Book Reviews and More: Dark Tide - Jon Mayhew and Mark Penman

Tuesday, 12 October 2021

Dark Tide - Jon Mayhew and Mark Penman - Paper Cuts II

Dark Tides

Paper Cuts II

Jon Mayhew

aka J.E. Mayhew

Mark Penman (Illustrator)

Badger Publishing

ISBN 9781788373791

I first encountered Jon Mayhew’s works through his adult fiction, a mystery series under the name J.E. Mayhew. I love his writing and have been tracking them all down and reading them. I found that he had a lot of Teen and Young Adult books under this name. And that he has another awesome series under the pen name of Edwin Torr. This is one of 4 that Mayhew wrote for Badger Publishing. It is by far the darkest and most haunted of the three I have read so far. The description of the book is:

“Adam Tiller visits Dark Cove every year. Only the legend of an evil mermaid who haunts the bay makes this sleepy fishing village interesting. Adam sets out to make a hoax video of her. But other forces are at work in the village and the mermaid might be the least of Adam’s problems. After all, she’s just a legend, and legends aren’t real. Are they?"

Adam’s trek to the small village his parents are from is not exactly where he wants to be. In fact, it appears he would almost rather be anywhere else. But the legend of the local mermaid has captured his attention. And he is in for more than one surprise.

This is a great little read especially for reluctant readers. It will grab their attention and keep them hooked. As mentioned, it is one of four by Mayhew for Badger Learning. I can really appreciate the fact that this is available in print, or in book packs for the classroom. Also, that there are book packs of PDF’s available for learning purposes. I just wish more of the books from Badger were available as traditional eBooks for those of us who are not students, or not in the UK, as many of them are hard to track down in North America, and eBooks would be a great option.

This is another one that I am thankful to have tracked down from the publisher. I have one other by Mayhew from Badger on my reading pile then will look at tracking down some of their other titles. This is a story will have readers of all ages on the edge of their seats. There are several excellent illustrations from Mark Penman. Another excellent story from Mayhew!

Books as J.E. Mayhew:

DCI William Blake Series:

0.5 Tyger Tyger

1.0 A Poison Tree

2.0 Fearful Symmetry

3.0 The Bones of the Dead

4.0 Cruelty Has A Human Heart

5.0 All the Lies

6.0 Death's Cold Hand

7.0 No Time For Sorrow

8.0 Dark Visions of Torment

…