About The Book
A remote island. A brutal murder. A secret hidden in the past . . .
In the middle of the North Sea, between the UK and Denmark, lies the beautiful and rugged island nation of Doggerland.
Detective Inspector Karen Eiken Hornby has returned to the main island, Heimö, after many years in London and has worked hard to become one of the few female police officers in Doggerland.
So, when she wakes up in a hotel room next to her boss, Jounas Smeed, she knows she’s made a big mistake. But things are about to get worse: later that day, Jounas’s ex-wife is found brutally murdered. And Karen is the only one who can give him an alibi.
The news sends shockwaves through the tight-knit island community, and with no leads and no obvious motive for the murder, Karen struggles to find the killer in a race against time.
Soon she starts to suspect that the truth might lie in Doggerland’s history. And the deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes that even small islands can hide deadly secrets . . .
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I read quite a lot of translated fiction and Fatal Isles was the best that I have read for a long time. I thought the island was fictional but after research I discovered that Doggerland was a submerged area of land in the North Sea. But the setting, the inhabitants, customs and often inclement weather all came from the author’s imagination.
The storyline was absolutely fascinating. The murder of an extremely unpopular woman who was also the ex wife of a leading detective. You would think there would be any number of suspects, with the number of people who didn’t like her but the small team are only concerned with one and that is to prove innocence rather than guilt. The suspect does have an alibi in Karen but understandably when you get to know more about him you can see why she is reluctant to come forward. Because of his personality as well as his position in the force.
Karen was a different character to what I expected, older for one thing and far from perfect. Like many she has a troubled past, details of this are revealed towards the end of the novel. But she is loyal, caring and willing to help many that others would judge or ignore.
The police team in this book are all hardworking but not close. There are grudges and some resentment, a few of them are not that likeable but they were there for each other when needed. I am definitely interested in seeing how the relationship dynamic progresses further into the series.
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