Kaylani McKinnon is off to Martha's Vinyard for a few weeks over the summer, to her great dismay. Ever since her father went to prison, she has agonized by the phone desperate for the few minutes she gets to talk with him. She is invited by old family friends to their summer home in Martha's Vinyard, and Kaylani's mother believes it will be good for her to get out of the house and into a community where her father's situation doesn't haunt her.

Unfortunately, Kaylani's visit begins with a rough start. The Watson's are stuffy, and she doesn't have anything in common with their granddaughter London. Cassie, London's older sister, doesn't want anything to do with the younger girls, and Kaylani just wants to talk to her dad.

Things head up in the novel when a teenager on the island turns up dead from a shark attack. The situation is extremely suspicious, and Kaylani wants to get to the bottom of it.

When an author is as talented at Tiffany D. Jackson is at writing Young Adult fiction, I often worry when they write for Middle Grade. While there is overlap in the genres, it can often feel clunky to me. However, that was not the case here. Jackson has written an excellent Middle Grade thriller with historical ties that made me pull up Google as I read the book. It's always fun to read a book that makes you interested in history you never knew about, especially when you aren't expecting it. 

We often get requests for thrillers for a middle grade audience at my library, and I am looking forward to recommending Blood in the Water to those kids. 

4/5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc!