I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review. Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Death on the Beach is book 2 in Anna Johannsen's Island Murder series. I hadn't read book 1 in the series, but feel that the story continues well enough that you can read this as a stand alone book. There were some references to a previous case and previous relationships, probably discussed in the first book, but the book could stand alone.
Lena Lorenzen is a detective in the German police and just starting her vacation time when called in to help search for a 14 year old missing girl, Maria, on the small island of Föhr. Lena experiences some resistance from the local police force, , but begins organizing searches and conducting interviews. The missing girl is a child of a family in the Brethren religious organization, similar to the Mennonites in the USA, and her father doesn't seem concerned that his daughter is missing. When a body is found on the beach, Maria's mother works behind her husband's back to talk to Lena and work with the police force. While the first impression is that of a suicide, Lena has a feeling there is more to the story, and won't stop until she's got the whole picture.
I could tell this was part of a series; character descriptions and relationships just seem to be more defined and detailed in a series. That slowed me down a bit on this book. And this book is translated from German to English, but as with many books translated out of their native language, some of the word usages and phrasing is a bit awkward, and the story just doesn't flow for me as much. But overall, this was a good police procedural book, exploring a bit of different cultures, and it was good to see a book in Germany not set in Berlin! I haven't read others by this author, but I have put book in in this series, The Body on the Beach, on my to be read list.
Death on the Beach is book 2 in Anna Johannsen's Island Murder series. I hadn't read book 1 in the series, but feel that the story continues well enough that you can read this as a stand alone book. There were some references to a previous case and previous relationships, probably discussed in the first book, but the book could stand alone.
Lena Lorenzen is a detective in the German police and just starting her vacation time when called in to help search for a 14 year old missing girl, Maria, on the small island of Föhr. Lena experiences some resistance from the local police force, , but begins organizing searches and conducting interviews. The missing girl is a child of a family in the Brethren religious organization, similar to the Mennonites in the USA, and her father doesn't seem concerned that his daughter is missing. When a body is found on the beach, Maria's mother works behind her husband's back to talk to Lena and work with the police force. While the first impression is that of a suicide, Lena has a feeling there is more to the story, and won't stop until she's got the whole picture.
I could tell this was part of a series; character descriptions and relationships just seem to be more defined and detailed in a series. That slowed me down a bit on this book. And this book is translated from German to English, but as with many books translated out of their native language, some of the word usages and phrasing is a bit awkward, and the story just doesn't flow for me as much. But overall, this was a good police procedural book, exploring a bit of different cultures, and it was good to see a book in Germany not set in Berlin! I haven't read others by this author, but I have put book in in this series, The Body on the Beach, on my to be read list.
