I’m thrilled to have been invited to take part in the readalong of the seven books in the DI Ben Kitto series by Kate Rhodes. I read the first book in the series, Hell Bay, when it came out a few years ago and I am delighted to share again my review of the this gripping novel set on the beautiful Scilly Isles.
Publication: 25th January 2018 – Simon & Schuster UK
Trapped in a storm, with no way out …
DI Ben Kitto needs a second chance. After ten years working for the murder squad in London, a traumatic event has left him grief-stricken. He’s tried to resign from his job, but his boss has persuaded him to take three months to reconsider.
Ben plans to work in his uncle Ray’s boatyard, on the tiny Scilly island of Bryher where he was born, hoping to mend his shattered nerves. His plans go awry when the body of sixteen year old Laura Trescothick is found on the beach at Hell Bay. Her attacker must still be on the island because no ferries have sailed during a two-day storm.
Everyone on the island is under suspicion. Dark secrets are about to resurface. And the murderer could strike again at any time.
Ben Kitto is an homicide detective working in London, but after the death of his partner he tries to resign from the Met police. His boss doesn’t accept his resignation and gives him a three-month break to change his mind. Ben decides to spend this break in the place where he grew up, Bryher, one of the small island of the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall. Ben’s arrival is marked by the disappearance of Laura Trescothick, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Matt and Jenna Trescothick, the golden couple of his high school. Ben decides to help the investigation of the local police because no one arrived or left the island before or after Laura’s disappearance and this means that one of the islanders is the killer, one of their own.
This novel is a highly enjoyable and compulsive read that reminded me a little of one of my favorite novels by Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, with its wintery dark and atmospheric setting, the isolated small island far away from the mainland, everyone suspecting everyone, everyone with their motives to commit the murder.
The plot is very intriguing with a few surprising twists and tension rising as the end of the book approaches. The characters are very well-crafted and complex, especially the protagonist, Ben Kitto, with ghosts who from his past and an uncertain future. The island is as much a protagonist of the novel as the other characters and I loved the author’s attention to details and the vivid descriptions that make the story more realistic and captivating.
Kate Rhodes is an acclaimed crime novelist and an award-winning poet. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker, Dave Pescod. She visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child which gave her the idea for this new series. She is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group.
Book After Book 