I really enjoyed this book and found it very gripping. The atmospheric descriptions of Sark painted a perfect picture of the area and I really felt I could imagine being there. I didn't guess the perpetrator and was surprised by the twist at the end — didn't see it coming! This is my first read from the author but I'd love to read more in the future.

Dark Sky Island is a thrilling, absorbing crime novel with a wonderful female detective as the main character.

It was great to read more about Jennifer again, especially as she pairs up with DCI Michael Gilbert again to try and solve the murders as I’ve always loved that partnership. This time Jennifer is actually conducting two investigations, the murders and a more personal investigation which allows the reader to learn more about her. I found this really interesting as she comes across as a bit of a closed book normally so this enabled me to understand her much better. The two investigations are very intriguing and makes the book hard to put down, especially when they finally join up in a very dramatic plot twist.

The channel Islands are again beautiful described so that the reader can fully imagine them in their mind. Their remoteness is used to help add a bit of tension and darkness to the story as it gave me the impression anything could be hiding there. It also means that there aren’t many people who could be the murderer, though there were quite a few shady characters to choose from. I had lots of theories all of which proved to be wrong and the final twist took me completely by surprise which I always really enjoy!

This was a fast paced, absorbing book that I flew through as I was really enjoying it. It is very atmospheric and gripping which makes for an easy read as there is always lots going on. I hope this isn’t the last we hear of Jennifer as I like reading about her and have grown quite fond of her.

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Trapeze books for my copy of this book via Netgalley. If you’re looking for a fantastic new crime series then you need to read this book!

Who would have thought the little island of Sark would be such a hotbed of mystery, murder and intrigue. Who could have imagined that this beautiful, peaceful and traffickless island would harbour murders and criminals and make you question if this was an island you would like to visit.

Sark was definitely the stand out character of Dark Sky Island. Dearman’s descriptions of its landscape, it’s rugged coastline and its traffic less tranquillity were wonderfully evocative. Yet you could feel the palpable tension that simmered below the surface and what you wanted more than anything was for it to bubble and erupt. I didn’t have to wait long as old bones and a murder threw the island into chaos, it’s residents under close scrutiny, old feuds resurrected.

Dearman threw a myriad of character at us, the seigneur, the billionaire, the local policeman, the old fishermen, the shopkeepers, in fact the entire population. She asked us who we would trust, who had something to hide and gave us local journalist Jenny and detective Michael to help us. What I liked what that each had their own perspective on the crimes, each wanting differing outcomes.

I loved Jenny, whose personal angle gave what could have been the harsh realities of murder a softer edge. You had to admire her dogged persistence and her, at times, foolhardy bravery which only made you like her that little bit more.

Michael, on the other hand, had a job to do, murders to solve. Dearman showed a man under pressure, a man whose belief in his fellow officers sorely tested.

I liked the relationship between Jenny and Michael, full of tension yet also mutual respect.

Dark Sky Island was no one dimensional murder, crime, thriller, it’s layers were indeed deep and complex. They beautifully showed the darker side of human nature, of greed, and self preservation to a degree you could at times not quite believe.

It showcased a community that bound itself together, that kept its secrets and pushed away those who tried to enter or challenge the status quo.

The multiple strands, the flip between past and present kept me guessing until slowly the light bulb went on as Dearman skilfully brought the strands together. The latter parts picked up at a furious pace, characters thrown together and against one another and you just knew not all would survive, or maintain their innocence until the last scintillating pages revealed all.

Dark Sky Island was the second book in the series and I loved the loose ends Dearman left dangling. She left me with an appetite for more and I cannot wait to see what she has in store for Jenny and Michael.

Sark is a tiny island that lies isolated in the dark waters of the Channel Islands. No cars are allowed. No streetlamps light its paths. It is the world’s only Dark Sky Island. This breathtaking patch of land seems the picture of tranquility―but at its heart lies a web of murder, deceit, and hidden danger. 


When bones are discovered on Derrible Bay and an elderly resident is violently murdered, DCI Michael Gilbert from the nearby island of Guernsey is called in to tackle the case. With his department under fire, he needs to find the killer―and fast. Joining him is newspaper reporter Jennifer Dorey, whose father died in a mysterious drowning off the island. As Michael struggles to crack the case and Jennifer launches her own investigation, the island’s residents are left reeling and soon, their dark secrets begin to unravel threatening everything. 


On an island steeped in superstition, where tales of hauntings and devil craft abound, Michael and Jenny race to discover the truth in Dark Sky Island, the second tantalizing installment of Lara Dearman’s Jennifer Dorey mysteries.


I really enjoyed this book, full of mystery and suspense with a real dark atmospheric setting where I could feel the winds howling at times in my mind. This story also raised my heartbeat on more than one occasion. Set in Sark which is off the coast of Guernsey and with only a population of 450, which is somewhere I wouldn't mind living with such a small population. We also follow Jennifer's search for the truth into her father's accidental death with circumstances that she doesn't believe are true, are these deaths connected and will she find out the truth?? 


Dark Sky Island is Lara Dearman’s follow-up to the first Jennifer Dorey mystery, The Devils Claw. I didn't realise that this was the second book in the series but can be read without reading the first one, although there were a few references to the first book so I will definitely go back and read the first in the series and I'm hoping that this isn't the last we hear from Jennifer and Michael.


Dark Sky Island is definitely going to find fans in readers of Susie Steiner and Sharon Bolton. If you've watched certain TV series like The Bay, Unforgotten and Broadchurch you will certainly love this series too.


Dark Sky Island is available in all good book shops, libraries, audio and on Kindle where it is currently £3.99 at the time off publication of this review and The Devil's Claw is £1.99 if you wanted to make a start on the series.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

A slow paced story with plenty of twists and turns to keep your interest. Good characterisation, good description of setting and well written.
This is the second book in the series and can be read as a stand alone but I feel you would definitely benefit from reading them in order.

This is the second of the Jennifer Dorey series - I haven’t read the first and whilst this wasn’t an issue, I found myself wishing I could fill in some gaps. I’ll definitely be looking for the first book.
The story is about Jennifer, a reporter who works in conjunction with the local DCI. It’s set in the Channel Islands which is really interesting in itself.
Bones are found on a local island, but whilst investigating, there is another murder - could the two be linked?
A well written story that took a little while to get going, but I’m really glad I stuck with it.

Jennifer Dorey is a journalist who has a recent run of being on the other side of the story. Now she is heading back to the island, Sark, to cover a story - the discovery of bones in a cave. Really she is going back for personal reasons, the death of her father, Jenny has never believed it was an accident and now she has a reason for being back and doing a bit of digging. When an islander is brutally murdered Jenny will find she has maybe bitten off a bit more than she can chew as she finds the some things should remain in the past.

This story has a whole host of things going on, small island doesn't want outsiders, one of their own is murdered, unresolved family issues, secrets, lies, death looming around the corner. The reader goes on the journey with Jenny, slowly unravelling the secrets of the island and uncovering bigger issues.

The setting for the story, the authors creative flow, you can visualize it with ease and I so want to go visit, excluding all the issues and bad stuff obviously. There is a lot of history with this book and despite this being my first dance with this author and this being book two, I don't think I missed anything by starting with this one. I will be checking out the first story as I would like more history on the main character but got into the rhythm of this one no bother. It goes at a good pace and has a few layers to the story, atmospheric and keeps the reader on their toes as you may think you have it figured only to have another curve ball chucked at you. Enjoyed reading this author and will be looking out for their other offerings, 4/5 for me this time.

I’ve not read book one of this series but I’ll definitely wanna go back and read it as I really enjoyed this story.

This story is based on an island called Sark, a dark island where there are no street lights or cars.

Detective Michael Gilbert and journalist Jennifer Dorey find themselves on Sark with Micheal investigating a skeleton been found and Jennifer getting the story.

I’ve got to admit I was fascinated about this island and actually googled it. Yes it’s a real place. Am looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Although I thought this was slow to start with I found this to be a well written murder mystery.

The protagonists in this novel were Jenny and Michael. Jenny is a journalist who’s curiosity and wish of a great story always leads her to very unpleasant situations. Michael is a DCI, who is leading the murder investigations on Sark, a little island with less than 500 people. I really enjoyed Jenny’s character in this novel, I liked her informal way of gathering the information and her smartness in “connecting the dots”. Michael is smart, but his lack of fitness didn’t allow him to be the DCI I enjoy reading about.

The novel starts quite slow, and it takes a while for both of these characters to gather decent information. I really enjoyed the twists and turns in this novel, it was quite refreshing after the slow beginning. I really liked the way the author described Sark, the streets, the houses, the people, it is visible that she knows a lot about life on an island. I also really liked the horror element and the folk stories used in this book, it was very interesting to read about them, and the unexplained chilling creatures gave this mysterious vibe about the whole island.

The writing style of this book is very pleasant and easy to read, even though the author used quite a few French names in it, which I had no idea how to pronounce. 😀 At times, the novel felt a little like a cosy mystery, but towards the end, this changed drastically. I really liked the surprising and unexpected ending of the book, it rounded this novel extremely well. The chapters were quite long at times, but new findings and plenty of action later on in the book helped, and the pages just flew by.

So, to conclude, even though this is a second book, it can be read as a stand alone easily. The setting and the characters are very well picked for this novel, and the plot thickens as you carry on reading. It is a good book full of small island life, unexpected discoveries, twists, and I really liked it.

A confession-I had literally no idea about the Channel Islands before starting reading this book, the hook of the thriller reeled me in and then I found myself reading about all these little islands and not a clue!

So I did a bit of research and found that the title refers to Sark ,the island location of the book,being named the world’s first Dark Sky Island, the obesrvatory built there and just how small and insular it is.

This really added to the atmosphere which Lara Dearman stunningly creates in this, her second novel set in her home of the Channel Islands. Beginning with quite literally, a cliff hanger opening, she manages to a) make you forget the unamed character she has put in such peril and b) introduces her cast of characters who are central to the novel.

What a feat! To put a person in mortal danger then manage to misdirect the reader…I was chapters deep before thinking ‘What happened to the person at the start!!;

The idea of an island to escape to is an intriguing one-so many of us hold it as an idyll but once you get there, what if you cannot escape? If you live somewhere so small that cars are outlawed and is so safe that rarely are there locked doors, how does a murder affect that community?

By giving us the story of Jen, the investigative reporter who is the principle narrator with a back story linked to Book 1, Lara gives us eyes and ears on the ground as readers, she is an outsider as are we yet also a native insider providing balance to what she is seeing.
The investigation in to the human remians found in a cave comes courtesy of a tip off-but what was the aim of this and who did it? And whilst recovering the bones, an islander is found brutally murdered. The story then goes back in time to the 1970's ,and a woman named Rachel, leaving the reader dangling by their fingertips but this time, we are storing the relevant details and placing the facts in  storage for future use.

Added to this, there is a billionaire who has bought an island off the coast to make it his personal retreat and is squeezing the island dry in an attempt to take it over.The old and the new are unwelcome bedfellows, the traditions and tales of the island versus the ability to buy Waitrose stock, the tourists  that they rely on versus the 'toast rack' tractor pulled transport that serves the island.

The atmosphere is stunning, the characters relatable and the story keeps you on tenterhooks!

I absolutely loved the way that the threads were pulled together towards a climactic finale that leaves you both reeling, and wanting more. If you need me I'll be listening to the album Enya wrote based on Sark and the poems of writer and collaborator Roma Ryan

Lara Dearman created a suspenseful and intelligent novel that keeps the reader completely engrossed with the beautiful evocative setting of the Channel Islands, multiple murders, and a smart and engaging protagonist. DARK SKY ISLAND is the second novel featuring crime reporter Jennifer Dorey. She works for The Guernsey News where she has to bear the jealousy of her colleagues while juggling a complicated and intimate relationship with her colleague Elliott. In DARK SKY ISLAND, Jennifer teams up again with DCI Michael Gilbert to investigate human bones found in a bay on Sark island, a man killed in his own home, an island full of secrets, and her father’s suspicious death.

Using different points of views and different timelines, Lara Dearman crafts a suspenseful story that keep the readers on their toes. The beautiful descriptions made me fall in love with the setting, so dark and atmospheric, and the small community of the island of Sark, full of suspicious characters and secrets, made the story suspenseful and sinister.

Jennifer Dorey and DCI Michael Gilbert make a fantastic and engaging investigative pair. Their investigation into the bones found on Sark and the murder of one of inhabitants of the island put both Jennifer and Michael in dangerous situations, but they are determined in finding out the truth, especially when things become more personal for Jennifer who is trying to figure out if her father’s death was really an accident.

Lara Dearman is a terrific author with a beautiful prose and DARK SKY ISLAND is a gripping and unpredictable crime novel so I am really looking forward to reading more novels featuring the likable and intelligent character of Jennifer Dorey.

Dark Island, an Island without streetlight, a paradise to enjoy the night and the stars, unless there’s been a murder and everyone is a suspect, the nightmare to any small village in which your neighbour could be the killer!
This is the second book of the Jennifer Dorey series, but you can read it as standalone, you’ll not feel lost. But after reading this book, I am intrigued to read a new adventure of the curious journalist Jenny Dorey!
When a body and some bones appear, Jenny can not say away to start investigate; everything will feel more personal when she discovers that one of the victims knew his father, it will be the perfect moment to ask some questions about his death too.
The story is dark and intriguing, but what I liked most is that the island is like a character too, with its past and secrets, rumours kept hidden and some villagers not ready to let the truth go out.
The story is told between Jennifer; how she is investigating the case, she wants to know the answers to all her questions no matter if she has to risk her life searching for them! We will have the point of view of the DCI Michael Gilbert, and this investigation will not be easy, everyone keeps their thoughts to themselves and is not really eager to help. But there’s another voice in the story too, from the past, Rachel, from 1980…
I know that none of these characters seem to have anything in common, but when you’ll start reading you’ll not be able to stop, the dark will haunt your thoughts untill you’ll discover the truth!
Be prepared for a slow-paced story, with twists and intriguing characters, which will be a delight to any crime reader!
Ready for a trip to the Dark Island?

Dark Sky Island is book number 2 in the Jennifer Dorey series. I loved book one – Deep Dark Water so couldn’t wait to get into this!

We’re back with Jenny, who is travelling over to the tiny island of Sark after she hears about human bones being found in a cave. We also, once again, get to catch up with DCI Michael Gilbert. He’s investigating the bones but then, whilst on the island a murder takes place……Are the two linked?

Jenny, using her journalistic skills, sets out to find out what’s going on by talking to the locals but feels like they’re all hiding something…..but can a whole island of residents really all be in on one big secret?

And is the murder and bones linked to her own past? A past that she’s so desperately trying to get answers to?

Yet again, Dearman gives us a fabulous gripping storyline, set on a beautiful little island that is somewhat stuck in the past. Her descriptions of places is fantastic, and it really helps you get sucked in to the story and enables you to feel like you’re really there. The characters are brilliant. Jenny, with her own issues, insecurities and past; DCI Gilbert, with his grumpiness and secrets and then a cast of other characters who are interesting to say the least!

Dearman also delivers a number of brilliant twists that are completely not expected! I’m definitely a fan of her work, and look forward to reading more from her in the future!

Although this is the second book in the series, this can be read as a standalone. There’s enough information in the book about what’s happened before, and not only does this help but I’m sure it will leave you wanting to read the first one too!

Dark Sky Island is the second book in Lara Dearman’s ‘Jennifer Dorey Mysteries’ series. As someone who’s not read the first book, The Devil’s Claw, I can assure readers Dark Sky Island works perfectly well as a standalone. However, there are references to events in the first book making me wish I had been able to read The Devil’s Claw first. Having said that, the author clearly left a few plot elements unresolved at the end of The Devil’s Claw so that new readers don’t feel they’ve lost out and readers of the series can (finally) have their curiosity satisfied. Very clever.

I really enjoyed the unusual setting of the book – the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Sark. There’s loads of convincing sounding local detail and information about the history of Sark, in particular. I loved the way the author used the contrast between the seemingly idyllic island of Sark with its bicycles and horse-drawn carts, unspoilt natural landscape and rocky coastline and the brutal reality of murder. There’s an undercurrent of tension too between the locals and more recent arrivals, between old customs and modern developments. Given the only way on and off Sark is by boat, it gives a feeling of a locked room mystery. That sense of claustrophobia is enhanced by the island’s small population, made up of families who have lived there for generations and where pretty much everyone knows everyone else. Plenty of opportunity too for past feuds, long-held grievances and secrets in what Jenny refers to at one point as ‘this twisted paradise, with its shadowy figures and their veiled threats‘.

Through the alternating narratives of Jenny and Michael, as well as a few other characters whose part in the story is not immediately obvious, the reader follows the course of the police investigation into the identity of remains found hidden in a cave and the murder of a local man. In addition, Jenny has a very personal mystery she needs answers to. Are they connected? You’ll have to read Dark Sky Island to find out but what I can say is that as the book progresses the revelations comes thick and fast. There were also a few ‘I wouldn’t do that, Jenny/Michael, if I were you’ moments to get the pulse racing as the story builds to its dramatic conclusion. And you never can tell, can you, who’s a goodie and who’s a baddie?

I really enjoyed Dark Sky Island and as the author definitely seems to have left a few loose threads at the end of the book, I’m hopeful this isn’t the last story featuring Jennifer.

Is there anything better than finding an amazing book (and author) and then finding out its park of a book series?! No there is NOT! I was already excited to be part of this blog tour, because the book itself sounded amazing, and now I have won that bookworm lottery with a brand new favorite series to jump into.

This book has every element that I want in my stories lately - well developed and complicated characters, intriguing and atmospheric settings, mystery, twists and a plot that I fall completely into and can’t put down.

Setting a book and a story on a remote island like this is absolute perfection. Lara manages to bring the island fully to life on the page and it becomes a character all it’s own. I love a book that makes me feel like I’ve visited that location, or like I could and I would run into the locals in the story, and Sark has become that location for me. I grew up in a very small town, and I felt such a connection to the location - the way small towns operate, the gossip, the crime, the politics, the people. I am completely enamored with Sark and I would love to visit it. The added layer of incorporating the old local yore into the story was also perfection - I wasn’t sure how I would feel about superstition playing a central role to the story, but it added so much depth to the mystery itself that I found myself wanting more.

I also love a book that moves the point of view from character to character and let’s the story and the mystery unravel itself a tiny bit at a time. Getting to see the perspectives of both Micheal and Jennifer made them both all the more relatable to me, and now I am fully invested in seeing where they go next.

I want so badly to dive into the nitty gritty of the plot of this book and debate it in depth, but I just cannot let one detail escape for readers who haven’t yet had the luck to become part of the Sark world. This is a book that genuinely deserves to be read without spoilers, so that you too can lose yourself in the pages. What I will say is that this is one of those books that make for perfect summer night reading - it’s story is going to suck you in.

I won’t lie, when I finished this one, I immediately ordered the first book in this series, and if that is not a point of high praise I don’t know what is. I can’t wait to dive into that one and get more of the backstory of Jenny and her father - I have no doubt I will love it just as much as this one.

So friends, don’t wait, go and grab your own copy of this wild ride, and join me in my love affair with Sark.

I was a huge fan of the first book in this series and I’m just as impressed by the second outing – Dark Sky Island is tense, hugely atmospheric and beautifully written.

The sense of place is incredibly immersive and the mystery element is clever, engaging and unpredictable. I love the two central characters and this is an intriguing story of the secrets within a small island community.

Overall this is a wonderful read, a page turner, quality crime fiction just the way I like it

Highly Recommended.

Dark Sky Island is the second book in Lara Dearman’s Jennifer Dorey series. I haven’t read The Devil’s Claw yet, but I enjoyed this book so much I will definitely be seeking it out as soon as my schedule allows! Although events from the previous book are referred to in this one, I don’t think that took anything away from my enjoyment of the story at all, and feel it can still be read quite well as a standalone.

This book is set in the Channel Islands, with the atmospheric and beautiful island of Sark being the primary focus in this story. Some mysterious, decades old, human bones have been found in a remote bay on the island, so DCI Michael Gilbert has been sent to investigate. Journalist Jennifer Dorey is desperate to find out more, and when another body is discovered, it soon becomes clear that everything on the island is not all as it seems.

What follows is a dark and complex story told from several different points of view. With past events from decades earlier cleverly interwoven into the narrative, long hidden secrets are slowly revealed as we move through the book. Who do the mysterious bones belong to and are they connected in any way to the present day murder? Who or what is the terrifying Beast of Sark? And was the death of Jennifer’s father two years ago really an accident, or is it linked in any way to what is happening on Sark today?

As DCI Michael Gilbert and Jennifer Dorey try to uncover the truth, there is a rising sense of menace and foreboding, with the islanders closing rank and impeding the investigation at every turn. The island of Sark is brought vividly to life, with its old fashioned ways, lack of transport and eerie foggy landscape all adding to the tension and sense of danger, until at long last the mystery is solved and the shocking truth finally revealed.

Beautifully written, Dark Sky Island is a gripping and atmospheric mystery thriller, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout. I loved the character of Jennifer Dorey from the outset, her vulnerable, determined and sometimes reckless attitude all adding up to a fascinating character I can’t wait to see more of in the future.

A highly entertaining and complex page turner of a thriller that I would recommend.

I loved Lara Dearman’s first Jennifer Dorey book, The Devil’s Claw and so was very keen to read the second in the series, which can happily be read perfectly well as a stand-alone novel.

This time, most of the action takes place on the small island of Sark, the titular Dark Sky Island, so named because it has little light pollution (the island has one lamppost) and the constellations can be seen so clearly in the night sky.

Jenny, a journalist on the Guernsey News, is one of three voices we hear from in this book. The others are DCI Michael Gilbert, who is dating Jenny’s mum and a woman named Rachel, whose viewpoint comes to us from the late 1970’s.

Dearman was always going to be off to a running start by picking Sark on which to set the majority of the action. Sark is part of the Channel Islands. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. With a population of around 500, Sark is one of the few remaining places in the world where cars are banned from roads and only tractors and horse-drawn vehicles are allowed.

What a location for a murder and a series of mysteries. Deeply atmospheric and quite, quite beautiful, Sark is the central character here, her wild and dangerous beauty luring others to their deaths.

Law enforcement isn’t really much required on an island where the ferry I the only means of getting on and off the island, unless you are a boat owner, or in the case of the millionaire owner of Little Sark, you have your own helicopter. So there is one volunteer P.C. and if required, the Guernsey police will look after anything serious.

For Jenny, brought to the island when she receives a tip off that human remains have been found in one of the Sark caves, this is a bittersweet return to Sark. Sark is where her father drowned, in a death ruled accidental. But Jenny knows he was much too careful a fisherman to have drowned in an accident and she is determined to get to the truth. She’s hopeful that she can speak to people on Sark and find out a little more about what her dad was to when he died.

But while the police investigate how these remains came to be there, which could potentially have been lying undiscovered for decades, another man is murdered and dark secrets about what has been happening on the island come to light.

She’s hardly begun to investigate the human remains when, after a disturbing conversation with one of her father’s friends, he is subsequently found dead, with his throat slashed.

Are the finding of human remains and the terrible murder connected? While there is no evidence to suggest so, the islanders are staying particularly tight lipped and it is soon clear that the answers to all the mysteries, historic and current, are buried deep on the island.

Dearman offers up a dotted graph of a trail which will finally enable the reader to join the dots; but not until the very end of the book.

Dearman’s characters are vivid and personable; her descriptive powers are such that you can visualise these people and even the annoying or unpleasant ones reinforce your pleasure in being immersed in this novel. The pace is excellent and Dearman ensures that the path to solving her mysteries will twist and turn before you see where you are going.

Verdict: Another captivating, immersive read in this Channel Islands series. I really hope there will be more.

I'll start my review by admitting that while this is book two in the series, and I do have book one, I've still not read it yet. I feel very sad about this fact, especially now that I have read Dark Sky Island, because I absolutely loved it. You know when a book really draws you in, where an author has done such a brilliant job of setting the scene and creating such an all consuming story that you don't want to put the book down? This was one of those books.

The story is primarily set on the island of Sark, recently designated a dark sky island by virtue of it's being practically pitch black at night, street lamps removed in favour of the natural night sky. This alone lends itself to a creeping and atmospheric read, but add in the mystery surrounding the discovery of old bones in a cliffside cove, a very close knit community who do not take kindly to intrusion from the police, and a rather grizzly murder and the scene is set for a dark and brooding story in which our series protagnoist, Jennifer Dorey, and DCI Michael Gilbert see both of their lives in great danger.

I absolutely loved the mystery and suspense which the author created from the very beginning of the book. The island setting is perfect, allowing for all manner of unusual behaviour. Everyone appears to be keeping secrets and it is virtually impossible to know who to trust. Throw in a very traditional way of life, including a complicated, feudal political system, and it makes for an intriguing mix. As a reader, much like Jen, you feel like you are on the outside, seeing only half a picture, and I was completely taken, wanting to know what secrets the island held.

If you have read book one, then you will be familiar with Jen's home situation, and the loss of her father a few yers earlier in what appeared to be a tragic boating accident. This book answers some of the many questions Jen has about that fateful night, but . discovery of any truth always comes at a cost. Whether the price is too high to pay is something that is slowly revealed through the course of the novel.

While I had a few ideas about what was going on, some of which proved to be true, others less so, I certainly wasn't expecting the facts as they were revealed to me. Talk about not seeing the wood for the trees. The author had me completely blindsided, much like the central characters, and it worked perfectly. For the most part ,the story is told in the present day, following the police investigation, but there are scenes set in the past which give more insight into the life of one of the victims in the novel. But you are also subjected to a lot of misdirection and subterfuge, as well as s few unexpected unions, which when pulled altogether made this a very satisfying read.

The pacing is perfect, the tension slow building and there are times when I was on the edge of my seat. But for me, setting became a character in it's own right, Lara Dearman painting the island so clearly in my mind that I found myself completely fascinated, and keen to visit Guernsey and Sark. I even found myself ordering a Channel Islands holidays brochure before the day is out, that is how much she captured my imagination. Obviously I'm not planning on going, expecting to find a murder victim, not do I imagine for one minute that the locals are as insular and unusual as those portrayed in the novel. But the island, the idea of the tradition and isolation of it, really fascinates me. And that is a really skilful author who can create such a vision that is leaves me so keen to visit a place which is no greater than 3 square miles.

Atmospheric, brooding and full of tension, I absolutely loved this book. I got swept up from the start, finding myself completely lost in the mystery that enshrouded the island. I'll most definitely be heading back to read book one just as soon as I can and look forward to reading more from the author.

A beautiful setting for a good gripping read. I loved the descriptions of the scenery and Island life. There were also some interesting characters who I would like to know more about.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.