A Channel Islands murder mystery – Dark Sky Island – Lara Dearman

Submitted: 12th April 2019

The Channel Islands have a Dark sky over them

Dark Sky Island by Lara Dearman – There’s a killer on the island…..there’s also human bones on the island as yet undiscovered. Lara Dearman is an excellent guide to the Channel islands and you can tell she used to live there and breathe in its stories as they seep out of each and every page. No one wants to talk. The islanders don’t like outsiders and they certainly don’t want to open up old wounds. The trouble with an island is that it’s far away from everyone and everything. Time for A Channel Islands murder mystery – Dark Sky Island – Lara Dearman is the journey you will never forget…

A Channel Islands murder mystery – Dark Sky Island – Lara Dearman

Setting: The Channel Islands

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You’re missing out if you’re not reading Lara Dearman. She’s from the island originally and evokes it with style and an acute sense of place that only a native could really know. She lives and breathes the island and even though this is a cracking mystery with plenty of island hopping, it’s also a very good guide to the islands themselves.

This is a very well-written mystery with style and atmosphere. A very complex mystery which goes back years and builds and builds to a very intriguing ending. The police duo develop and grow in this novel and you find out more about their personal lives, their working relationship and their reaction to the closed room style of investigating such a small island community.

Jennifer’s back with her partner in crime DCI Michael Gilbert – yay! – and the poor soul has to sail over to the island at the start of the book. It’s the only way to reach the island of course but that doesn’t make it any easier for Jennifer. A set of human remains has been found and it’s discovered they’ve been there for some time. That’s not the only sign of death however and past and present soon collide. There’s a deliciously dark tone throughout here and I could almost picture the author rubbing her hands with glee from the sidelines. It’s a dark and dreary place this island (well in the books at least!)

The scene setting is spot on and the story creeps up like an incoming tide so just when you think you’re safe, or that the pace has slowed down – BAM! You’re washed away by a freak wave with your arms flailing around, with a piece of plot hitting you in the face, or a plot twist causing you to capsize again.

The timeline itself was twistly good – Jenny, Reg and Michael and then there’s Rachel….. Like the waves washing up one piece of information after another. And it’s up to you , the reader to try and decipher the clues. Add Jenny’s personal quest for being on the island and you have one exciting visit to Sark.

Yup, another good one. Sark is definitely a place you want to visit. When that Dark Sky hovers over it and that Lara Dearman is your guide, even more so!