Published By: HQ Digital
Publication Date: 1st March 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9780008219833
Format: Ebook
Price: £1.99
Blurb
A fight to the death…
When DI Chris Sigurdsson is assigned a grisly murder case on remote Salvation Island, he knows that it might be his strangest yet.
A forgotten wrestling star of the 1980s has been poisoned whilst in the ring, and amidst the slippery lies of his dangerous opponents, unravelling the victim’s murky past is almost impossible.
And as a storm threatens to cut Salvation Island off from the mainland, the race is on for Sigurdsson to find the ruthless killer before he strikes again…
My Review
It took me a while to get through this book. I kept putting it down to read other books that I enjoyed more. There were good points. The characters of DI Chris Siguardssson and Inspector Carin Mason were interesting and well-rounded, the plot of a murder in an isolated community is a traditional one but here given a modern twist. The setting and description was evocative.
It is a slow burning mystery, but I definitely not a serial killer thriller. There’s only one death attributed to the killer, so technically not a serial killer, because a serial killer has to kill at least three people in separate events for them to be classed as a serial killer. Yes, I watch and listen to a lot of true crime programmes. I recommend ‘Small Town Murder’ and ‘Serial Killers’ podcasts, if that’s your thing.
Anyway.
Slow-burning investigation. They eventually get there, there are plenty of suspects but the eventual murderer isn’t any of them. It felt like a bit of a cheat having a completely unexpected murderer. One of the conventions of the crime genre is that you can misdirect the reader with red-herrings but you always have to weave in the clues so that the reader can pick up on the perpetrator if they’re clever enough. There was nothing here, the perpetrator is barely mentioned until the end when he exposes himself (not like that, get your minds out of the gutter).
It wasn’t a bad book, but I’ve read better. The plot is good, the main characters are complicated, well-rounded and the setting is atmospheric but it didn’t hook me, draw me in, so that I couldn’t put the book down. The ending was a cheat and put me off. It felt as thought there was two books, the ending from one attached to the beginning of the other.
The title doesn’t really work either, although the cover is good, it gives you an image of the bleakness of Salvation Island.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just to critical and fussy about my crime thrillers?
3/5
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