This is the second in the Fiona MacLeish crime series. Fiona is sent to the small Scottish west coast Island of Luing to help find a missing girl. Unfortunately for Fiona a storm is coming and so she is faced with leading the search by herself as the island is cut off. Given the conditions this is a difficult task but as Fiona starts to search the island, she spots a pleasure boat heading for the rocks. Fiona is faced with a dilemma, should she abandon the search and assist in rescuing the passengers or continue with the search. She decides bravely to rescue the boat passengers, thankfully with the help of some of the locals. But when she is forced to clamber aboard the boat to assist one of the passengers she discovers a brutally murdered man. As the wind reaches gale force, Fiona is faced with not only trying to locate Cait but also to track down a murderer. Who can she trust?

This is a fast paced thriller as our protagonist deals with one situation to only be faced with another during the course of one stormy evening. Fiona is not a detective but has to use her skills to identify who the killer is with some support from headquarters back on the mainland. I liked the fact that the changing situation was revealed to us through her eyes as she leads the reader through the story by her actions. However, my one criticism of this book is that there is very little information provided about Fiona, other than her friendship with Heather and that her parents were murdered when she was younger. In one way it's refreshing not to have a cliched backstory but I would like to have got deeper into Fiona's character to understand her better. That being said, this is the second book in the series so that may have been made clearer in the first book which I haven't read. If you like a dark thriller this book will be perfect for you.

What a great read, fresh from The Flood helped add to the story. Full of Drama and Tension.

When eight year old Cait Yorke goes missing Fiona Macleish is sent in to investigate. A body is found washed up, but it's of a man and the killer is nowhere to be found.

Where is the killer, what is the Island...you'll have to find out

Wow! This had me on the edge of my seat. Its very atmospheric and I loved the fact that the environment and the elements add to the plot and the tension as the story progresses.

There's multiple plot lines but it's never over complicated and remains easy to follow. The characters are well developed and I never knew what was going to happen next.

This is perfect for a dark winters night!!

The Island by G. N. Smith is the second book in the Fiona McLeish series, set in the remote Scottish Highlands. This is a good character-driven police procedural with a dark, twisty plot.

When eight-year-old Cait Yorke goes missing on a remote island off the coast of the wild Scottish Highlands, PC Fiona MacLeish is quickly sent to investigate. But a gale is gathering force, and Fiona becomes increasingly concerned for a little girl braving the strong winds alone. As Fiona questions the locals, she soon realizes they are hiding many secrets. What is this island, and who really lives here?

The cover is cool. The story is quite atmospheric, and I like how the author uses the elements to create tension.

An overall good mystery and story that held my interest. I would recommend this book and this author. I look forward to more in the Fiona MacLeish series.

#TheIsland #NetGalley @bookouture

The Island took a while for me to get into, but once I did Smith did not fail to keep me intrigued throughout. At times I felt like the main character Fiona had too much on her plate, however she handled this well considering the circumstances and situations she was up against. Smith made rooting for her easy to do the entire time due to the fact that she worked so well with the other characters in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the setting of the book being on a remote island during a storm which did not allow others on or off the island. This added a layer of suspense and drama to the entire situation. I enjoyed reading through this book and will be on the lookout for my MacLeish thrillers to be released.

f you like a good thriller, mystery, or whodunnit, look no further than G.N Smith's The Island.

Second in this series and it's similar in many ways to the first. Fiona battles single handed,during a storm,on an island,to find a missing child and solve the murders!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read "The Island" in exchange for my honest review.

This is the second book in the Fiona MacLeish series and it was a fantastic read. It was full of drama, tension and suspense. It is wonderfully written and you feel as if you are standing right by PC MacLeish and watching what she is doing. In the previous book she was cut off by a flood and in this book she is once again battling the elements only this time it is the worse gale-force winds ever seen in Scotland. She is called to a remote island off the coast of Scotland called Luing, where am 8-year-old girl named Cait Yorke has been reported missing. Due to the gale the ferry has stopped running, Fiona has no backup or help coming. She figures that if Cait was kidnapped instead of simply getting lost on the island, whoever took her, has no way off the island.

While searching for Cait, Fiona comes across the pleasure cruiser which has run aground in the bad weather. There has been no distress signal from the boat but there are no lifeboats available to assist. There is a heart-stopping rescue of the passengers from the boat and as Fiona helps the last passenger off the boat, she tells her there is a body in the wheelhouse and they have been murdered. The elderly lady claims that the dead man is the captain of the boat. Having no way to secure the crime scene as the boat is sinking fast, but knowing that the murderer has to be one of the passengers, Fiona makes sure to keep them all together - guarded by some of the islanders, while she continues her search for Cait.

Complicating life for Fiona is Cait's mother who is hysterical and continues to yell at Fiona that she should not have stopped looking for her daughter to help the people on the boat.

As in the previous book Fiona makes a lot of mistakes. She forms wild theories not based on hard evidence. She often jumps to the wrong conclusions. She always picks her suspect and focuses only on them, at times letting the real culprit slip by. She always thinks the worst of everyone she meets.
She is desperate to become a detective so that she can solve the murder of her parents but holding her back is the fact that she jumps to conclusions, makes assumptions, and therefore misses important facts. She makes major mistakes like rushing off to arrest suspects with no handcuffs.

In Fiona's defense she is put into situations that feel like a locked room mystery. She's stuck on an island with a killer and no help is coming so she is left to figure out her own way of trapping the killer(s). This has to be my favourite new series and I am eagerly awaiting what will happen to Fiona next! Worth so many more stars than the 5 available!!!

I liked the idea behind the novel and the execution of that idea was impressive. The writing style was simple and effective and the overall flow of the story felt very smooth. I read this book in one sitting. as I really wanted to get to the end to see if I guessed the mystery right.

Wow, this book was full of action that started at the beginning and never stopped. This is my first book by this author and I think I will read the first in the series. It was interesting having one person looking for a missing person and also a murderer on an island without professional help. Highly recommend

When Cait Yorke, an eight year old girl, goes missing on Luing Island off the coast of Scotland, PC Fiona MacLeish is sent alone to help. Her team has been decimated by flu so she has been working long hours. She has no idea what is in store for her. First, she has to deal with the distraught parents, here on Luing for a vacation. Then, while investigating, she sees a familiar day cruiser adrift and about to wreck on the rocks. She pauses the search for Cait, presses local men to help, and mounts a heroic rescue of the passengers. She also discovers that the ship’s captain has been murdered. Fiona tries to combine interviewing the passengers, one of whom must be a killer, with the hunt for Cait, whose parents confront Fiona with rising anger. A violent storm isolates Luing and Fiona cannot expect help until the morning. She is alone on an island with a missing child, a murderer and…another victim.

The Island is impossible to put down. G.N. Smith has delivered a riveting closed room (or closed island) thriller with an atmospheric location, unforgettable characters (Edwin Hamilton’s love for his sister will make you cry) and a complicated plot with surprises you won’t see coming. I can’t wait to see what Fiona MacLeish does next. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and G.N. Smith for this ARC.

This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher and author. Dynamics characters keep the story moving quickly. Enjoy solving this mystery if you can. It is not easy.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.