📖 Book Review ~ The Drowning Isle by Simon McCleave

 

Avon
January 2024

Anglesey #4

On a remote island, there’s nowhere to run… Callum and his three best friends are celebrating their eighteenth birthdays with an epic camping trip to the mysterious Llanddwyn Island, off the coast of Anglesey. Then Callum disappears, and the others return to the mainland in a state of shock. When his body is discovered, DI Laura Hart is brought in to investigate. Is the murder the work of the Fair Men, a pagan group with a dark history who still hold their ceremonies on the island? Or were the boys less tight-knit than they would have Laura believe? Amongst all the mysteries and lies, Laura is sure about one thing: the island will not give up its secrets easily…

📖 My review..

Whilst on a recent holiday to Beaumaris on the beautiful island of Anglesey, it was particularly exciting to have as my holiday read this intriguing murder mystery.

When a teenage boy goes missing after a night spent with friends on the remote Llanddwyn Island, DI Laura Hart and the investigative team, based in Beaumaris, have a difficult job on their hands especially as the search soon becomes a murder investigation. The search for the killer is wide open and with few clues to go on, and with a mysterious pagan cult being centre stage, it soon becomes apparent that there is far more to this investigation than could ever have been imagined.

This is now the fourth book in the Anglesey series of crime novels featuring DI Laura Hart and DCI Gareth Williams and with each successive story we get to know more about these complex characters, the way their personal lives impact on the job, and the way in which they seek out the perpetrators of crime. The pace runs really well and with several twists and turns the police procedural aspects feel authentic. The various the locations around the island are so well described that the place and the people come alive and having now spent time in Beaumaris, I can well imagine the tiny streets and feel the atmosphere which the author recreates so thoughtfully.

This complex mystery ends on a whopping big cliffhanger so I am delighted to have on my tbr the next book in the series, Dead in the Water which was just published by Avon on the 20th June 2024. Watch this space! 😉

About the Author

Simon McCleave is a million-selling crime novelist who lives in North Wales with his wife and two children.

Website

X @simon_mccleave

@AvonBookUK