Fatal Isles cover art

Fatal Isles

Doggerland, Book 1

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Fatal Isles

By: Maria Adolfsson
Narrated by: Hattie Ladbury
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About this listen

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 . . .

©2021 Maria Adolfsson (P)2021 Bonnier Books UK Thriller & Suspense Island Fiction Scary Mystery Suspense

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Liked slow paced realistic investigation & writing style accompanied by excellent narration .. would recommend this book & have downloaded the two sequels

Excellent narration

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Scandi noir murder investigation with differing and relatable personalities. A very enjoyable and intriguing listen from start to finish.

Enjoyable and well read

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I didn't feel the story was very plausible, though I persevered. Perhaps the storyline , & opinions expressed by the main character, would have been less bleak if we could have had some insights into a few positive thoughts & feelings from this central figure; what a miserable view of life.

Felt relentlessly negative about everything

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Doggerland is a wonderful creation and Karen is a great character, tough and damaged as all crime cops seem to need to be. The plot ended up being quite satisfying.

Good character and plot

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I really enjoyed this and have bought the next two.
Story and narration are good with lots of interesting details about life on this imaginary island.
The plot twists and turns, the characters are likeable and the little thoughts and comments are funny.
A good story with the usual young detective who is on the right track whilst her superiors disagree.

Enjoyable story

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The characters and plot are very slow to develop but after the murder investigation starts, move at a good pace.

The denouement is satisfying and follows the development of the story well.

It is a little disappointing that sexism in this imaginary police force seems 20 years behind the times, but I suppose the lot needs the tension.

Overall a good listen. The narrator is good, with natural speech patterns and good delineation. The only criticism of the narrator is a slow delivery which is easily fixed by using the 1.1 speed setting.

Imaginary but believable location

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Yes, it’s slow at the start but that gives the listener chance to get to know the personalities of the key characters before the real story truly begins.
I found it difficult to remember who all the characters were due not just to the fact that they had names rooted in various Scandinavian countries, but because of he high number of them - in the 1970s as well as the current day. And this continued to the end.
However, those are my only criticisms. The detailed descriptions of the island - its geography history and urban development - made me think it was real.
And as the pace of the storyline picked up and the characters became more developed, I forgot that the book was 14 hours long and couldn’t believe it when I reached the end.
The twist, a few chapters before then, was great. I read lots of Scandi Noir and either guess whodunnit or groan because I should have done but this plot, running between and through decades and connecting generations was too complicated for me to guess what had happened.
I will definitely be buying the next in the series as I am invested in island life as well as his the storyline in this book will now affect relationships in the police station where Karen works.

Great twist at the end

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I confess to dropping in and out of this one so perhaps that is why there were elements of the narrative which didn’t seem to make sense.

The last few listens were like an attempt to finish a marathon and completed by shear determination, BUT it all started to calm down hold itself together and tidy up ‘most’ loose ends.

I really liked the ending and suddenly felt there was coherence and genuine emotion between the main characters. There are issues dealt with which go beyond the main storyline which ask good questions to anyone with or separated from a family.

There were issues particularly violent element of the story which I felt were left hanging. Maybe I missed them resolving, maybe n they were in a different story, maybe I just fell asleep too many times, or maybe there were two sets of stories with one of them leading to a sequel. Apologies if this is a [spoiler] for anyone!

In summary, perhaps I’m being a bit harsh by knocking of a star in my review, but the narrator’s voice kept going off not a most irritating sing-song style and her excellent voice characterisation was so good that it undeservedly has been docked a star, because some of the other voices see are really really good, sound genuinely in character without being hammed up. Perhaps it’s because the sing-song voice reminded me of a sister-in-law. Sorry.

The other reductionsninnstars is because it is all a bit too looonnnggg.

A but long, convoluted but still a good story

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gotta love scandi ! this is no exception, complex at times and a real curved ball ending, will be reading more by the authour- foot note the description of the location and lifestyles were sooo real it had me googling Doggerland!

loved it!

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I think my craving to hear some names from the Nordic countries pulled me onto this .. Very different heating so many names and places I have never heard of , but story line was great and so was the narration.

Very different but enjoyable

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