The Strange Sighting (Alice England #3) by Ash Harrier

Title: The Strange Sighting (Alice England #3)

Author: Ash Harrier

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Pantera Press

Published: 30^th January 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 280

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: Alice England and her friends are back with a mystery that throws them straight in the deep end.

Alice has a special talent. When she touches the belongings of the dead people who come through her father’s funeral home, she discovers things about their lives – and their deaths.

Marine biologist Stingray Bolland dies suddenly, but no one suspects anything sinister. That’s until Alice learns that he was studying a new species in the waters around Damocles Cove – and he saw something mysterious right before he died.

More and more people are reporting a weird creature in the cove, and there are claims it’s a storm kelpie of Scottish legend. Then, on a sightseeing boat tour, Alice and her friends spot something astonishing. Could the legend be true?

As fate, fortune and science collide, Alice must uncover what’s really going on in Damocles Cove. Maybe the truth is even stranger than the legend.

~*~

Return to Damocles Cove, where strange things happen to Alice England and her friends. She works in her father’s funeral home, and goes to school with her friends, Violet, who has an allergy to sunlight, and Cal, in the year above them. Every so often, the funeral of someone will spark a mystery for Alice and her friends. This time, things kick off when Stingray Bollard’s unexpected death occurs – setting into motion a series of events that revolve around a mysterious sea creature that people claim is the storm kelpie of Scottish legend. And making things more complicated is Hana, Cal’s cousin who wants to go on adventures and only do and have what she likes. Damocles Cove is rocked by mysteries and disappearances linked to Stingray’s death and Armand Cousteau. Bubbling along is the ongoing mystery of Alice’s mother – who is reaching out to her daughter, and wants to reconnect with her.

Alice is determined to find answers, and determined that there will be a scientific explanation for everything that is happening in Damocles Cove. She likes logic, and finds comfort in knowing how things work and knowing what is going to happen. Unpredictability seems to be her enemy. And yet, as this novel goes on, Alice starts to learn that she can’t have all the answers or know how things go. And she learns that life is unpredictable. For someone who has grown up around the certainty of death and funerals, this showed that Alice is on a lifelong journey of learning, and I love that this book and series celebrates knowledge, always learning, and being yourself. There is also something quirky about this book – not everything is as it seems, and there are newcomers to Damocles Cove, as well as a few people that Alice doesn’t know all that well who muddy the waters of the mystery.

I felt like everything in this novel worked well together, and ensured that the mystery rolled and bobbed along the water cleverly to make the story sing. The story meandered, but did so in a way that suited the style of the series and the detail-oriented mind of the main character, Alice. There’s something brilliant about this series that celebrates differences and learning, and finding a way to be friends with people who have very different interests, personalities and who on the surface, might seem determined to have things their way all the time. This is where Hana’s character came in, and showed how different people react to the world around them, or expect people to fit in with them. This sense of learning lessons was important as well.

The Strange Sighting brought science, mystery and mythology together with a glimpse at friendship and making new friends, and finding out what you like to do. Damocles Cove is an interesting place filled with mystery, where each mystery has something to do with twins – an eerie feeling for Alice, but it connects the series well. I loved this addition to the series and am looking forward to the next one.