The Sea Serpent

Ghost actors and a long-ago war-time disaster lend the mystery and suspense to this fairly standard first novel. Actressy Helena is unwillingly manoeuvred into spending time looking after a sombre little boy in an oddly dull coastal village. Things suitably improve when she is offered a part in a play. But then the oddity of the other actors begins to emerge and the knowledge of things past that Helena unearths adds to her unease and uncertainty about what she has got into. The pace is steady and the characters believable. I just wish the clues to the mystery hadn't been so obvious to all but Helena!