A good mystery detective book which is well written.
This is part of a series and I am looking forward to read more.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

DI Lena Lorenzen is visiting her partner Erick, an old love she has reunited with, for a few days break onthe island she grew up on, Amrum. However as soon as she arrives she has to take on an investigation, the disappearance of fourteen year old Maria who lived on a nearby island, Fohr. The girls body is soon found but as the investigation begins the team need to decide was it murder or suicide. Maria's parents are part of a religious sect and it becomes obvious that Maria lived two different lives, one with her parents, and one where she chatted to her sister and others using a hidden tablet and internet access. Lena’s parents and members of the religious group are unhelpful and even the local police seem reluctant to carry out Lena’s precise orders. Lena and her partner DS Johann Grassman call in some extra help from the mainland and step by step they piece together the last few weeks of Maria’s life.
A wonderful read and I hope there will be more to follow

Great thriller that kept me engaged from start to finish. Fabulous plot and characters, and author I will definitely read more of!

This is the first book I've read by this author, but it won't be my last. Her book was very well written, and kept me glued until the end. Recommended.

I liked this as much for the setting as the mystery. It's hard to investigate a murder- even of a young girl- when the community has so many secrets. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good procedural.

When I requested this book, I hadn’t realised that it was the second in a series of books and that might have helped me understand the back story to Lena and her ex, Erick.

The story is set around Lena, who is a detective, reconnecting with her ex. Whilst, visiting her ex, she is assigned to a case (as a favour) fof a missing teenage girl. She can’t get the parents, who are extremely religious to cooperate with her and Maria (the girl) turns up dead. Whilst it might look like suicide, Lena isn’t so sure.

It’s a fast paced story, which will maintain your interest and is definitely worth a read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

The second book in the Island Mystery series by German author Anna Johannsen, DEATH ON THE BEACH has been masterfully translated Jozef Van Der Voort so that the story and its prose flow seamlessly. You lose nothing in translation and it feels as if it has been written in the Queen's English. The prose is so atmospheric I felt as if I was on the North Freisland island myself.

DI Lena Lorenzen has returned to her home island of Amrum for a much needed break to relax and enjoy some downtime with boyfriend Erck, with whom she had rekindled her relationship. Five whole days of rest and relaxation. But no sooner has she arrived and before she can put her feet up, she receives a call from her superior Detective Superintendent Warnke asking for a favour.

A 14 year old girl, Maria Logener, has gone missing on the island of Fohr. Her parents belong to an extreme conservative free church known as the Bretheren which is locally considered a cult by most of the islanders. Due to her local knowledge of the islands, DSU Warnke entrusts Lena with the investigation knowing that she will deal with it sensitively and avoiding any negative publicity. As it is, their working relationship has improved since the previous case and Warnke allows Lena a wide scope of resources to be hers for the asking as and when she needs them.

From the outset, Lena and her partner DS Johann Grasmann come up against unco-opertive parents who refuse to allow access to Maria's bedroom and deny any rebellion on their daughter's part. "Maria is a good girl" they claim. However Lena is no stranger to a parent's denial but the Logeners are different. As is their faith, the man is the head of the house with their wives and children deferring to their husband and/or father in every situation. And in accordance to their faith, Maria did not disobey her father and showed respect at all time. Unlike her older sister Johanna who turned her back on the Bretheren and her family to study pharmacology on the mainland. But what Lena finds interesting to note is that it was Johanna who raised the alarm and reported Maria missing...not her parents. And Lena wanted to know why. The first 48 hours are crucial and yet the Logeners have wasted precious time by not reporting her missing, refusing to believe Maria would leave the fold.

But then Lena receives the call she had been dreading. Maria's body has been found on the beach. Her death an apparent suicide. But something is bothering Lena and she suspects foul play. When Lena breaks the news to her parents, it seems the island's grapevine is quicker than she had anticipated and Maria's father denies that his daughter would take her own life. Lena believes Frau Logener knows more than she's saying due to the Bretheren's conservative views on wives deferring to their husbands at all times. So she devises a ruse to speak to her in private. No mother would want to sit back in an investigation into her daughter's death.

The case turns out to be a complex one with enquiries leading them in new directions and further questioning ensues. It appears that Maria Logener was not who everyone thought she was...but of course the investigation can't move forward without the victimology. Soon witnesses become persons of interest - teachers, friends, students - as the last days of Maria's life is slowly revealed.

On a personal level, Lena battles with her committment to Erck whilst having to deal with a former one night stand joining the team from the mainland. Then there is her estranged father who desires to reconnect with his daughter though Lena refuses to have anything to do with him. Meanwhile, I sympathise with poor Erck who is loving and patient with Lena despite her sometimes casual treatment of him. He wants to commit to her but he won't push her and yet she seems to want to enjoy the benefits without the committment. Isn't that a guy's line? I didn't find Lena particularly likeable in this regard.

Whilst it is a police procedural, I found the procedural story a little slow-moving. I couldn't care less about Ben's wanting to pick up with Lena where they left off after that one night. He doesn't seem to want to take no for an answer and yet at the same time, Lena is sending out mixed signals.

The setting is atmospheric that I found myself googling these little known islands off the coast of Germany so I could see their beauty for myself. The locations are stunning and I felt as if I was truly there...on the beach beside Lena, puzzling out the mystery alongside her.

However, I found the ending to be somewhat anti-climatic and wondering where the result came from. All that time spent on puzzling it out for something and nothing? It felt a little out of left field and disappointing.

Despite this, DEATH ON THE BEACH is a nice quick read. I read it in an afternoon/evening. I'll be back for the third installment, hoping for something more decisive in the way of Lena's relationship...because I like Erck.

A good quick read with a seamless translation from German. Perfect for those who enjoy Scandi-noir crime fiction.

I would like to thank #AnnaJohannsen, #NetGalley and #AmazonUK for an ARC of #DeathOnTheBeach in exchange for an honest review.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Really good book, kept me guessing for most of the book and like the characters

The fast-paced storyline follows Detective Inspector Lena Lorenzen from CID in Kiel, Germany, as she leverages her no nonsense and tough-minded investigative skills to this intense drama to find the murderer of a fourteen-year-old girl on an isolated German island.

Lena is a complex character to understand, one of the reasons she so indomitable with her work and challenged with her personal life. A focused police professional every step of the way, Lena pushes her boundaries to the limit to get answers. She suspects everyone, trusts few, but has strong sensitivities to the feelings and motives of other.

Death on the Beach - Anna Johannsen- “A fourteen-year-old girl disappears on the small island of Föhr, and Detective Lena Lorenzen is called in to investigate. When the girl’s bloodied body is found on the beach with vicious wounds to the wrist, Lena immediately suspects that what’s been made to look like suicide was in fact a brutal and calculated murder. But the local residents—even the girl’s own parents—won’t cooperate with her investigation. The devoutly religious islanders are clearly hiding something. But what ungodly secret could possibly lead to the murder of an innocent teenage girl?”
I thought this book was slow moving. The girl is certainly dead, not in a pleasant way and they are debating suicide or murder. Her family is part of a strict religious community and they refuse to cooperate. On top of murder and religious strict rules, the author slips in some romance between the detective and her friend on the island. Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Very Good UK Detective Mystery

Detective Lena Lorenzen is taking a few days vacation to stay with her boyfriend,when she receives a call from her superior to investigate a fourteen year old girl who went missing on an island village off the coast of Germany nearby where she is visiting. Lena is a dedicated detective and when she hears the missing person is a child she drops everything to help on this case. Lena is unprepared for the uncooperative reactions from the girl's parents and neighbors until she finds out that they all belong to a religious sect that has alienated themselves from the regular townsfolk and Lena will have to dig hard to find out why all the secrecy and cold indifference to her looking for information about the girl. A few days later the body.of a young girl is found dead on the beach. Now the detective will have more suspects than she can handle and why didn't the parents report their daughter missing and why was it their other estranged daughter Johanna who had alerted the police about her missing sister instead of their parents.

This was a very enjoyable book for me. I loved reading about the different cultures of other countries, expressly small coastal village life and their close communities. I enjoyed the detective Lena character and her young sidekick Johan who closely worked with her and their fun relationship. The story shows the difficulty that sadly still goes on today of being a woman detective in a previously man's role and some of the hostility she receives while working in this community where they follow the old biblical roles of the man will be the ruler of the house and his family and the woman will be submissive to his word and will. The struggles Lena encounters are enormous and are putting a tremendous strain on her personal relationship. I hope there will be other books following these interesting characters because I will surely be in the line-up to read them.I

I sincerely want to thank "Amazon Publishing UK" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific ebook and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I would definitely recommend this interesting book and have given a rating of 4 Intriguing 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

Lena Lorenzen left the island over 14 years ago to settle on the mainland and has many memories of her life there. When a teenage girl goes missing and is later found dead on the beach Lena is placed in charge of the investigation. A large number of inhabitants are members of a religious cult and the parents of the missing girl dont react as expected when their daughter’s body is found. Although there are several suspects nothing will stop Lena from tracking down the killer even if it is one of the islands own.
Lena has recently rekindled a relationship with Erck on the mainland. Although she has no doubts about his love for her she struggles with the commitment involved escaping into her work as a way of avoiding any confrontation.
I can understand why Lena would want a career and that having a man who loved her wasn’t enough to make a commitment. Including their relationship problems made the story seem more realistic and I wished she could be more open with Erck. I guess that’s no different from what happens in real life.
This is the second book in The Island Mystery series and readers who enjoy crime/police procedurals should put this one on their reading list. It has an interesting mix of characters, a great setting and a plot to keep you hooked right to the end.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Enjoyed this book. Obviously translated from German but that did not affect the story in any way.
I will look for more from author Anna Johannsen

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I did enjoy the book but I did find it rather slow in places and not that gripping. It also seemed to concentrate on the main characters private life rather than the plot, which was a shame as the concept of the storyline was good and I felt a lot more could’ve been introduced to make it more gripping

This is my first book by this author, and i found it nicely put together. The writing was good, but it was topical thriller/mystery.. don't take me wrong there nothing bad with the topical, actually it makes reading easy.
The best thing about this book is, you don't need to have read the first book to enjoy this one 😉

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I want to start by saying this is not a bad book, this review is based solely on personal enjoyment. The things I really liked about this book were the writing style which was unique and enjoyable, the island setting which is one of my favourites for a murder mystery and I loved the protagonist, detective Lena. We got to see not only her journey through the investigation but also her home life with family drama, relationship struggles and personal growth.

I did however decide to not continue with this book at the 60% mark and this was due to the fact that I was not engaged with the story and it got to the point where I didn't actually care how the story ended. I realised that I had enjoyed what I had from this story but I wasn't going to get anymore from it and had to choose to leave it.

If a murder mystery is something you're looking for then this book does have great potential, for some reason I just didn't click with it!

Quite a fun police procedural. My first book by this author, though third in the series. I quite likked Detective Lena as she investigated a missing child even on a holiday.

The author could keep my interest alive in the entire book. I was eager to know what had happened to the child. Lena was quite determined to get to the truth.

A good read.

Enjoyed this second book but am hoping in book #3 that Lena makes some decisions about her future and sticks to them Acts very weak in her personal life.

Detective Lena Lorenzen is on holiday when she is asked to investigate the disappearance of Maria, a fourteen year old girl from the nearby island of Fohr. Her superior has interrupted her holiday because the girl belongs to a religious sect that his wife supports. Lena finds Maria's parents very difficult to talk to, as their attitude is far from helpful! Maria's sister, who is estranged from her family is the one desperately keen to find her. A body is found on the beach. At first suicide is suspected but then it is proven that it is murder. Who would want to murder her & why? Lena has a hard time trying to find out the truth.

This was a good police procedural in an unusual setting. It was a good read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.