Well that was nothing short of a fabulous novel. Full of twists and turns this had me on the edge of my seat trying to work out who did it right up till the end, for once it was a novel that I had little idea before the conclusion was told. This book review is going to be a good one as I loved this crime novel, and to add to it, there is an awesome giveaway at the end of this blog post. I was sent this novel by Philippa at Titan, and I want to send them a huge thank you, this was AMAZING! Although technically the second book in the series, The Killing Bay can be read as a stand alone- that is what I did- however it has made me want to go back and pick up the first now, so I definitely recommend reading them both.

Set in the small Faroe Islands, the island police have to be on high alert when a group of international activists arrive determined to stop the traditional whale hunts. When a body of a young woman is found on the beach, ‘the circumstances seem purposely designed to increase animosity between the two sides’. But while this is going on, Englishman, Jan Reyna is busy trying to find about his mother who had grown up on the islands. With personal connections, hidden evidence, and secrets being kept, this case is not straight forward.

I gave this novel a 4.5 stars out of 5, and there was only one very slim reason for the lose of half a star- some of the names were quite tough due to the language difference (which I can deal with) but two were very similar and meant that I was getting confused between the two every now and again. This is a really minor thing, but something that constantly gets to me in novels; I’m happy with unique and varied nationality names, as long as each are different enough to distinguish between them. However this was a minor thing, and didn’t overly take away from the novel, hence only losing half a star.

In crime novels, more often than not I can guess the ending from about half way, but with this, I didn’t have any idea until right before it was explained. Yet once it was explained it all made sense. I loved this, as it had my full attention held until the very end as I just had to know what had happened. This can be said with both storylines, although I do wish more information was discovered for Jan Reyna (though I think it might be developed further in a future book?).

I am already bouncing in my seat about the prospect of a third novel in this series (though the first I’m going to read next month). The last chapter or so of The Killing Bay has set up another novel perfectly, and hooked me in with even the briefest of mentions of another investigation.

So now for the exciting news; thanks to Titan, I’ve got the opportunity to offer you all the chance to win one of two copies of both this book and the first in the series ‘The Blood Strand’. This is not an offer you want to miss out on as this book is worth it on its own, the first is an added bonus! To enter this competition, you just need to follow me on twitter at @Alexxmarie74 and RT my pinned tweet. This competition will end at midnight on Tuesday 28th of February, and the winner will be announced later that day on twitter. We are offering this to UK and US residents only. Good luck!!