In his second major assignment, Oxford private detective, Daniel Winter, must insinuate himself into the surreal world of Greetwell Housing Trust to answer the question that has been on the lips of people in the city since Christmas Eve last: who killed Laura Hart?
Laura Hart, a housing officer at housing association Greetwell Housing Trust, was found dead in her home, on Christmas Eve, lying in a pool of blood and with a knife in her chest. More than two weeks after the (apparent) murder, the police investigation is making precious little progress, for staff at Greetwell, seemingly in an effort to protect a person or persons unknown, have closed ranks and are refusing to cooperate with the detectives working the case.
Enter, then, Daniel Winter, engaged by his old friend, Matt Prior, who is a maintenance inspector at Greetwell, an insider, and who furnishes Daniel with clues as to how the killer (or killers) might be unmasked. Armed with these clues, Daniel (reluctantly, for he is not keen to become involved) befriends Rachel Bannerman, customer-service advisor at Greetwell and part-time barmaid at an Oxford public house. Matt has told Daniel that Rachel is the weakest link in the conspiracy of silence hampering the police investigation. There are other keys that Daniel must try in his efforts to unlock the box holding Greetwell's secrets connected with the death of Laura Hart.
Daniel, moreover, takes a huge personal risk in hiding from the police Dominic Kane, the disturbed young man who is the prime suspect for Laura's murder; though Dominic was found at the scene of the crime (by an old lady walking her dog), covered in the dead woman's blood, Daniel is convinced that Dominic could not possibly have killed Laura. Is Daniel vindicated in his actions to protect Dominic? Or is he guilty of perverting the course of justice? The answer to these questions is given at the astonishing climax of the story, a denouement that no reader will have anticipated.
As with Sailing By, the narrative is populated with offbeat characters from Daniel Winter's Oxford underworld, not the least of which is Kendal Waterhouse, Daniel's (unwanted) lodger, unlikely professional sidekick, and daughter of his former girlfriend Rosie. In Sailing By (set five months prior to This Calamitous Sea), the relationship between Daniel and Kendal had been tetchy at times, though essentially touching in its father-daughter-like dynamic. In This Calamitous Sea, however, the relationship has become fractious, characterised as it is by bickering and mutual sniping, none of which stops the girl from playing a vital part in answering the question as to who killed Laura Hart.
