It's cold on the water. It's late November in Cornwall; late evening. A figure clad in a wetsuit, in a dark kayak, is pulling against the inflowing waters of the tide across the River Fowey powering toward a secret assignation in defiance of an ancient powerful family.
High above the river in a medieval timbered hall, a Hollywood superstar is mourning the loss of his first born son, rebuilding his life in a new enterprise, an exclusive, therapeutic establishment for troubled souls, The Valley of the Tides. But he is unaware that his arrival in Cornwall has aroused a simmering resentment and growing anger in a formidable foe.
Further west, D I F lipe Treloar is visiting his first boss and mentor in a Falmouth hospice. The man is dying, but before he slips away he has a mission for his former acolyte and a terrible admission which will rock Treloar to the core and tear apart his close-knit family, pitting him against one of the most feared and despised men in Europe.
And yet further west, an embittered, frightened old man, sits in the cold, brooding on the past and lamenting his irredeemable legacy.
When a dead child is found in the river the currents lead Treloar and his team upstream to the idyllic, peaceful setting of the Valley of the Tides where inhabitants nurse their dark obsessions; amongst them a burnt-out chef, an MP's disturbed daughter, and a depraved young man with powerful protectors.
As Treloar fights the growing evil, bitter rivalries resurface, corrosive resentment spills out and unspeakable deeds are uncovered, and he must look to old friends and secretive allies for aid as powerful forces conspire to protect their interests. And when Jackson Power thinks he has lived through the worst, he will face a father's worst nightmare.
Silent Gull is the third in the grown up psychological crime series featuring DI Treloar, the new, likable and maverick Detective Inspector.
LOCATIONS Silent Gull is set mainly close to the Fowey river, on the opposite bank of the river to Fowey itself, on the south coast of Cornwall. As well as action in and opposite Fowey there are scenes in Falmouth, Newlyn (a major fishing port), and Treloar's homeland close to St Ives. There are also substantial scenes in Brighton.