Average crime novel with almost no suspense and typical ending. The characters aren't very convincing but the scenery is stunning; Frisian islands.

Stylish thriller but had a typical ending.  This novel is your basic mystery/thriller. The characters were mostly interesting but the story didn’t really have any punch to it. I had figured out who the killer was very quickly and that made the book only so-so for me. I liked the main character though and plan to try another book in the series down the road.

Detective Lena Lorenzen returns in Death on the Beach which is the second book in the series by Anna Johannsen.

Like the first book it is an engaging and enjoyable read with the main crime story moving along at a good pace whilst the main characters are allowed to grow.

Overall definitely a book I would recommend

A fast-paced crime thriller! 

This was my first read by Anna Johannsen and it is certainly a fast-paced crime thriller! It is the second book in ‘The Island Mystery Series’ which can also be read independently. 

The main setting is on the small island of Fohr, in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. I found the plot really riveting from the outset, when Maria, a 14 year old teenage girl, is reported missing. 

The investigation is led by DI Lena Lorenzen, and immediately she finds defiance and resistance from all directions. She and her colleague, Johann, make a great team. Soon they discover that Maria has actually been murdered and even her parents resent Lena’s probing questions. They belong to a rather puritanical religious cult, and so do many of the islanders, all with their strident beliefs. 

It is interesting to note that Lena’s own complicated private life becomes entangled in her professional investigation, which for me added to the enjoyment of the plot. Throughout it all, Lena showed her tenacious character to finally reveal who committed this heinous crime. There are several red herrings, leading to a dramatic conclusion. 

I would like to add that I’m impressed with the translator, who changed the German language into English. Thanks also to the author Anna Johannsen for a great page turner 

Galadriel. 

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book for review.

Death on the Beach is a second book by German author Anna Johannsen in her Island Mystery series featuring detective Lena Lorenzen. It has been masterfully translated into the Queen’s English by Jozef Van Der Voort, whose words flow seamlessly. 

It can be read without knowledge of the first book. 

Lena Lorenzen in on holiday on her home island of Amrun, after a first case during which she rekindled her relationship with her boyfriend of fourteen years ago. Her Superintendent asks her, as a favour, to help local authorities to look into the disappearance of a teenage girl on the neighbour island of Föhr, whose parents belong to a extreme conservative free church considered a sect by most of the islanders. Her relationship with her DSU having improved thanks to her first case, she accepts the assignment. 

She very quickly gets stonewalled by uncooperative parents, mistrusting of authorities, and feeling persecuted for their faith. Even the mother isn’t cooperative at first, as it’s customary for wives to bend to the will of their husbands among their brethren. The investigators will frustratingly get the same hostile treatment from all other members of the flock. 

However, when the girl is found dead, Lorenzen takes charge of the investigation, and things start to change. 

This is a complex case, as events turn the inquiries into new directions, and more people get probed. The victim herself, Maria, turns out not to be who everyone thought she was, and the investigation can’t go anywhere without learning to know the victim.

Lorenzen went to the same school as Maria, and knows the principal. Two teachers, apparently a little too close to the girl, quickly become persons of interest, but so do several of the students, and some members of the church. Meanwhile, Maria’s real personality is slowly unveiled by the investigators, and so are her movements in the last days of her life, in a way reminiscent of Laura Palmer’s in David Lynch’s cult series. 

A lot of time is also spent on Lena Lorenzen’s personal life. But, she doesn’t appear as very likable to the reader at first, Her behavior towards local police, for example, is rather harsh, bordering on bullying, which seems unwarranted. We learn about her relationships with her family, her estranged father, her love interest, and an ex-lover, while the secondary characters aren’t much developed, if at all. It would have been interesting to get to know some of them a little more, such as Leon, the grumpy hacker whiz. Instead, we stick with the one main character. 

The whole police procedural part of the book is captivating, and it’s not a book you want to put down. It unfortunately all leads to quite an anticlimactic ending, making the reader feel like he spent time working to solve the puzzle for nothing. Not that it isn’t realistic, in a police investigation sense, but realistic doesn’t always make for good crime books endings.  

In spite of this, it was a good quick read, and I’ll be back for the next entry in the series, hoping for more secondary character development, and an ending to root for. 

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. 

Thanks to Thomas and Mercer, Amazon Publishing UK and Netgalley for the ARC provided in exchange for this unbiased review.

Detective Inspector Lena Lorenzen is having a few days off on her home island of Amrum with boyfriend, Erck when she is alerted to a missing fourteen year old girl. Requested to intervene by her boss Lena takes charge, calling in her partner DS Johannn Grasmann to assist. 

As the investigation begins the detectives are shocked by the lack of cooperation from anyone including the girl's parents and find themselves battling to get answers when time is obviously of the essence. 

I enjoyed this book very much for the most part, the two main characters were well written and interacted in a natural and believable manner. Neither was perfect but their foibles weren't debilitating and made them seem far more realistic. It wasn't a heart stopping, page turning, rollercoaster of a read, instead it seemed in tune with the slower pace of island life. Things were worked at, clues were discovered, verified and they moved on to the next step. It made a nice change to be able to enjoy a slower paced novel without it descending into lethargy. I would give it a 3.5* rating if I could so have rounded it up as it's definitely more than a 3.

The problem I had was with the breakthrough moment, it seemed contrived, almost as if the author had written themselves into a corner and needed to either re-write or use a less than ideal scenario to solve things. After all that had gone before it was a bit of a let down. I am hopeful of a third book in this series however, and will definitely be on the lookout for it and I am sure I will enjoy that too.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who read the first book or who enjoys European crime fiction. In both cases this is a good read.

I received an advanced copy from Net Galley. I liked the plot and how it unfolded as you read. There is a balance to be found between the murder/crime and the detectives’ personal life. I found in this novel that at times the main detective’s personal life over shadowed the murder plot. I also found the main character to be overly authoritative. It was a captivating read because you wanted to find out who the killer was, but by no means were any of the breaks or suspects in the case overly surprising.  It is probably more like 3.75 stars, but I rounded up.

This is a terrific police procedural.

Anna Johannsen certainly knows how to write a mystery. The plot is about a missing girl, so many questions very little answers. Going through the processes of interviewing and finding out what actually happened is written very well and I think most people will be hooked.

Second instalment in the "Island Mystery" series, "Death on the beach" is a good example of a pretty entertaining police procedural. 

Once again the story takes off almost from page one, diving straight into a missing person investigation that soon becomes a murder one. The investigation turns out to be pretty complicated because the dead girl's family belong to an evangelical cult and they don't seem too keen on helping the police. Besides DI Lorenzen is dealing with some personal issues, and that's my main problem with the story and the character. I understand she can have doubts about her relationship, but stop leading him on if you don't know what you want in life. Talk to him and stop ruminating about your love life!

The other issue I had with this story was the ending. While not being completely out of the blue it felt a bit unsatisfying.

It was an entertaining enough police procedural but I would have liked a bit more personal growth on the main character, but hopefully we'll see some of that on book 3.

3.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. .All opinions expressed are my own..  I have not ready anything by this author and this book I believe is the second in a series, that said it did not matter and novel certainly stands alone.  I loved the plot in this book and the characters and will certainly read more by this author I would recommend this book to others.

While Detective Lena Lorenzen is visiting her long distance boyfriend, she is called in to run an investigation of a missing girl on a nearby island. As the investigation deepens, she tries to find answers from an unhelpful close knit community. 

This is a slow lead most likely due to the translation.  Also the mentioning of every village on all the islands is very distracting and unnecessary.

I am going to be honest, I had to make myself finish the book. I had a hard time becoming vested in the book. It was lackluster at best, the story was all over the place. There was no connectivity in the flow of the book. 
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book. 
#Netgalley 
#deathonthebeach

#DeathontheBeach
#NetGalley
A good solid read. A twisty mystery that will keep you turning the page.

A young girl goes missing but why doesn't anyone seem to care?
Something clearly is off center when Maria goes missing and her parents couldn't give a hoot less.
What could cause her to leave?
Was she depressed, suicidal, desperate for freedom?
Or was she murdered?
Those closest are interviewed and the clues start to show a pattern of denial and deceit.
These devoutly religious islanders clearly are hiding something.
Soon, Detective Lena learns the island and the islanders are hiding something deep, dark, and disturbing!
Could this be a 'cult' of sorts in play?
What if everyone is permanently silenced?
It turns out the reality of the situation is truly magnified by the classless, senseless, disgusting actions of one.
Abuse is at the heart of the matter and it's truly an unspeakable act against an innocent person.
Those in positions of authority must protect and defend our young not put them in harm's way.
This was clearly well written, thorough, and precise with that investigative and procedural feel that encompassed readers minds and kept those like myself engaged from start to finish.
Thank you to Anna, the pub, NetGalley, and Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Anna Johannesburg has tried to write the typical who dun it, plenty of clues, plenty os suspects and a detective who just has the instinct to find out the truth, so why am I disappointed? A true who dun it lets you solve the crime from the story line I defy you to solve this crime

The second in the series featuring Inspector Lena Lorenzen of the Kiel police finds Lena sent to the island of Fohr to help find a fourteen-year-old girl Maria Logener. Maria is a member of a local religious group who stays pretty much to themselves and is an honor student with no known enemies. Her body is found on the beach in what at first looks like suicide, but Lena determines that this is a homicide, and now the police work begins. I enjoyed the story and look forward to the next in the series. Thank you to #NetGalley for the arc of this novel.

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.