#BlogTour ‘Fatal Isles’ by Maria Adolfsson

About the book…

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 . . .

Many thanks to Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invite and gifted review copy of ‘Fatal Isles’ which is out on the 18th February from Zaffre Books!

I can see why these novels have been so popular that they have finally been translated into English for a wider audience, the island of Doggerland may not exist, but Maria makes it totally believable and realistic.

Balanced between several cultures and languages, Doggerland is a no man’s land and a melting pot of differing European states whilst being entirely their own place. And the sense of time and place is brilliantly conjured by an author who keenly observes both the claustrophobic and yet sparse nature of island life.

Karen Hornby is a well drawn detective, she is introduced to us readers following the drunken decision to have a one night stand with her married boss. Her attempts to sneak away and keep the remaining shreds of her dignity are ones I think many readers would recognise and brings a brief glimpse of her as a protagonist as well as launching the story with wry humour.

This contrasts neatly then with the revelation that her boss, Jounas Smeed, is being accused of murder. And Karen is his alibi…

Her position as a detective needs to be upheld and maintained whilst trying to clear her name and backtrack over this error of judgement and, being on an island, there are a limited number of suspects. The race is on to re-establish her integrity whilst navigating the things which make Doggerland so unique-the cultural mix can make for tricky interviewing and toes to be stepped on.

It’s a strong, female led police procedural with integrity, reality and superb plotting, I can see how this writer has become such a huge success in her native language because the investigation is so involving as you try and solve the mystery of who wanted Suzanne dead and why. Hours pass without even noticing as you are fully engrossed in the whys and wherefores of the situation that Karen finds herself in. I am very much looking forward to reading Book 2, and hope it is not long in being published!

About the author…

Maria Adolfsson (b. 1958) lives in Stockholm where she, until recently, worked as a communications director and now writes full-time.

The Doggerland series has been sold in to 18 languages to date, and has sold over 200 000 copies in Sweden alone.

‘Fatal Isles’ is the first in the series to be translated.

Links-https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

Twitter @Tr4cyF3nt0n @bonnierbooks_uk