Conville & Walsh

THE SEA ON FIRE is a gripping literary thriller that centres around diving. The narrator, Kim, after a wild and rootless youth, has just about settled into family life in Brixton, with two children and a loving wife. He is then commissioned as a private diving instructor on a three week excursion to the spectacular reefs of the remote Brothers Islands in the Southern Red Sea. There, he meets up with an old friend, the virtuoso waterman Garland Rain, who has saved Kim from himself more than once before. Those were the old days, though – Kim is a calmer man now, and is determined not to let anything go wrong.

The two divers soon find out that their dive boat, the Shang-Tu, is owned by Teddy King, a gangster who lives a life of drugs and violence. While Garland tries to contain Teddy’s worst excesses, and ensure that the guests are diving safely, Kim finds himself increasingly drawn to the dark side of the boat’s temptations. Against his better judgment, he begins an affair with Teddy’s young girlfriend, Jody, and soon after that, one of the other divers dies in what seems to be an accident.

Back on dry land, Kim finds that the decisions you make in the moment come back to haunt you, and sometimes even follow you home.

Brilliantly suspenseful, THE SEA ON FIRE is a story about a man torn between responsibilities to his family and the freedom of the open water.