The Things you find in Rockpools: A thriller

After reading The Wave at Hanging Rock I couldn't wait for Dunnett's latest book to come out. It didn't disappoint. Much of the story is seen through the eyes of a very bright eleven year old boy who doesn't always understand what he is seeing. This keeps the edge sharp. The tension builds throughout the book until the last third when I just couldn't put it down. I hope Gregg Dunnett is working hard on his next novel!

The Things You Find in Rockpools is an enjoyable psychological mystery/suspense that is hard to put down. Once I began reading this book I had to finish it to find out the identity of the killer.It is filled with twists and turns that kept this reader engrossed. The characters are well defined with some you will love and others hate. Every worthwhile story needs both types of characters. The main protagonist is Billy. He is only nine years old but commands this story with his intelligence, scientific knowledge and innocence.There is a girl missing in his town and Billy feels compelled to assist the police by doing his own investigation since they are at a stalemate. What he doesn’t realize is his investigation is leading him into more trouble than he ever imagined.There are so many twists and turns making for an enjoyable romp right up until the end. I don’t want to give away any of the clues. If you want to read one of the best psychological mystery/thrillers out there, in my opinion, you need to get a copy right away and enjoy. I look forward to the next thrilling book that this talented author writes.

This is the first book I have read by this Author. It is so good that I will now read his other two. A dorky little kid named Billy tells the story. He and his Dad moved to this little island town when he was a toddler after his Mom died. His dad is The maintenance worker for rental cottages. Billy hopes to be a scientist and even does some rudimentary observations for a biologist at a college.One of the teen daughters of a cottage renter, he met this past summer, has come up missing. Police from all over came in to lend a hand in trying to find her on this little island to no avail.Billy decides he is going to use his observation skills to find clues in hopes he can pass them along to the police and become a hero and get his picture in the paper.He has to keep all this under wraps though because his Dad is real cautious about any spotlight being shone on them.Don’t let my poor review cause you to think this is a rudimentary story about a little kid and his sweet summer adventure. This is a psychological murder mystery with twists and turns. Fast moving. No long boring passages. The author keeps the story on track and provides characters that you like, hate, love.What Billy tells you is true but he doesn’t know the whole story, or does he.? There is a sub story here that is woven throughout the book. Glimpses of Billy’s past that finally come to light in a surprising way.I read it in 2 Days. I think that is a high recommendations of a good read.

I truly enjoyed this book. It took me about a week to get through the first third, but the last two thirds I could not put down and finished in a day, and I'm not usually a fast or terribly committed reader.Billy Wheatley is a wonderful character. He's so relatable and likeable, though he would not think so. The suspense was intense and I kept wavering on who I thought had abducted Olivia and whether she was alive or dead.The most exciting character in the book was the ocean. Living on the Pacific coast, I loved how well this author describes everything about a coastal community, the waves, the rocks and the marine life.

I bought this not realizing that Mr. Dunnett is also the author of one of my new recent favorites, The Wave at Hanging Rock. This story takes place in a small island off the coast of the east coast of the U.S. The first few chapters are narrated by 11 year old Billy, an unusual boy. He seems to prefer the company of adults than his peers; most of his interests aren't even on the radar of other 11 year olds. He is fascinated with marine life among other things and has little 'projects' littered across the island. He lives with his dad in a cottage overlooking the sea. Dad is rather inscrutable, and definitely has secrets. Billy loves him, but also fears him at times.A teenage tourist visiting the island goes missing without a trace, prompting months of help from mainland police, but to no avail. Billy decides that the police don't know what they're doing and that he will try to solve the mystery himself. What he finds sets in motion the rest of the plot. As with The Wave at Hanging Rock, this story goes in places I never expected. I loved the character of Billy; so precocious and logical, but at the same time, a child.

I bought this book on a random whim while I was looking for something new to read. I liked it, the story was intriguing. I liked the perspective of Billy and as detective West was following leads I felt like she was on to something. Overall a pretty solid story I wouldn't hesitate to check out other books by this author.

I really enjoyed the storyline and loved the character of billy. It was interesting to read the book from his perspective the entire time. I just felt like I had to wade through excessive use of profanity. It didn’t add to the character or the story line in anyway ... it was just obnoxious. I felt that it was a feeble effort to try to draw in a younger reader by trying to talk their language. Other than that I really enjoyed the read.

I loved the beginning of this book and getting to know all the characters. The twists that happen are pretty well crafted, however, at the end....we'll let's just say I feel the ending was sloppy and maddening at best. I can't give any spoilers but towards the end when something important is revealed - I threw my book across the room and it took me a few weeks to pick it back up to finish reading it. It was like the laziest introduction to a character/villain, the reasons behind the whole mystery and the poorly executed climax let me down so hard. The author must have gotten called for a lunch meeting and rushed to finish it. :(

So, start reading this book and you could be forgiven for thinking it's a book about an 11 year old kid, for kids initially. Well, it might work as that, but that is definitely NOT what it is. The story starts as an interesting tale about a boy who decides, in his own way, to investigate the disappearance of a girl on the island he lives on. Very nice it is too, it rumbles along at an agreeable pace and you get to know the characters nicely. So far, so good. A half an hour reading before bed is well spent. But, like the best thrillers, things (or people) just really aren't quite what they appear. As the story progresses, so does the pace of the book. That enjoyable half hour that I spent for the first half of the book turned into a marathon reading session for the second half, reading until silly o'clock. It gradually, but surely grabs you and, again like any very good thriller, you can't put it down.What's more, Greg Dunnett is a master story teller. You kind of know when things aren't right with someone or their past, but you can't quite put your finger on it. You just HAVE to keep reading to see things develop, which of course means there's more feelings you have, which means you just HAVE to....you get the picture.I like Mr Dunnetts books. I got this one, with some others for my Kindle and there it sat whilst it waited it's turn. It was the pick of the bunch and that bunch included some awfully famous authors. It draws you in. You are rooting for the boy in question, but there's also other characters that get under your skin.Five stars? Definitely!

This has been the book I've read in the fastest time this year. It opens with the disappearance of a teenage girl on a small American island, and is seen through the eyes of the 11 year old Billy, who lives with his father. The pair do not always see eye to eye; Billy sees himself as a marine biologist, or a detective, rather than a holiday home caretaker and surfer like his father.As the book develops, Billy becomes even more engaging and convincing, and thinks he has solved the case of the missing girl, but the world around him becomes increasingly more complex. I was continually wrong footed as the book got darker and darker, and poor Billy got into more trouble and found himself at greater risk himself.The structure of the book is very clever and we switch from seeing things from Billy’s perspective to that of the police involved in the investigations, especially detectives Jessica West and Oliver Rogers from the mainland, sent to help with the investigations. The reader is often unsure of the truth and our sympathies and loyalties are very much with the main characters of Billy and Jessica. Dunnett’s narrative and dialogue carry the plot along at a fast pace but keeps everything within the realms of possibility. The ending is exciting and revealing and will make you hold your breath. I strongly recommend this excellent book.

I couldn't put this book down. It easily the best in a very long while. It is very well written, with a story that grabs you from the very beginning. All of the characters are very well developed, but I instantly fell in love with the 11 year old Billy and his "scientific projects". The boy fights his way through things that could destroy any adult. I so wish a boy like this existed somewhere in the world. Somehow I believe this would make our world better.The background of the Lorney island is fantastic. I guess Gregg needed some place reasonably confined for the story to work and he did this just brilliantly. I could almost see the places he described - the Littlelea, the Siverlea, the beaches and the caves.And the twist in the story is fabulous. Not the week excuse for a twist you can pretty much see coming from the beginning, but a proper one. Which I couldn't anticipate until pretty late in the story. In short, very well done, Gregg Dunnett.

I had already read The Glass Tower by this author and so thoroughly enjoyed it that I decided to read more of his books. The title of this one intrigued me because it seemed quite odd and I wondered what I was going to discover. Well I have to say that I discovered an extremely brilliant story. It is very cleverly written and is an extremely imaginative plot with plenty going on, which draws you in immediately. The story itself is told from two different angles - with first person narration from the 11-year-old boy, which is remarkably interesting, and a third person perspective for the all the other characters. I find it quite amusing reading the story as told by Billy as he gave us a child’s view of the world around him and how, what seems like quite innocent events, appear to be sinister and frightening to him. The chapters all flow nicely, bringing the story together and keeping the reader’s attention, making you want to continue to find out what will happen next. Towards the ending there is a great feeling of suspense building with every chapter, enticing you to keep turning the pages. Then the horror of the whole thing emerges!Having finished, I read the additional information contained in the book which included information about the author and which explained that he was an avid wind surfer, and I immediately understood where he got all his extremely relevant information about the sea, surfing, caves and rockpools.This is the first in the Rockpool series and I am so pleased that there is a second one, as I loved all the characters in this book and am going to enjoying following their future journeys. Greg Dunnett has proved to be an extremely good author and I am most certainly going to read many more of his excellent books.

At first I was merely entertained by this novel, but pretty soon I was gripped and couldn’t wait to leave work each day to read some more.Spoiler alert:One of the things I celebrated about this novel were the strong female characters, both good and evil. I tire of reading about women who need to be rescued from evil men and this book turned around those preconceptions, with a final twist that the 11 year old boy did some rescuing of his own. Thanks for that Gregg, very refreshing!Have already recommended this book to a friend so that answers that question too.Oh, one other thing - interesting to read that the author is English and yet this is set in USA. Possibly explains why I found it a more comfortable read than some American thrillers.