Book After Book

Publication: 16th January 2020 – Quercus

From the international number one bestseller comes the most clever and gripping thriller of 2019

It’s June 2008 and twenty-one-year-old Adam Lattimer vanishes, presumed dead. The strain of his disappearance breaks his already fragile family.

Ten years later, with his mother deceased and siblings scattered across the globe, Adam turns up unannounced at the family home. His siblings return reluctantly to Spanish Cove, but Adam’s reappearance poses more questions than answers. The past is a tangled web of deceit.

And, as tension builds, it’s apparent somebody has planned murderous revenge for the events of ten years ago.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/36NS3Vt

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I am so excited to take part in the blog tour for Six Wicked Reasons, the addictive new novel by Jo Spain. A huge thank you to Milly Reid and Quercus for providing me with a beautiful proof of the novel and inviting me to join the blog tour.

Jo Spain is an author I have been following and reading for a few years now and I always enjoy reading her books. Her stories are always thrilling and full of suspense, but this new novel really exceeded my expectations and it quickly became my favourite book from this author. I devoured it, staying up late to finish reading it.

Meet the Lattimer family, wealthy, envied, and pretty dysfunctional. The parents are Frazer and his wife Kathleen and then there are the six siblings, three brothers and three sister: Ellen, James, Kate, Adam, Ryan, and Clio. One of them disappears and turns up at the door ten years later. Where has he been for the last ten years?

To celebrate the reappearance of his son, Frazer calls all his children to the family home not only to celebrate the return of the prodigal son, but for some revelations of his own. As secrets, resentments, and jealousies surface, it is clear that this won’t be an happy family reunion.

First of all, the characters. Jo Spain created a cast of amazing characters: they are multi-layered, very well-developed and well-portrayed, but I can’t say I really liked any of them, at least at the beginning of the story. I found them selfish and entitled and some of them really got under my skin. However, the more I read, the more the truth about their past came to light, and the more I came to appreciate and like some of them (the villains never improve). Some of their stories broke my heart, some infuriated me, but they felt real and well-built.

The plot is brilliant. I would describe it as Liane Moriarty meets Agatha Christie: everyone is hiding something, there are flashbacks, police interviews, multiple suspects, weak alibis and strong motives, there are twists that will make your head spin, there is a police officer keen to find out the truth, all coming together under the beautiful pen of Jo Spain.

Six Wicked Reasons is a remarkable and unputdownable story of revenge, lies, secrets, and guilt, full of mystery and with a fantastic and unexpected ending. If you are already a fan of Jo Spain you will adore it, if this is your first novel, than you are off to a great start…

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Follow the rest of the blog tour:

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Jo Spain is a full-time writer and screenwriter. Her first novel, With Our Blessing, was one of seven books shortlisted in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition and her first psychological thriller, The Confession, was a number one bestseller in Ireland. Jo co-wrote the ground-breaking RTE television series Taken Down, which first broadcast in Ireland in 2018. She’s now working on multiple European television projects. Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children.

Publication: 23rd January 2020 – Michael Joseph

She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room . . .

Driving home one night, stuck behind a rusty old car, Gabe sees a little girl’s face appear in the rear window.

She mouths one word: ‘Daddy.’

It’s his five-year-old daughter, Izzy.

He never sees her again.

Three years later, Gabe spends his days and nights travelling up and down the motorway, searching for the car that took his daughter, refusing to give up hope, even though most people believe that Izzy is dead.

Fran and her daughter, Alice, also put in a lot of miles on the motorway. Not searching. But running. Trying to keep one step ahead of the people who want to hurt them.

Because Fran knows the truth. She knows what really happened to Gabe’s daughter. She knows who is responsible. And she knows what they will do if they ever catch up with her and Alice…

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She is baaack!!! My favourite author is back with a brand new gripping and unputdownable novel that made my heart race. I am not exaggerating. The Other People is suspenseful, riveting, and surprising and it confirmed, once again, that C. J. Tudor is an amazing storyteller.

The story is told mainly from three points of views. Gabe is a broken man on a mission: find out who destroyed his family and took away his daughter. Three years after someone killed his wife, Gabe has left his job and his house and he is travelling in a white van to find anyone who could have news about his daughter. The only problem is that he is the only one looking for his Izzy because for the rest of the world she is dead and buried next to her mother.

Katie is a single mother working in a restaurant and she has noticed the thin man coming in once a week and orders coffee while searching for his daughter. She knows his story, but she has her own problems to deal with.

Fran is on the run with her daughter Alice. She can’t stop. If they stop, they will be found and Alice will be in danger, so they just keep running.

How are these three characters connected?

The plot is dark, twisty, but also heart-breaking. Gabe’s grief over the loss of his family was hard to read and very emotional. My heart really broke for him as he goes over his guilt, the regrets, and the past memories.

This was a rollercoaster of a read. Even though I figured out a couple of things early on, I was still surprised and shocked by the many twists that just kept coming and coming and I didn’t know where the story would lead.

I adored the author’s first two novels, so I had no doubts that her third one would be any less. The Other People is engaging, twisty, chilling and it made me hold my breath and stay up late at night to finish reading.

The Other People is out next week: https://amzn.to/36Np3h2

A huge thank you to Michael Joseph for providing me with an early copy of the novel.

 

 

Publication: 9th January 2020 – HQ

It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.

Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive.

The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?

One day that will change a family forever, The Dilemma is the breath-taking, heart-breaking new novel from the million-copy-selling, Sunday Times bestseller, B A Paris

Amazon: https://amzn.to/36WNx7j

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I am delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour for The Dilemma, the wonderful new novel by B A Paris. A big thank you to Jess and HQ for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of this fantastic novel.

Livia and Adam have been happily married for twenty years and have two children in college. For months they have been planning and organizing and now the day they have been waiting for is finally here. For Livia, it is supposed to be her day, the celebration of her fortieth birthday, a big party to replace the lavish wedding she never had. The food and the music are ready, family and friends are on their way, but there are secrets that could ruin everything. Adam and Livia are both keeping a terrible secret from each other, but they both want the other to have one last happy evening before revealing the truth. As the night goes on and the party is in full swing, their secrets are a burden that it’s hard to keep hidden.

This is such a remarkable book!!! I was completely engrossed in the plot and the characters. The story is slow-paced, intense, and heart-breaking. My heart was pounding as I read and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I liked the short chapters that alternate between Livia and Adam’s perspectives and how the author managed to pack the story into two days that are full of emotions and suspense.

The characters feel very authentic, with all their flaws and bad choices, and I really liked the characters of Livia and Adam. At the beginning, I couldn’t see why Livia was so obsessed with the party, but the more I read the more I understood her past and why it was so important to her. It was difficult to agree with Adam’s choice to keep his secret from Livia, even for just one night, but I could understand his need to protect her.

The Dilemma is different from B A Paris’s previous novels, but I think it is also my favourite so far. It’s not only a story of secrets and lies, it’s also a story of family and love and how far would people go to protect each other. It was very difficult to put The Dilemma down and I am sure will stay with me for a while!!!

Publication: 9th January 2020 – Simon & Schuster UK

When a man is found on a Norfolk beach, drifting in and out of consciousness, with no identification and unable to speak, interest in him is sparked immediately. From the hospital staff who find themselves inexplicably drawn to him; to international medical experts who are baffled by him; to the nationalpress who call him Mr Nobody; everyone wants answers.  Who is this man? And what happened to him?
 
Neuropsychiatrist Dr Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she’s been waiting for and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same small town in Norfolk fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then.
 
But now something – or someone – is calling her back. And the more time she spends with her patient, the more alarmed she becomes.
 
Has she walked into danger?

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Although I still haven’t read Catherine Steadman’s debut, Something In The Water, I have been hearing so many great things about it that I leaped to the chance to read the author’s second novel and now I know why everyone is raving about this author.

The story follows two characters. The first is a man in his forties, found on a beach in Norfolk. He doesn’t have any belongings or ID. No one recognizes him and no one knows his name. He doesn’t even talk. Soon, the press is on the story and Mr. Nobody, as he’s been nicknamed, is a national interest. Enter Dr. Emma Lewis. She is a neuropsychiatrist, she studies human brain, and Mr. Nobody’s case seems to be one of a kind, so when she’s asked to be Mr. Nobody’s doctor she accepts even if this means going back to the place she left fifteen years ago. When she was a teenager, Emma changed her name and her identity and left Norfolk behind. Why did she leave? And why does Mr. Nobody seem to know exactly who she is?

I devoured Mr. Nobody. The pace is slow and the atmosphere is a bit claustrophobic, and the plot is gripping. I also enjoyed the part of the narrative focuses on how the human brain works. A person could go to sleep and wake up having forgotten the last forty years of their life. It’s both fascinating and scary and I found it all very interesting and informative.

The characters are very well-built. Throughout the story, Mr. Nobody remains a mystery that I couldn’t wait to unravel. We see him through the eyes of the nurses and the doctors. Until everything is revealed, I couldn’t figure out his role in the story. Is he good or is he bad? The truth was completely surprising and well-thought. Emma’s story is told in first person, but, of course, that doesn’t mean that everything is revealed right away. We know she is anxious about going back to Norfolk and she is afraid someone might find out the truth about her. But why? The author knows how to keep the tension high by slowly revealing her story, which wasn’t at all what I expected.

I liked the concept of the story, I found it original and intriguing and I love the cover. I LOVED the author’s writing style: detailed, clear, and captivating. Now, I really need to pick up Something In The Water and I am really looking forward to reading whatever she is writing next, but Mr. Nobody is definitely a must-read and it’s out in January.

A huge thank you to Jess and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a proof copy of the novel.

Today, I am super excited not only because Christmas is just a few days away, but because I am taking part in a FANTASTIC cover reveal.

I ADORE Rachel Abbott‘s novels. She manages to take me always by surprise with her shocking twists that I never see coming. Rachel Abbott is author of bestselling novels like Stranger Child, Kill Me Again, And So It Begins, just to name a few. Her books have been translated into over 20 languages and they have sold over 3 million copies in the English language.

Her new novel THE MURDER GAME is out in April, but, as an early Christmas present, I am delighted to reveal its BEAUTIFUL COVER…

And now more about the book. THE MURDER GAME is the second book featuring detective Stephanie King who we already met in And So It Begins. This is my favourite of Rachel Abbott’s novels so far, so I am really looking forward to read more about this character. Here is the synopsis:

A year ago today, we all gathered for Lucas’s wedding at his glorious Cornish home overlooking the sea.

But no one was married that day.

Now Lucas has invited us back to celebrate the anniversary. But the anniversary of what? The wedding that never happened, or the tragedy that occurred just hours before the ceremony was due to begin?

He’s told us that tonight he has planned a game. We have our costumes, we have our parts, and everyone must play. The game, he tells us, is about to begin.

What does Lucas want from us? What are we not being told? And what’s going to happen when this terrible game is over?

 

THE MURDER GAME is out on 16th April 2020 and here is the link to pre-order it: https://amzn.to/2rLNqMW

More about the author:

Rachel Abbott’s debut thriller, Only the Innocent, was an international bestseller, reaching the number one position in the Amazon charts both in the UK and US. This was followed by the number one bestselling novels The Back Road, Sleep Tight, Stranger Child, Nowhere Child (a short novel based on the characters from Stranger Child), Kill Me Again, The Sixth Window, Come a Little Closer and And So It Begins. Her most recent novel, The Shape of Lies, was released in February 2019.

Rachel’s novels have now been translated into over 20 languages and her books have sold over 3 million copies in the English language.

In 2015 Amazon celebrated the first five years of the Kindle in the UK, and announced that Rachel was the #1 bestselling independent author over the five-year period. She was also placed #14 in the chart of all authors. Stranger Child was the most borrowed novel for the Kindle in the first half of 2015.

Rachel splits her time between Alderney – a beautiful island off the coast of France – and the Le Marche region of Italy, where she is able to devote all her time to writing fiction. For more information, see Rachel’s website, or follow her on Twitter.

Website : http://www.rachel-abbott.com
Blog : http://rachelabbottwriter.com/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/RachelAbbott1Writer
Twitter: @RachelAbbott

 

 

Publication: 20th September 2018 – Quercus

Christmas day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oileán na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina’s. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite graves were tragically common. Reynolds thinks his adversarial boss is handing him a cold case to sideline him.

But then it transpires another body has been discovered amongst the dead – one of the doctors who went missing from the hospital in mysterious circumstances forty years ago. He appears to have been brutally murdered.

As events take a sudden turn, nothing can prepare Reynolds and his team for what they are about to discover once they arrive on the island . . .

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Never title was more apt to the setting of a novel. This novel by Jo Spain featuring DCI Tom Reynolds and his team investigating a 40-year-old murder is set in a closed-down psychiatric hospital on a remote island that with its secrets and dark halls really gave me the chills and kept me glued to the pages.

The novel starts on Christmas Day and a woman is still hoping for her husband Conrad to knock on the door, after disappearing 40 years earlier, but what she receives is the call she’s been dreading. In another house, DCI Tom Reynolds is trying to enjoying Christmas with his family and trying to forget the last stressful months when he receives a call from his boss: a mass grave full of bodies has been found by St. Christina’s, an abandoned mental institution on the island of Oileán na Caillte. However, that’s not the most disturbing thing. The police is interested because among the bodies of the patients of the hospital, the body of doctor Conrad, who disappeared on Christmas Eve 40 years earlier, has been found and it’s clearly a murder. DCI Reynolds and his team travel to the hospital to try to figure out what happened to the doctor and the secrets that St. Christina’s holds.

I have been a fan of Jo Spain for a while now and I am captivated by her twisty plots, her well-developed characters, and her flawless and brilliant writing style. The Darkest Place is a particularly gripping story, with many surprises and twists and a claustrophobic atmosphere that gave me the chills. For some reason, remote islands are my favourite settings in crime stories and Oileán na Caillte is a fantastic place where to set a thriller: hard to access, bad weather, and few residents, all of them hiding something, and a mental institution full of horrifying story that really gave me goosebumps.

Gripping, compelling, and dark, this is another fantastic story by a great author who keeps churning out amazing novels.

A huge thank you to Quercus and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the novel.

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Jo Spain is a full-time writer and screenwriter. Her first novel, With Our Blessing, was one of seven books shortlisted in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition and her first psychological thriller, The Confession, was a number one bestseller in Ireland. Jo co-wrote the ground-breaking RTE television series Taken Down, which first broadcast in Ireland in 2018. She’s now working on multiple European television projects. Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children.

Publication: 18th April 2019 – Orion

A secret that could kill her.

A truth no one believes…

Jenny Bowen is going home. Boarding the Caledonian Sleeper, all she wants to do is forget about her upcoming divorce and relax on the ten-hour journey through the night.

In her search for her cabin, Jenny helps a panicked woman with a young girl she assumes to be her daughter. Then she finds her compartment and falls straight to sleep.

Waking in the night, Jenny discovers the woman dead in her cabin … but there’s no sign of the little girl. The train company have no record of a child being booked on the train, and CCTV shows the dead woman boarding alone.

The police don’t believe Jenny, and soon she tries to put the incident out of her head and tells herself that everyone else is right: she must have imagined the little girl.

But deep down, she knows that isn’t the truth.

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for What She Saw Last Night, the suspenseful latest novel by MJ Cross. A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to join the blog tour and Orion for providing me with a copy of this brilliant novel.

Even though I had heard of MJ Cross before (he has written novels under the name Mason Cross), I never read any of his novels, so, when I was invited to join the blog tour, I accepted right away because I was really curious about this author and I was intrigued by the plot and I wasn’t disappointed.

Jenny Bowen hasn’t had an easy year. Her father died, her husband had an affair and they are now divorcing, and now she is running to catch the night-train to travel to Scotland to take care of the house that her father left her. On the train, she crosses path with a woman and young girl. Next morning, when Jenny wakes up, she finds the lifeless body of the woman, but there is no trace of the young girl. Except for detective Mike Fletcher, no one else believes Jenny. There is no trace of the young girl on the train, on the passenger list, or the CCTV at the train station. For the police, it’s a simple case of overdose and they are ready to close the case. However, detective Mike Fletcher believes Jenny’s story and they start their own investigation that brings them back to London and on the path of a dangerous man.

Thanks to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, when I read “train” and “murder” together I am quickly intrigued. I find mysteries set on trains very suspenseful and captivating. With echoes of Agatha Christie’s novels and Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, MJ Cross created a gripping plot set on the Caledonian Sleeper, a night train that travels from London to Scotland every night. Trains are not an easy place where to set a murder because you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere with no escape route and you can be easily caught. In What She Saw Last Night, MJ Cross presents us a woman found dead in her cabin, a witness swearing she was accompanied from a child, and no trace of said child. Did Jenny’s last months finally caught up with her and she imagined the young girl? Or is she right and that young girl is now in danger? And why has no one else seen her?

I loved the plot, I loved the protagonist and her determination in finding out the truth, no matter the cost, I loved the setting and the dark atmosphere. What She Saw Last Night is a compulsive and thrilling story full of twists and shocking surprises and kept me glued to the pages until the very end.

Publication: 31st October 2019 – HQ

In the snowy perfection of Aspen, the White family gathers for youngest daughter Rosie’s whirlwind Christmas wedding.

First to arrive are the bride’s parents, Maggie and Nick. Their daughter’s marriage is a milestone they are determined to celebrate wholeheartedly, but they are hiding a huge secret about their own: they are on the brink of divorce. After living apart for the last six months, the last thing they need is to be trapped together in an irresistibly romantic winter wonderland.

Rosie’s older sister Katie is also dreading the wedding. Worried that impulsive, sweet-hearted Rosie is making a mistake, Katie is determined to save her sister from herself. If only the irritatingly good-looking best man, Jordan, would stop interfering with her plans…

Bride-to-be Rosie loves her fiance but is having serious second thoughts. Except everyone has arrived – how can she tell them she’s not sure? As the big day gets closer, and emotions run even higher, this is one White family Christmas none of them will ever forget.

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I love Sarah Morgan’s novels. I know I write this in every review I wrote of her books, but I do love Sarah Morgan’s stories, her characters, and she chooses some amazing locations, especially when it comes to her Christmas novels. She always finds amazing, Christmassy and evocative settings that make me daydream and wish I was inside the novel. Last year, in The Christmas Sisters, it was beautiful Scotland and now, in A Wedding in December, Sarah Morgan takes us to Aspen, Colorado, where everything is covered in snow and a Christmas wedding is being planned.

Weddings are joyous moments (mostly!), but not for the White women. Rosie is very excited to marry Dan. Even if they’ve known each other for just a few months, she knows he is The One, but her sister Katie manages to put doubts in her minds a few days before the big day. Rosie’s always been impulsive and Katie’s always protected her and now she is on a mission: stop her sister from making what could be the biggest mistake of her life, but she hasn’t counted on the handsome best man trying to stop her. And while the organization of the wedding continues, Katie’s has her own problems to figure out and her own secrets to hide from her family. And then, there is their mother, Maggie, who focused her entire life on the well-being of her two daughters while her husband travelled around the world. Now she and Nick are getting divorced but she can’t certainly announce it right before the wedding… so Maggie and Nick have to pretend to be a happy couple for a while and going along with all the romantic trips and dinners planned for them.

If you’d asked me who is my favourite among these three women, I couldn’t tell you because I liked them all, even if they are completely different. I liked Rosie’s impulsiveness and sweetness. I found Maggie hilarious as she got drunk and pretended to be happily married to Nick. And I liked how Katie admitted her own faults and weaknesses. They are surrounded by three charming and handsome prince charmings who are entertaining sweep their women off their feet (I always love Sarah Morgan’s male characters!!!).

So, if you are looking for an engaging, captivating, and romantic Christmas story with fantastic characters and a magical atmosphere A Wedding in December is the book for you and, if you need more convincing, have you seen the gorgeous cover??? A must-read!!!

A huge thank you to Lily and HQ for providing me with a copy of the book.

Follow the rest of the blog tour:

 

Publication: 18th April 2019 – Penguin Books UK

It’s one of the most disturbing cases DI Fawley has ever worked.

The Christmas holidays, and two children have just been pulled from the wreckage of their burning home in North Oxford. The toddler is dead, and his brother is soon fighting for his life.

Why were they left in the house alone? Where is their mother, and why is their father not answering his phone?

Then new evidence is discovered, and DI Fawley’s worst nightmare comes true.

Because this fire wasn’t an accident. It was murder.

And the killer is still out there…

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For some reason I had the latest novel by Cara Hunter on my TBR for a while before I decided to pick it up and once I did, I couldn’t put it down. I love her writing style, her characters, and her twisty plots and I was really happy to go back to Oxford and Adam Fawley’s amazing team.

It’s a cold night in Oxford right, after the Christmas holidays, and DI Fawley and his team are called to investigate a house fire. Two children are pulled out from the ruins while her parents are nowhere to be found. The firefights quickly rule out the accident, there was too much accelerant on the scene, but who would want to harm two young children? And where are their parents?

Cara Hunter knows how to capture the author’s attention by using different perspectives and a well-crafted narrative structure: we jump from one character to another, we travel back in time to see the events that led to the night of the fire, and we read emails, detailed police reports, newspaper articles, and comments from readers that make the story feel much more authentic and intriguing.

The authenticity is given also by the author’s focus on the detectives’ personal lives. As DI Fawley and his team work hard to find out the truth, they have their own problems to solve. Following the events of the previous books, there are jealousies and resentments that could cause trouble among the members of the team and DI Adam Fawley has his own marital problems to figure out.

The story is suspenseful and the surprises just keep coming, however, as it happens with stories involving children, there are also a few heartbreaking moments that were hard to read. No Way Out is thrilling and compelling with a cast of likable and engaging characters that I am already looking forward to meet again in the next novel coming out in January!

 

Publication: 4th April 2019 (hardcover & eBook); 3rd October 2019 (paperback) – Michael Joseph

Four friends visited the island. But only three returned . . .

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is sent to the isolated island of Elliðaey to investigate a disappearance.

But she finds haunting similarities to an old case – the murder of a young woman ten years ago.

Has a patient killer struck again?

Hulda is soon caught in a web of deceit, convinced everyone is lying, even those closest to her.

What secrets is the island hiding?

And what price will she pay for uncovering the truth?

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I loved The Darkness, the first novel featuring Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir so I have been looking forward to reading The Island, the second book in the series. While in The Darkness Hulda was preparing to retire and leave the police force, in The Island we go back in time when Hulda was an established detective, but, because of prejudices against working women, she was still finding it hard getting the promotion she deserved and she wished for. In this new novel, we see a more personal side to Hulda’s life, as she seeks the father she never met and she grieves over the loss of the people she loves.

In the 1980s, we meet a young couple going away for the weekend in a cabin in the Icelandic Westfjords. Their love story is new and exciting and no one knows about it, not even their friends and their families. A few days later, a body is found and the police investigates. Ten years later, four friends, who haven’t seen each other for a while, get together and spend the weekend on an isolated island. Once again, the weekend ends in tragedy and Hulda investigates…

First of all, I love Ragnar Jónasson’s descriptions of Iceland. They are so beautiful, detailed, and evocative that make me wish that I could hop on a plane and go there right away. Also, I love how the remoteness and danger of the places described fit perfectly with the suspense in the story.

I really like the character of Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir. She is determined, not afraid to speak up and stand up for herself in a men-only working environment where she is expected simply to make coffee and follow orders. She is smart and good at her job, looking for the truth, no matter what. I found her personal life heartbreaking, but also intriguing. The personal tragedies that hit her family could have broken her, but she still finds a purpose in her job. In The Island, her search for her birth father is central to the plot and it made me like this character more and more.

The murder, the secrets, and the lies kept the suspense high. If you loved Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None you will love the plot created by the author: four friends alone on a remote island, one of them disappears, one (or all) of them is guilty… Brilliant!

Gripping, beautifully-written, and full of twists, I devoured The Island and I am already looking forward to reading the third book of this fantastic trilogy!!!

A huge thank you to Michael Joseph and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel.