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Slatter has, for most of her career, been a well-regarded short story specialist whose work tends to be published in anthologies and small-press editions if it's available at all -- clearly an artiste, not a commercial writer except for a urban fantasy trilogy that apparently went nowhere. But during COVID she suddenly burst forth as a full-on novelist, blending horror, suspense, historical fiction, fantasy, and feminism into a heady cocktail -- beginning with this volume and continuing in rapid succession with _The Path of Thorns_, _The Briar Book of the Dead_, and the upcoming _The Crimson Road_.

All of these novels to date involve young women who are the underestimated and underloved scions of powerful families, valued only insofar as they are exceptionally capable at unglamorous chores disdained by others or expected to marry for the benefit of others. Most of the others are very much "land" novels, but this one is pervaded by saltwater. Miren O'Malley is the final member of a once-wealthy mercantile family come upon hard times due to their failure to keep an ancient bargain with the sea. She is expected to somehow recoup all their losses, but she also has plenty of her own personal tragedies -- such as the disappearance of her parents when she was a baby -- to grieve, investigate, and avenge.

I didn't find this novel as rich and multifaceted as the others in this loose series, but that's a pretty high bar. There's no need whatsoever to read the books in order, and to be frank I'd probably do this one after the others.