Review: Fatal Isles, by Maria Adolfsson

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

Thanks to Tracy Fenton, of Compulsive Readers, for organising the blog tour and to the publisher, Zaffre Books, for sending me a copy of the book.

The Rosie Synopsis

The morning after Oistra, the September oyster festival in Doggerland – a fictional island group in the middle of the North Sea where the people are a mix of the peoples from around the Sea with a heavy Scandinavian flavour – D.I. Karen Eiken Hornby wakes up in bed with her boss, Jounas Smeed. A few hours later she is called to a murder in her village of Langevik- Susanne Smeed, the ex-wife of Jounas.

Leading the case as Jounas is put on gardening leave, under pressure from their senior officer (related by marriage to Jounas) and the press to solve it ASAP.

She knew Susanne, she can alibi Jounas, she’s in charge of the case. Her team are less than confident in her ability (despite a degree in criminology and 11 years on the force as a detective). She’s in the mire.

The Good

Well-developed characters who inhabit a fleshed out world. I loved the development of the relationship between Karen and Sigrid, and the way their separate traumas bind them in trusting enough to share their stories. From their initial meeting to Karen taking Sigrid in when sick and almost homeless, to their plan to go to France and the disaster that stops them, it’s the sort of delightful inter-generational relationship between friends that is comforting to read.

I thought the way the police worked felt real – teams of people that don’t really get along and inhabit a parochial community, the rumours, petty needling and one-upmanship in a place with limited opportunities. Karen and Jounas’ relationship as colleagues is tempestuous but productive. She proves him wrong so well, I loved it. It’s an excellent police procedural.

I enjoyed the slow pulling back of the history of Susanne Smeed and her family tantalising, because I really wanted to know more, and Karen’s parallel personal history as well as the changes in her present complemented it; when the story ends you see the connections. The digging brought up clues to the mystery of who killed Susanne Smeed (not going to tell you!) but the reader sees things from Karen’s perspective a lot of the time, so I was totally taken off-guard by the truth at the end. Even Karen misunderstood the situation even as she was the only one to realise that events of the past was very definitely a part of it.

I really enjoyed the ending, I was totally taken by surprise by the big reveal, and the tension was ratcheted up with each missed call and each glimpse of a mysterious figure.

The weather and landscape of Doggerland felt like it could be a real place, and the people authentic. The winter storm was so fitting for the ending and added a bit of tension to the already tense situation. The occasional hint of humour relieved it a bit, especially Evild declaration that Karen was not his friend – the release was just right at the time.

The Not-So-Good

The changing perspectives and tenses got a bit confusing at times.

The Verdict

A long build-up rewarded by an explosive ending and an unexpected resolution.