This was the first book by the author that I have read and the start of a new series featuring DI Ben Kitto.
Ben has returned to his childhood home of the Island of Bryher, in the Isles of Scilly after a traumatic event related to work. Hoping to hide away from the world and work at his uncle’s boatyard, his plans go awry when a young sixteen year old local girl is discovered murdered on the island.
I liked the character of DI Kitto. He was a good man but damaged from his previous position on the murder squad in London. He's trying to get his life back in order whilst trying to find the murderer, who could be any one of people he knew while growing up.
I loved the descriptions of the land and could feel the harshness of it all and the bleakness during the winter. This was an enjoyable police procedural story that had me guessing all the way through.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

This is an intriguing murder mystery with the death of a young girl on a desolate island with a small population and at a time when access was cut off to the mainland. It is the typical locked room type mystery.
It was an enjoyable book. I liked the characters and the twists and turns in the plot. I can see it as the beginning of a successful new series featuring the main characters.

Thouroughly enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next outing for DI Ben Kitto!

Ben Kitto is an homicide detective working in London, but after the death of his partner he tries to resign from the Met police. His boss doesn’t accept his resignation and gives him a three-month break to change his mind. Ben decides to spend this break in the place where he grew up, Bryher, one of the small island of the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall. Ben’s arrival is marked by the disappearance of Laura Trescothick, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Matt and Jenna Trescothick, the golden couple of his high school. Ben decides to help the investigation of the local police because no one arrived or left the island before or after Laura’s disappearance and this means that one of the islanders is the killer, one of their own.

This novel is a highly enjoyable and compulsive read that reminded me a little of one of my favorite novels by Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, with its wintery dark and atmospheric setting, the isolated small island far away from the mainland, everyone suspecting everyone, everyone with their motives to commit the murder.

The plot is very intriguing with a few surprising twists and tension rising as the end of the book approaches. The characters are very well-crafted and complex, especially the protagonist, Ben Kitto, with ghosts who from his past and an uncertain future. The island is as much a protagonist of the novel as the other characters and I loved the author’s attention to details and the vivid descriptions that make the story more realistic and captivating.

HELL BAY is the first of a series and I am already looking forward to book number 2, of which I already had a taste and I can’t wait for the rest.

Hell Bay by Kate Rhodes

DI Ben Kitto is on extended leave from the Metropolitan Police. Something has happened that has made him want to re-evaluate his career, his whole future. But he’s good at his job. The Met don’t want to lose him and so for now the best he can do is go back home to the tiny island of Bryher, the smallest of the inhabited Scilly Isles, back to the house in which his family has lived for three generations, that now stands empty. Ben arrives at the tail end of a storm and the timing couldn’t be worse. Sixteen-year-old Laura Trescothick has been found dead on the beach at Bryher’s Hell Bay, a knife wound through her heart. No ferries have sailed from the island since she went missing. Laura’s murderer must still be on the island and this is a place where everybody knows everybody.

Hell Bay is the first in a new detective series by Kate Rhodes and it is a pleasure to read. The setting of Bryher is such an appealing one. It is winter and the evenings are long and dark but this doesn’t detract from the beauty and isolation of this most westernmost of islands. There are few tourists at this time of year and so the population is very small, all confined to a few houses, a pub, a hotel. There are no cars, people get around by foot. The paths are ill lit at night. The sea pounds the beaches. It’s hugely atmospheric and even more so when you can feel the eyes of a murderer behind your back. The classic crime fiction concept of a murder taking place within a confined group of people, whether on an island or in a country house, is much loved and it’s done to fine effect here.

Ben Kitto is a fascinating main character. Trauma has driven him back to Bryher but it’s all dealt with quietly, there is no great drama. Much of it is internalised and he works through it by helping his uncle build boats, or by walking his dog that he’s not sure he even likes (although we certainly do). This is a place where people go to heal – and Ben isn’t the only one to do just that – and so the fact that Bryher is also the scene of murder and such suffering and grief is even more painful and jarring. This is a place where you shouldn’t have to lock your door.

Ben is supported by a great cast of characters, made even more interesting by the fact that every single one of them is a suspect. I loved moving around the island, getting to know them all.

Hell Bay is such an enjoyable well-written mystery. It’s a great book to curl up with, so evocative in its sense of place. The plot is also a very good one. I’m delighted to say that it kept me guessing right to the end. It has big themes – family, friendship and community – but these provide as much comfort as they do uncertainty. This is such a good start by Kate Rhodes to her new series. Ben Kitto returns – with the dog – in Ruin Beach in 2019. This is good news indeed.

Other review
River of Souls

This is a new series by Kate Rhodes featuring DI Ben Kitt who is visiting his home, Bryher, one of the smallest of the Scilly Isles. The title of the book is taken from the name of an Atlantic facing cove on the island named Hell Bay. In the 18th and 19th centuries this was apparently a notorious spot for shipwrecks caught on the rocks at this point.

Living on an island myself it is no surprise that I have a fondness for books set on them and Bryher is the ultimate in island destinations, very small populated by a small community who like to think everyone knows everything about everyone, how could it be that a teenage girl ends up dead with no-one seeing anything untoward? Ah small town settings or islands so few suspects and no chance that anyone had left the island by boat by the time the murder was discovered. How hard can finding the perpetrator be?

Meanwhile we are aware that DI Kitt is on extended leave from the Metropolitan police but the reasons why aren’t revealed for a while. All he has for company as he lives in his deceased mother’s house is a dog named Shadow that he doesn’t seem overly keen on. But the island is home and he has friends and family in the form of Ray, a boatyard owner so he uses the skills he learnt as a young boy to lend a hand to building a boat. But as soon as it becomes obvious that the local police force aren’t used to dealing with murder he offers his services, after all having worked on the Murder Squad for a decade he has the requisite skills.

Laura Trescothick’s death changes life on the island immediately with the locals scared by the knowledge that there is a killer in their midst. After all this is somewhere where doors are left unlocked, the local shop provides food for one of the residents in exchange for honey and herbs and the pub’s landlady takes it upon herself to serve the returned policeman, also her godson, Cranberry juice when she feels this will benefit his health more than the alcohol he requested. One of the advantages of being an island though is that the journalists can be kept at bay, essentially no-one can leave or come to the island until the perpetrator is found, handcuffed and carted off, by boat to the nearest island with some cells, St Mary.

The characters are complex, yes all of them. We have an American artist, a smallholder, a rich businessman intent on owning all available property on the island and a hotel proprietor who still longs to be a singer. There is also a young bereaved woman who has moved to the island for the peace and quiet but who holds her secrets close to her chest, so you see there are many fascinating people to get to know as we begin to understand their stories.

This is a brilliantly multi-layered story that gets better and better as the story unfolds. This is a brilliant read for those who enjoy their crime fiction to be measured rather than frantic and like putting the pieces of the puzzle together for themselves. The superb plotting combined with the often bleak island setting and the complicated DI Ben Kitto made for rewarding reading.

I'd like to thank the publishers Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advance copy of Hell Bay, this unbiased review is my thanks to them. The hardback and eBook versions of this book was published on 25 January 2018 however if you want to wait for the paperback is will be published on 3 May 2018. I'm also delighted to confirm that it appears that DI Ben Kitto will be back in another book in this series called Ruin Beach, hopefully fairly soon as there was an excerpt at the back of this ARC!

A slick and atmospheric murder mystery set on a small Scilly island of less than 100 residents. Ben Kitto, a London detective, has returned to the island following a traumatic event and gets caught up in the investigation alongside a local. Good for fans of books like Broadchurch centred on a small community and long-held secrets, and remote island crime like May's Lewis trilogy and Cleeves' Shetland series. The geography is like another character, but I'm tired of yet another emotionally-traumatised detective: it's become a knee-jerk cliche of the genre. Still, assured writing and a real sense of place makes this worth reading.

This book was an immensely enjoyable and satisfying read. Kate Rhodes has created a strong new lead in DI Ben Kitto and I’m excited to see that this is going to be the start of a brand new series.

I very rarely talk about the cover in my reviews but I have to say that the publishers have done a fantastic job with the design of this book. It immediately had me intrigued and I loved the title which already gave the book a very atmospheric edge which was reflected in Kate’s writing.

Set on the Scilly island of Bryher, off the Cornish coast, the novel opens with the discovery of sixteen-year-old Laura Trescothick’s body on the beach at Hell Bay. The police suspect that this is a tragic case of Laura committing suicide, but there is enough evidence to prompt Ben Kitto to believe that someone may have committed foul play. There are only a small number of residents on the island and they all fall under suspicion. Laura’s murder has shocked the seemingly, crime-free community and soon people begin to play the blame game.

I really liked Ben as a main character, although he was born on the island and lived there throughout his childhood it did feel as though he was an outsider looking in on his own community and possibly the DCI wasn’t over keen on the idea of an inspector from London taking charge of the case, in a sense, showing them what to do. Ben left the island to join the metropolitan police and is taking a few weeks leave, something he isn’t easily drawn upon when questioned about his reasons for taking a break and this creates an element of mystery about him before his secrets begin to unravel.

I really enjoy crime novels when every character falls under suspicion giving the reader, a really hard job of working out who the perpetrator is. There were occasions when I thought I had figured the identity of the killer out but Kate managed to pull the rug out from under my feet.

This is an excellent start to a new crime series; I can’t wait to read the next book. Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of the book to read.

Ben, a DI in the Met, travels home to the Isles of Scilly to reconsider his resignation after the death of his police partner for which he feels responsible. Soon after his arrival on Bryher a girl goes missing. Ben gets himself into the investigation as SIO. He is given an inexperienced police officer, Eddie, to work with. Two more young people go missing in the course of the book There are several threads. The first teenager is found dead. It’s now a murder investigation and the murderer is on the island which goes into lock-down. Ben and Eddie start to whittle down the list of suspects. Drugs, intimidation and some strange characters help to murky the waters along with various attacks on Ben, his friends and others. Time is running out as a suspect is taken into custody and the powers that be want to close the case. Ben is quite dogged and continues to look into the case.

Will he find the killer?

This is a good book, well written and the characters are terrific. In the end it’s not a book that will leave you cheering the hero DI ‘getting his man’ it is quite sad as the guilty party is discovered. I am pleased with the way in which Kate Rhodes deals with Bens relationships in the book especially not letting them overshadow the investigations.
This is the first in a new series from Kate Rhodes and it looks like there will be lot’s of interesting stories to be had from DI Ben Kitto on the stunning backdrop of Bryher.
Rating: 4*

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an advance copy of Hell Bay. The review is an honest appraisal based on a read of the full text. Whilst this is a first novel in what could grow into a significant series Kate Rhodes is already an established author and the experience shows, with some well-crafted narrative as well as some quite atmospheric descriptive prose. The choice of location (a small island in the Scilly Isles) is both interesting and challenging: interesting as the location lends itself to descriptions of the particular seascapes and landscapes of the Scilly Isles; challenging as the island community is by its nature tiny. Readers familiar with Anne Cleeves’s Shetland novels may therefore find the canvas too small for a wholly satisfying plot development. Despite this, Ms Rhodes presents an enjoyable and readable detective novel, with added colour from various interweaving sub-plots. The slight tendency for the lead character to suffer from an angst-ridden back story is rather too much of a cliche for my taste, but others may not suffer from this unreasonable prejudice of mine! The overall verdict is a book that will certainly entertain and, to a degree, pose the questions we expect from a crime novel. If I could award 4.5 stars I would, but I don’t feel able to round this up to 5 stars, so it gets four. You won’t begrudge the time spent reading the book - always a key criterion for me.

I really really loved this book. Having visited the Isles of Scilly in 2016 it was great to be able to place the events. It was a great mystery and good characters. I liked the idea of a map, always one of my favourites in a book, but unfortunately on a Kindle I cannot get back to it easily. However I would love to read more by this author.

Very enjoyable book. Good characters (definitely interested in what happens next). Like the setting of the small town. Author created a good atmosphere with their descriptions. The start of the next book was already at the end so that whet my appetite for whats to come!

Over the past six years Kate Rhodes London based crime series featuring psychologist Alice Quentin has given me considerable pleasure.  Now she opens 2018 with a new series set on Bryher, one of the smaller of the Scilly Isles, and featuring DI Ben Kitto.  Kitto is home on extended leave from the Met. The trauma of his undercover partner's recent death, a death he feels he should have prevented, has pushed him into handing in his resignation but rather than accepting this his DCI has asked him to take a break and give himself time to reconsider.  With no desire to stay in London, Ben returns to the island where he grew up and to the cottage that has always been home.  With a population of less than a hundred, life on Bryher should be as far from the chaos and suffering that have marked his recent life as could be imagined.  However, within days of his arrival, accompanied by Shadow, the Czechoslovakian Wolfhound that he has inherited, his anticipated peace is shattered by the disappearance of sixteen year old Laura Trescothick.  It is Kitto who eventually finds her body, marred by wounds which make it clear that she must have not simply known, but also trusted, her killer.  When DCI Madron, the officer in charge of policing on the islands, is called in, Ben offers his services as SIO, on the grounds that not only does he have the murder investigative experience, but also that everyone who could possibly be concerned is known to him.  

What follows is the modern day equivalent of the country house murder.  Ferries have not been running in the time between Laura's disappearance and the discovery of her body, which means that the murderer must still be on the island.  A curfew is enforced, no one is to leave and mercifully, no journalists to be allowed in, and with the help of PC Eddie Nickell, Kitto sets out to interview each of the islanders.  That many of these are lifelong friends and some of them relatives doesn't make the process any easier.  Nor does the fact that it is not long before it becomes apparent that there are tensions running below the surface of island society and numerous personal guilty secrets, all of which might provide a motive for murder.  

Chief among these is the animosity felt between many of the established island families and the incomers Jay and Patty Curnow.  Millionaire Curnow is intent on buying up as much of the island as he can and is not above using aggressive coercion as a means of getting his own way.  Laura, intent on leaving the island for a life of show business, has been planning her escape with their son, Danny.  Both disapproving families hold the other's child accountable and the Trescothicks are not the only people who would like to lay the blame for Laura's death at Danny's door.

However, running alongside Kitto's narrative is that of Rose Austell, whose son Sam, a previous boyfriend of Laura's, has also gone missing.  Through these third person segments of an otherwise first person narrative, it very soon becomes apparent that Sam is mixed up with drug smuggling and when a chunk of cannabis resin is found amongst Laura's possessions her possible involvement has to be questioned as well.  Have they crossed the couriers bringing the drugs into the island and is that the reason behind the crimes which have even the best of friends and neighbours looking askance at each other?

Before turning her hand to crime fiction Kate Rhodes was a published poet and it shows in the quality of her writing.  Time and again I stopped in my reading just to savour lines such as that which describes the sea as a restless sleeper, eager to shrug the night's weight from its shoulders.  She also invokes place better than any other crime novelist I know.  Crossbones Yard, the first of the Alice Quentin novels, drew a portrait of London which frequently had me going back to Whistler's magnificently detailed etchings of the area round the River Thames, each artist in their very different ways conjuring up a whole landscape with just a few masterful strokes.  Now Rhodes does the same thing for the island of Bryher and not just for its physical landscape, but for the complex nature of its small and heavily inter-related society as well.  First and foremost, however, she is excellent at creating character.  It isn't easy to change tack having already established an audience for a particular group of individuals, especially when they have each had a vibrancy that meant readers felt they knew them as friends and I will admit that I am going to miss Alice and Don and Lola and will go on worrying about Will, however, so completely has she created the character of Ben Kitto that I am already invested in him and it is good to know that a second novel in the series, Ruin Beach has been announced for June.  

I have read a number of new crime novels over the Christmas period, some good, some not so.  Hell Bay has definitely been the best of the bunch and if you haven't yet read Rhodes' work then I very strongly recommend you start here before returning to enjoy her back catalogue.  

With thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for making this review copy available.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I have never read anything by this author before and will certainly make sure I look out for him again. Really enjoyed this book and liked Ben Kitto

The start of a new and very promising series. After reading this book, I immediately wanted to hop on a boat to visit Bryher and the other little island that play such an important role in this story. I was therefore very pleased to see that it is actually possible to have a wonderful holiday on Bryher. Since I take my holiday always on the British islands or Ireland, I hope to read some more of Kate Rhodes and then, book in hand, explore the islands.
This is a review, not a travel guide, but I think the story for an important part revolves on the fact that living on such a tiny island does something with people. Some never want to leave, others cannot leave too soon. For Laura, who hoped to be off the island with her boyfriend before they both even turned eighteen, it is too late. She made all her plans for nothing and ends up dead at the beach.
Ben Kitto made plans too, and he succeeded in finding a place for himself elsewhere in the world. But after the tragedy that now fills his mind day and night, he comes home. Not running, but still, home. Home to a group of people he's known his whole life, among which he now has to find a killer.
I feel for Ben. He is not ready yet to turn a new leaf and go on with his life, but somehow he gets involved in this very tragic story and becomes the only one who can really find the truth.

The book is beautyfully and strongly written; the atmosphere is almost painted, with the broad strokes of an artist who really knows their subject. The is a good story, interesting and likable characters, a lovely dog (and I'm not a dog person...), humor and just the right amount of sadness. It's great, you should read it!

Thank you NetGalley!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Uk Fiction for an advance copy of Hell Bay, the first novel in a new series featuring DI Benesek "Ben" Kitto set on the Scilly Isles.

Ben, a Detective Inspector with the Met, returns home to the Scilly Island of Bryher to recuperate from a serious incident and mull over his future. Bryher is a small community of less than 100 people so it is a terrible shock when teenager Laura Trescothick is found murdered. Due to his local knowledge and experience on the Met's murder squad Ben soon finds himself leading the hunt for Laura's killer.

I enjoyed Hell Bay which is, after a slow start, a compulsive read as Ben gradually uncovers secrets the residents would rather have kept hidden. I particularly enjoyed the ending with its musings on cause and effect but am unable to expand on this without spoilers.

The narrative is linear which I like and mostly told in the first person by Ben, which I'm not so sure of because, while it gives immediacy and intimacy to the investigation, Ben is not an open book and he is a difficult character to identify with. The novel is also intercut with third person narratives, mostly about Rose Austell. These add little to the murder plot line but do underline the unforgiving nature of life on the islands and the challenges it presents. Ms Rhodes does an excellent job of portraying the harshness of island life from the severe weather to the subsistence living of many of the inhabitants, paradise it ain't despite the scenery.

I'm interesting in reading more about Ben Kitto because it seems that there is much more to discover about this self contained man. He is obviously a smart and dedicated detective but his thoughts and emotions are not easily discerned beyond the little he is prepared to give.

Hell Bay is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

I have never read anything by Kate Rhodes before, but was tempted by the start of a new series. This features D.I. Ben Kitto, who is on leave from his job in London, where he works on a murder squad, in order to consider his resignation. Haunted by the death of his previous partner, and his feelings of guilt, he has returned to his childhood home on Bryher, the smallest, inhabited island on the Isles of Scilly. With less than a hundred permanent residents, his childhood home seems the perfect place to lick his wounds and decide what the future holds.

For the moment, it consists of hard work at his uncle’s boatyard, considering his future and letting the work take over his mind. However, even before his arrival, a young girl – sixteen year old Laura Trescothick – has gone missing. When her body is found and foul play is suspected, on an island where crime is virtually unknown, Ben offers his services and is given the task of investigating the crime. The suspects though, are people he has known all his lives – friends and neighbours. With a storm having cut the island off, though, the murderer is definitely among those who live there an dit is up to Ben to discover the truth.

Bryher does not sound an idyllic place, despite the obviously beautiful setting. It is a place where locals often only have summer work, when tourists visit, where they have more than one job to survive, and where life is hard and the biggest industries are fishing, boatbuilding and tourism. It is also a place where, behind closed doors, there are unseen problems; from smuggling to domestic violence, infatuation, jealousy and financial worries. As Ben untangles the secrets and lies behind a young girls death, he has to come to terms with his past and decide his future.

I really liked this crime novel. The setting may not be overly original – an island, where you know the suspect is within the closed community – but it works well. Bryher is very much part of the storyline, and atmosphere, alongside the characters. Ben Kitto is a wonderful, brooding character and I am pleased to see from the end of this book that he will be in future books. This has all the ingredients of becoming an excellent series. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I’ve not read any Kate Rhodes before but do know that she is both a celebrated poet and that her five crime novels featuring psychologist Alice Quentin are highly thought of and I get good feedback about her from readers returning library books.
With “Hell Bay” Rhodes is launching a new series featuring Detective Inspector Benesek Kitto and will be setting them in the Scilly Isles. The exact location of “Hell Bay” is Bryher, an island just to the west of the better known Tresco. Bryher is actually the smallest inhabited island with, we are told, 98 permanent residents and measures 1.5 miles with a width of half a mile at its widest point. As someone who lives on a bigger island I know exactly what that means in terms of people knowing everything that is going on and Rhodes is able to put this across brilliantly. I’m not sure how far she is intending to go with this series- the second novel is scheduled for 2019 but plausibly Bryher and the whole of the Scilly Isles are not going to have much mileage as a hot-bed of crime. In this novel alone Kate Rhodes has reduced the number of residents!
Ben Kitto was born and grew up on Bryher and returns as a retreat from difficult situations in London, which has caused him to question his future in the police force. His parents are both dead but family remains with his boat-building Uncle and his godmother who runs the pub. He knows virtually everyone on the island from his formative years there. In fact, the one person he doesn’t know draws him like a magnet.
A time of retreat and reflection with his inherited Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, Shadow, (a good canine character) is shattered by the suspicious death of a teenage girl. As Kitto is on the island already he is given the green light to investigate.
The size of the island ensures an intensity of emotions and the decision to stop people leaving without permission whilst the investigation is ongoing turns this who-dunnit into a variation of the classic country-house mystery set-up, substituting the small isolated island for the large, isolated house. This works extremely well, it is always engrossing and builds nicely. I didn’t work out who the killer was (I actually rarely do) so that’s also satisfying. I really enjoyed reading this and it has confirmed what I already suspected that Kate Rhodes is a highly promising crime writer whose back catalogue I really need to discover.

Detective Inspector Ben Kitto takes a leave of absence from the Metropolitan Police Force and returns to his childhood home on Bryher, one of the Scilly Isles. He is hoping to work in his uncle's boatyard, but no sooner has he arrived than a teenage girl is found murdered and the local Detective Chief Inspector asks him to take on the role of investigating officer. Everyone on the island is under suspicion and it doesn't take long for Ben to realise that all have secrets to hide.

I really enjoyed this traditional murder mystery. I loved the character of Ben, who has come to the island hoping to get over a traumatic event in his past, only to be thrust back onto the front line of a murder investigation. I thought the island of Bryher, bleak and desolate out of the holiday season, was a terrific setting, and the eccentric inhabitants (especially Rose) made up a great cast of characters. Shadow the dog was a lovely addition and there was a little bit of a romance too. This is exactly the kind of crime fiction I love to read and I do hope it will be the start of a new series.

The only negative for me was that I did find it slightly unbelievable that an officer on a leave of absence from one police force would be assigned investigating officer with another (and without returning to work first), and that he would be expected to conduct an enquiry with only the help of one constable.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed it!


I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book, which will be published in ebook and hardback on the 25th January 2018, and in paperback on the 3rd May 2018.

Thank you to Kate Rhodes, Simon & Schuster UK, and Netgalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Rhodes is a new author to me but I was drawn in by the description and having read the book will certainly look at others she has written.
DI Ben Kitto is on holiday on the island of Bryher, which is one of the smallest islands of the Isles of Scilly. He is normally based in London but following a traumatic event at work which caused him to offer his resignation he was persuaded to go back to his roots to reconsider. Once in Bryher he takes on a murder investigation, when a sixteen year old, Laura Trescothick is found dead. Due to a storm, all ferries to and from the island are suspended meaning the killer is still on the island. DI Ben Kitto questions all the locals in an effort to discover the truth.
Nicely written novel, the author sets the scene well and introduces good strong characters to make this book a very good read. I would like to think that this book is the start of a series.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Simon & Schuster UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.