Great read, I couldn't wait to finish it! I enjoyed the book, and will read more by the author in future.

Stormfront is dark, brutal and thrilling but it is also written with a sense of nostalgia. A reminder of writers like Hammond Innes and Desmond Bagley.
I loved the characterization and the dialogue is witty and compelling, even twisted at times. Valerie Stone is a remarkable creation and is surely worthy of a whole series of novels. The plot is clever and inventive and shocked me with its touches of crime noir.

Valerie Stone has two possessions, a vintage Jag and an old watch. She smokes too many French cigarettes, rents a houseboat on the Thames and keeps male admirers at arm's length. Investigating the lucrative and mostly legal, she's been a private detective for the last four years. And before that? Well, that's her business. Money has been tight of late, but a sizable pay-out from an insurance investigation could level things up, at least for a while. When a body is washed up on the south coast, it seems a straightforward case of death by misadventure. That is until she finds herself blackmailed by a covert organisation looking into the same incident. Silence mixed with misinformation leads Valerie, and those around her, into a very dirty storm. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Valerie Stone, P.I. …
Valerie Stone - private detective. Valerie is her own woman, she rents a houseboat on the Thames, smokes French cigarettes and has two possessions to her name - a vintage Jag and an old watch. She’s good at her job and it’s nobody’s business what came before. When investigations are started following the discovery of a body things begin to get messy. A fast moving tale of detection and very much character led, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Enjoyable and entertaining,

It was the description of this book that enticed me in. Valerie, a female private detective who drives a vintage Jag and smokes French cigarettes. It reminded me a bit of the old classic detectives.
Valerie starts off being offered a simple job from an insurance company who have asked her to look into the death of a man that was found washed up on a beach. It was reported as a straight forward boating accident but they need to be sure due to the high insurance payout. And as any crime novel reader knows, anything stated as straight forward very rarely is which is exactly the case here. With the help of her assistant Jane, Valerie seems to go from one twist and turn to another meeting lots of characters on the way. There is a possible love interest with the deceased’s brother and also a possible clandestine government department wanting to help, that may or not be the good guys. Nothing is what it seems here and it certainly keeps you guessing right up until the end. The only downside for me was the number of characters, I did find I was getting a little lost as to who was who later on in the book.
Even though I struggled with the start of this book for some reason, it took me some time to get interested, I am glad I stuck it out because it was certainly worth the read. Would definitely recommend