Why a Booktrail?
2000s: The Faroe islands: cold remote and the setting for murder
The Blood Strand (A Faroes novel #1)
What you need to know before your trail
Jan Reyna is originally from the Faroe Islands but is now a British police detective and the islands are but a distant memory for him. He is forced to return to the island when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else’s blood at the scene. Another body is soon found washed up on a beach and so Reyna’s father is naturally number one suspect. But Reyna is puzzled and so with local detective Hjalti Hentze starts to delve deep into the mystery. A mystery which turns out to have it tentacles in the past, his own past, making him face up to just what kind of secrets these remote islands are holding on to.
Travel Guide
At this start of this novel, the first in a series, you just know that this is going to make a good booktrail. There’s a map for one, and a pronunciation guide to let you know what the characters names are supposed to sound like with the unique Faroe accent
The story is told from the viewpoint of Jan (with the rest coming from a third person perspective) Jan is an outsider and so is able to give advice to the local police as to how such a murder investigation would be carried out in the UK. The Faroe Islands are wild and remote but murders like this are unheard of and on an island, there is the fear that the murdered is most likely one of their own and still on the island.
The mystery of the islands, their wild and windy setting, remote in the middle of the sea somewhere between Norway and Greenland is as evocative as it is intriguing. Everything is unique and different to Jan – the culture, customs, people’s way of life and what they believe in. He might be Faroe born but he is almost as much a stranger as someone who’s never been. He feels anger and confusion towards this place – his mother apparently having spirited him away when young and the lack of any communication with his remaining family ever since.
The Faroe Islands are here a mysterious and desolate setting where even the forensic evidence has to escape to Copenhagen. The mystery is a dark, difficult one and the islands part of the overall mystery and discomfort throughout.
Where Next?
