"I have just been informed that there is a bomb on board."

"Storm" begins on a North Sea ferry. Within a few pages the ship is sinking, and the book establishes a pace that never lets up. Our first introduction to the main character - DCI Kate Beauchamp - is as she is fighting to escape alive. We quickly learn that she is smart and resourceful. She is also totally ruthless in adversity, a fact that shocks even her. Being trapped on a sinking ship in the middle of a storm is a preview of a soggy hell.

Kate does, of course, escape and returns to Aberdeen where most of the story is set. Just as the immediate danger seems to have passed, Kate learns that the investigation in to the ferry's sinking is to be headed by her estranged father. This is a man she never wanted to see again in any circumstances, let alone in the aftermath of tragedy when she is feeling guilty about her own behaviour.

Just to complete the pressure on Kate, Starling then throws in a sadistic murderer whose victims are tortured and mutilated.

It's enough to leave you quite breathless - and it's still only Monday. There's the rest of the week to go before we reach the end of the story.

Although the main character is a cop and there is murder at the centre of his book, it's not just a crime novel. The crime is - the crimes are - almost a backdrop for Kate's personal psychodrama. In particular Starling gives an excellent rendition of the effect of trauma. For me one of the most unpleasant moments did not involve mutilated corpses; it was when Kate snaps and verbally lashes out at the four-year-old son she loves. The "Storm" of the title is not simply the physical storm that sank the ferry.

The whole novel is written in present tense - even the flashbacks. This unusual approach gives a sense of immediacy, especially combined with the telescoped timescale of the story; everything happens within seven days.

My one real complaint is that Storm contains links back to Starling's first novel Messiah. If you saw the BBC TV version, this could confuse you - the ending of the TV series is different and less dark than the ending of the novel. If you haven't seen / read Messiah then be warned that Storm contains massive spoilers for the first book. This is disappointing because it's unnecessary - Storm is a totally stand-alone novel and doesn't need the references back to Messiah.

That aside, this is a gripping book. Starling certainly knows how to keep a story boiling. In fact, he keeps things going so fast that you don't even notice the huge and unlikely coincidences on which the plot is built! It's not until after you've closed the book that you think "Yes, but..." and by then it doesn't really matter.

" Storm" starts unpleasantly then just gets nastier and nastier. It also kept pulling the rug from under me: about a hundred pages from the end I was slapping my forehead and shouting "Oh no!"(or words to that effect). I then swore again several times before the end as Starling kept the twists coming. This is a book that truly justifies the description "page-turner" - I was reading in to the early hours to finish it.

Compelling stuff.