The Blood Strand

December 21, 2015
Police detective Jan Reyna, the sympathetic narrator of this psychologically astute series launch from British author Ould (Road Lines), returns to his place of birth, the Faroe island of Tórshavn, to visit his father, Signar Ravnsfjall, now suffering from a stroke and incapable of speech, whom he has seen only once in 40 years. When Jan was young, his mother, Lydia, left Signar, taking him to England, where an aunt adopted him at age five after Lydia’s death. Jan hopes to learn in Tórshavn about his past, particularly why Lydia left Signar. After arriving, Jan discovers that Signar was found unconscious at the side of a road in an area he rarely frequented. In Signar’s car were splashes of someone else’s blood, a recently fired shotgun, and a large amount of cash. The subsequent discovery of a corpse, its face riddled with shotgun pellets, raises the ante. The plot takes many unexpected twists en route to the satisfying ending.

December 15, 2015
Returning to the Faroe Islands of his birth, a British police detective seeks to unravel his complicated family history and becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. DI Jan Reyna left the Faroes, a cluster of Danish islands halfway between Norway and Iceland, at age 3 with his mother, who committed suicide soon after. Raised by his aunt and uncle in England, Reyna has returned to his homeland only once until now, when his father, wealthy fishing magnate Signar Ravnsfjall, is gravely injured under strange circumstances. When Reyna arrives, he receives a chilly welcome from his half brother Magnus but is greeted warmly by his cousin Frioa and his other half brother, Kristian. The police, led by detective Hjalti Hentze, want to know why Ravnsfjall was found unconscious in a bloodstained car with a shotgun and a briefcase full of money. Soon, the body of a local man, Tummas Gramm, is found on the beach with a shotgun wound, and once Hentze decides that his chilly British counterpart is actually interested in solving the crime rather than just protecting his estranged family, the two join forces. Reyna, who spends as much time lurking and sulking around his picturesque if unfamiliar birthplace as he does lending the locals his police know-how, discovers that his successful father may be at the center of a blackmail plot that perhaps connects to a decades-old incident or something much fresher, but equally rotten, concerning another family member. In this first of a planned trilogy, Ould introduces a complicated if perhaps excessively prickly hero whose faults are mostly redeemed by the locked-room allure of the locale.

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February 1, 2016

When he was three years old, Jan Reyna and his mother escaping a failing marriage fled the remote Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. Jan, now a British police officer, returns for the first time to the Danish-controlled territory, having discovered that his estranged father suffered a stroke shortly before being found in his car with considerable cash, a shotgun, and another person's blood. Soon after Jan's arrival, a body washes ashore. All evidence points to his father's culpability. Det. Hjalti Hentze, who refuses to accept simple answers, invites Jan to help with the case. As Jan works with the local police, the question becomes: Can, or should, he go home again? A living presence throughout the story is the brooding magnificence of the Faroe Islands, marked by challenging terrain and weather and a close-knit community. Credible dialog, believable characters, and a thoughtful plot will keep readers engrossed. VERDICT UK screenwriter and novelist Ould weaves family loyalties, human nature, and old secrets into a compelling and tightly crafted work. For fans of Ann Cleeves's mysteries set in the Shetland Islands, this excellent atmospheric series launch is a natural complement. [See author profile: ow.ly/Wr5ad.--Ed.]--Penelope J.M. Klein, Onondaga Community Coll. Lib., Syracuse, NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2016
British homicide detective Jan Reyna has distanced himself from his mysterious childhood in the Faroe Islands, and from the family that remains there. But when he learns that his estranged father has suffered a massive stroke, Jan returns to the Faroes to achieve some sort of closure with his father and to finally learn why his mother took him from the islands. When he arrives, however, Jan finds his father at the center of a rare island mystery. Powerful businessman Signar Ravnsfjall was found near death in his car, covered in someone else's blood with a loaded shotgun easily reachable. Local detective Hjalti Hentze must determine whose blood is in Signar's car, and why he brought a loaded gun to a remote turnout. Hjalti turns to Jan for his investigative expertise, and Jan agrees to help, determined to get to the bottom of his family's secrets. This one is a winner for fans of both Scandinavian and British procedurals: the exotic, little-known Faroese location lends a Scandinavian feel without the forbidding atmosphere, and Ould brilliantly plunges intuitive, straightforward detectives Jan and Hjalti into a complicated tangle of secret motivations that fans of Henning Mankell and Elizabeth George will appreciate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)