The Dark Tide

The first book in the Ty Hauck series, Andrew Gross’s suspense novel The Dark Tide (2008), nominated for the 2009 Nero Award, follows a woman who loses her husband in a train crash but then finds out that he may not be dead after all when he is implicated in a multi-million dollar hedge fund scam. Best known for his collaborations with international award-winning suspense author James Patterson, Gross is a New York Times bestselling suspense and mystery writer, whose books are available in more than 25 languages.

The Dark Tide takes place in Greenwich, Connecticut. The protagonist, Karen Friedman, is a stay-at-home-mother with two children, Samantha and Alex. Her husband, Charles, works in finance as a successful hedge fund manager. Although Karen sometimes wishes she had her own career, she is generally happy with her life and she loves Charles.

As the book begins, Charles explains how he has made a few risky investments recently. Betting on numerous natural-gas contracts and investing heavily in Canadian oil sands, he is set to lose a fortune if everything falls through. He doesn’t tell his children because he doesn’t want to worry them. They lost their dog recently, and they don’t need to know how close they are to losing their home, too.



There is one secret that Charles keeps from everyone—his children may be in danger. After the dog died, someone sent Charles a note, threatening to kill his children next. Charles knows who is responsible, but he doesn’t want to tell anyone. He plans to deal with the problem without involving the authorities.

One day, Charles heads for work. He takes a train from Greenwich to New York’s Grand Central Station, but he doesn’t get off the train. An explosion destroys the station and everyone inside is presumed dead. When Karen finds out that Charles is presumably among the victims, she feels that her life is over.

Although logically, Karen knows that Charles is dead, a part of her can’t give up hope. She prays that he will walk through the door one day and everything will go back to normal. Her hopes become reality as she watches a documentary on the Grand Central Station explosion—she sees Charles, and he looks very much alive.



Karen shows the footage to her family, but they tell her to let it go. It can’t be Charles because he wouldn’t run away and leave his family behind. Despite her family’s warnings, Karen decides to investigate Charles’s death on her own. She takes the footage to local detective Ty Hauck and asks for help.

Ty doesn’t know what to make of the footage. He warns Karen that, if it is Charles in the footage, he doesn’t want to come home. However, Karen wants to know whether he is alive or dead. Agreeing to help her, Ty looks over the case evidence so far. Once he begins looking into Charles’s background, he realizes that there is a larger conspiracy at work.

Ty thinks back to a case he worked on just after the Grand Central Station explosion. A man died in a hit-and-run in Greenwich on the same day as the explosion, and the man had an interesting piece of evidence in his pocket—Charles’s name and number. For the first time, Ty suspects that Charles is involved in a larger conspiracy; he is determined to find out what’s going on.



Meanwhile, suspicious auditors show up at Karen’s home, accusing Charles of embezzling over $250 million dollars. They threaten Karen that if she doesn’t find this money and return it to the rightful owner, they will kill her. Karen sends Samantha and Alex on a safari with their grandparents to keep them safe while she investigates Charles’s finances. Although she wants to discover the truth, there’s a small part of her that doesn’t want to know how deceitful Charles may be.

In the meantime, Ty finds out that Charles could be living in the Caribbean. He tells Karen, and they travel out there to find him. Karen plans to confront Charles about why he betrayed his family. She wants him to apologize for what he did, and to explain himself to the children. Ty warns Karen that Charles is involved in a dangerous criminal conspiracy and it is unlikely that he will return home.

In the Caribbean, Karen realizes that she fancies Ty. Handsome, charming, and strong, he will do anything to keep her safe. Although she still wants to know what happened to Charles and why he left, she decides to divorce him. She wants closure. Ty moves in on the financiers looking for Charles’s embezzled money, and they’re apprehended after a Caribbean shootout. Karen feels closure with Charles and moves on with her life.