Detective Lena Lorenzen is spending a few days reconnecting with her ex Erick, when she is sent to deal with a missing teenager as a favour to her boss. Lena isn’t getting any cooperation from the girls parents, who are deeply religious. When the girl, Maria, is found dead, it presents as a suicide, but Lena isn’t convinced.
There is also what’s happening between Lena and Erck, who wants to make their relationship more permanent. Lena isn’t sure, especially when an officer she had a one night stand with is assigned to the case. I enjoyed this book, although I didn’t feel any empathy for any of the characters, other than the victim. It seemed as though Lena and Ercks relationship problems weren’t really relevant to the story. It may have worked better for me if I’d read the first book in this series. However, still a good stand along story.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is the second book in the series, another fantastic read which I enjoyed and couldn't put down. I am looking forward to reading more in the future.

Death on the Beach by Anna Johannsen is a murder mystery set on the German island of Föhr. Inspector Lena Lorenzen of the Kiel Police is sent to Föhr to investigate the case of a missing fourteen-year-old student, Maria Logener. She was soon found on the beach with her wrists and arms sliced where she had bled out. The local police accept the death as suicide, but Lena has suspicions there is more to the case. The investigation is met with little information due to the religious family and community who are hesitant to open their doors for questioning. Also, Maria was bullied by some students at her school and she had very few friends. The book has interesting characters and Lena has a personal conflict with her boyfriend who wants a more permanent relationship. Ben, an investigator who helped Lena on a previous case arrives to help to determine if this is a suicide or murder. Lena had a brief relationship previously with Ben and now she feels as if her personal life has become more complicated. I thought she sent mixed signals to both men, Erck and Ben. Also, I felt the questioning of Lisa was weak. The prejudice against the religious community was very prevalent in the story. There was never any true indication of violence within the evangelical community.
Publication Date: May 15, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I didn't love this book- it was slow and felt like it just kind of ended without any build up. It focuses on Detective Lena Lorenzen, who is a detective called to investigate the disappearance of a 14 year old girl, Maria, on a remote island. They soon find the girl's body and Lena believes it's a murder rather than a suicide. The girl's parents are part of a religious sect and may or may not be holding secrets, causing them to not be that helpful to the investigation.

I didn't feel like I really got to know any of the characters in the book. I found out later this was part of a series so maybe I needed to read the other(s) to get more background. I was frustrated by Lena's constant indecision around whether to continue her relationship with her boyfriend, Erck; and didn't think that any other character was that well developed. There was also a lot of focus on the religious "cult" of which the dead girl's family was a member, but it felt only loosely tied to the overall story. The book reads like a police procedural, and felt like they are identifying and dismissing various culprits, then moving on to the next one, then the story ends. There wasn't a feeling of mystery to me.

I do think the translator of this book was fantastic! Often I find the language to be stilted when books are translated into English, but I would have not known this book was originally written in another language if I hadn't read about it.

Overall, this wasn't the book for me, but may be better for others who like the police procedural genre and/or are fascinated by unique religious beliefs. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Small island life on Fohr where Detective Lena Lorenzen arrives to take charge of the investigation of missing school girl Maria. She finds a very religious closed community who close ranks when a body on the beach is found. This is a good solid police story where our Detective follows the clues but has to switch off any prejudices against how Maria had been raised in her deeply religious family. Had she tried to rebel or had something more terrible happened. Our police officers will find their own relationships and childhood will influence them in this investigation. A great setting which really gives you the flavour of how many secrets can be hidden on a small Island.
I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A well written cop drama, set on an island in the North Sea off of Germany. Caught my attention, as my ancestors came from that area. Overall, I really enjoyed this one, and the story lets the reader be a fly on the wall as Lena and her team try to figure out who killed a local 14 year old girl. A lot of red herrings, and interesting characters lead to a good story. The only thing I found a little distracting was Lena's relationships with her boyfriend and her colleague Ben, who she had a brief affair with in the past. Didn't see the worth in so much personal details of her, and wished the book would have stayed more focused on the murder investigation. Would highly recommend though, as I found it hard to put down.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for an advance copy of Death on The Beach, the second novel to feature Inspector Lena Lorenzen of the Kiel Police.

On holiday on the German island of Amrum Lena is sent to the neighbouring island of Föhr to help investigate the disappearance of a fourteen year old girl, Maria Logener. When Maria’s body is found on the beach with her wrist slashed Lena is not as sure as the others that it is suicide.

I enjoyed Death on The Beach, which is an interesting police procedural with some unusual circumstances taking it out of the everyday. The island setting obviously limits the parameters of the investigation and the fact that Maria belongs to a strict evangelical order adds a certain twist to proceedings. Nevertheless the author handles it with aplomb.

The novel is told from Lena’s point of view so the reader can dive right in, identify with her and not get distracted by other voices. This is my favourite kind of reading so it held my attention from start to finish. Lena’s investigation is very nebulous throughout, be it the lack of cooperation from her parents and their order or Maria’s missing tablet which means they have no digital footprint to follow or even Maria’s own secretiveness which meant she had no confidantes so she has to rely on piecing together small snippets of information until the big breakthrough at the end. Is it a bolt from the blue? Not quite, but it is a sudden turn. I imagine that it’s reflective of real police work but it does seem a touch contrived.

This is not a high octane read but rather a painstaking examination of Maria’s life and last few weeks. I couldn’t help but feel heart sorry for her circumstances but at the same time I never felt that she came alive as a person. This too, I imagine, is reflective of real police work - too many people with different views of the same person.

I like the novel as a police procedural as I enjoy the gradual triangulation of facts and theories into a cohesive case and I think the author does a good job of it. I’m not so keen on Lena Lorenzen whom I find rather dreary. There is no doubt that she is a smart, intuitive investigator with great people skills but her love life which she examines ad nauseum is a bore. Talk to him and thrash it out.

Death on The Beach is a good read that I can recommend.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review, thank you for that.
I enjoyed this book, compared to the first in the series the author has improved :)

A suicide -murder mystery with a lady detective as lead. The entire story is said in a woman’s perspective, you can feel the detective’s confusion, her fear and her thoughts. Death on the beach is a second book in the series, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. The author has truly captivated the “community thinking” in this book. The language is good, not much of thrilling moments, but good amount of mystery. The only drawback was that the story is slow moving for a murder mystery!
Thank you NetGalley, Amazon publishing and Anna Johannsen for reader’s copy of the book. The review is my own and was not influenced in any way.

Another great story in the ‘crime noir’ genre. Anna Johannsen has in her lead detective Lena Lorenzen a very down to earth investigator who does not let her own personal life affect her work. A very believable storyline covering several aspects of modern life. A well recommended read

I thought Death on the Beach was going to blow me away but honestly I got bored and dint finish it. Synopsis is really promising but I couldn’t get past how slow the story is.

Giving this 3/5 since it would be unfair to give a low rating since I didn’t complete.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free copy. An easy read and clearly building a running character story line, but I had to try remember what happened in the first book from time to time.

Second in series of detective stories set on the German Friesian islands. A girl from a fundamentalist church goes missing, and is then found dead. Her family and community close ranks ....... Lena Lorenzan and her colleagues investigate, whilst dealing with local obstructions. Any more detail would give things away.
This book is easy to read, one wants to find out what happens. The characters are all rounded, and one cares for them, because (or despite) their flaws.
Recommended to anyone who likes mysteries.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Mercer for an advance copy.

I thought this book was slow, It didn't seem to go anywhere. The investigation was slow and tedious. I didn't feel much connection to any of the characters except Maria the murder victim, her life was given in much detail. I didn't really like the reveal of the murderer as it feels unfinished. There wasn't a confession or any major kind of reveal. #DeathontheBeach #NetGalley

This book reminds me a bit of Death in Paradise. Good book but did get bored halfway through. This was maybe just me will try and reread at another time