I loved this book. The pace and plotting were top notch. More importantly I loved Rebecca Connolly. I also thought the ending was a nice little twist of events. ( )

Not a thriller, that's for sure, and though there are mysteries it doesn't scratch the mystery itch. A well written and compelling read, it is mostly a collection of viewpoint accounts each of which points to another layer of a complex series of events which resulted in a brutal murder. There is little justice or resolution, nor are any of the characters particularly attractive in their actions or personalities, and the final message seems rather subtle. Still, it works, which considering, says something. ( )

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Stoirm’s secrets are worth killing for in this gripping thriller for readers of All the Missing Girls and Neon Prey.

When reporter Rebecca Connolly gets a tip that suspected murderer Roddie Drummond will be returning to the island of Stoirm, she smells a story. Though never convicted in the death of his girlfriend Mhairi fifteen years earlier, Drummond is still guilty in the eyes of many islanders, and his return for his mother’s funeral is sure to stir up old resentments, hatreds, possibly even violence. Rebecca has another reason for going to Stoirm. Her own father came from there, but he never went back, and he always refused to speak of it or say what drove him away.

Defying her editor, Rebecca joins forces with local photographer Chazz Wymark to dig into the mystery surrounding Mhairi's death and her unexplained last words, “Thunder Bay”—the secluded spot on the west coast of the island where, according to local lore, the souls of the dead set off into the afterlife. When a string of violent events erupts across the island, Rebecca discovers the power of secrets, and she must decide what to bury, and what to bring into the light.

Longlisted for Bloody Scotland's McIlvanney Prize for best crime book of the year.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Journalists make great sleuths for a series because asking questions and poking into stuff others would prefer to leave alone is literally their job description. They're also, by training, very, very sensitive to being lied to and misdirected. Plus the police know they really need what journalists have...the public's attention...so they tend to understand that cooperation is the best way forward if both sides are to get what they want and need.

This series opener relies on an investigative journalist, Rebecca Connolly, ignoring her editor's instructions to leave a juicy story about a past crime alone. A murder happens, the perp...in everyone's eyes a guilty man...fled his little gossipy island community after the Scottish verdict is handed down (loosely translatable as "not guilty but don't do it again"), leaving all islanders convnced that he absolutely murdered the beautiful, popular girl he was living with. Now, fifteen years later, he's back. Things on the island are changing, luxury vacation destination development is being proposed, opposed, and debated, and here's Roddie coming home to a place that emphatically does not want him.

What unfolds is a corking raking-up of old secrets, including some from Rebecca's family that's from this island. There is an expected amount of anti-social behavior, mostly in the past, but the homophobia and domestic violence here could offend a sensitive reader. It isn't prurient in its use but it is present and neither downlayed nor valorized. Your personal thresholds for this kind of action should be your guide in picking the book up.

The very best thing about this story is the intensity of place in it...the island, the islanders, the outsider (Rebecca) come to stir things up and ask questions about her own family connection to the place...all vividly described and strategically deployed to lure the reader in and cause the readerly radar to see false images and think they're facts. This requires Author Skelton to deploy an unweildy cast of characters and to require the undivided attention of his reader. The late Connolly père backstory, and its deep-past relationship to the story told here, felt like that one-too-manyeth bite of pecan pie with whipped cream...so tasty but just should've stayed on the plate because now it's all a wee bit much. The rhetorical palate-cleansing swig of coffee that is Rebecca's full comprehension of her father's reason for being so closemouthed about his youth on the island wasn't quite enough to keep the fifth star on this stellar debut effort. The big reveal of it was, to be honest, anti-climactic to me because I thought "...really...? this is what you were traumatized by, with all the other stuff going on?"

So, not a perfect read but, as a series-starter, darn good entertainment. Worth your eyeblinks and your gold. ( )

Atmosphere and tension are the key aspects of this Scottish noir thriller that was long-listed for Bloody Scotland’s McIlvanney Prize for Best Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

Inverness reporter Rebecca Connelly gets a call from her photographer friend, Chaz Wymark, about a story she might want to cover on the (fictional) island of Stoirm, south of the Isle of Skye on Scotland’s west coast. Rebecca has an interest in Stoirm besides a potential scoop for her paper, the Highland Chronicle. Her late father, a policeman, lived on the island until he was 18. While he taught Rebecca so much, he would never talk about the island or why he left. Rebecca’s boss didn’t approve of a trip: “You’re not Lois Lane and we’re not the Daily Planet.” But the double temptation of a good story and the opportunity to find out more about her father proved irresistible to Rebecca. She called in sick and went anyway.

What Chaz suspected would be newsworthy was the return to Stoirm of Roddie Drummond, who 15 years earlier received a “Not Proven” verdict for the murder of his girlfriend Mhairi Sinclair, viciously beaten and left to die. Now Roddie’s mother has passed away, and Roddie is coming back for the first time since the trial to attend her funeral. While a “Not Proven” verdict means the jury couldn’t decide between “guilty” or “not guilty,” it seemed like the other people of Stoirm thought differently. Roddie’s return is stirring up a great deal of emotion on the island, and Rebecca adds to it with her prodding questions.

The secrets about the past gradually come out as additional violence roils the electrified island. In the surprising and suspenseful denouement, readers (but not many of the fictional characters) learn the secret of what happened to Mhairi, and some justice - but not all - finally gets served.

As one of the characters points out to Rebecca, “The truth is more than a collection of facts. Did your dad never tell you that?”

Evaluation: This page-turning crime fiction is all the more satisfying for the realistic ways in which memory is shown to be shaped by more than just the “facts.” Which is more important in the end: what “really” happened, or what people believe based on their prejudices and preconceptions? ( )

Rebecca Connelly decides to investigate a fifteen-year-old murder mystery against her boss's orders. Roddie Drummond was accused of killing his old girlfriend, Mhairi,. Although he was never acquitted, the Island of Stoirm believed he did. Roddie returns to attend his mother's funeral. Rebecca has other reasons to come to the island. Her father was born and raised here but never talked about his childhood or the reason he left. Rebecca recruits two locals to help her solve the mystery and to provide answers about her father.

I received this book for free from Edelweiss for an honest review. I enjoyed the novel. The characters seemed so realistic, you felt as if you knew them in real life. The action kept you riveting to see what would happen next. The author was especially detailed in describing Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay is full of strong winds, harsh rocks and wild splashes of water. Thunder Bay felt like another character in the book. ( )