the brooding Cornish coast and whispered local rumours fold darkly around him, he starts to feel he can’t trust the water or anyone in town.

As the bodies keep coming, he must confront a sinister gangland underworld as well as his own demons—before tragedy strikes even closer to home.

©2025 by Matt Brolly. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Enjoyable Mystery

Great read lots of surprises in this twisted plot. I enjoyed the characters in the development. I'm looking forward to the next book.

Very good

I would probably give this a 4.5. I like Matt Brolly's series with Louise Blackwell better, but this was still good and I will definitely listen to the next book in this series. I didn't fancy the narrator so much in the audio book. He was good, but he didn't have much inflection or charisma. I don't feel that the main character in this book has quite as much depth as some other protagonists, but at least he seems to be morally and ethically above board, which are refreshingly admirable qualities.