The first book in the Scilly Isles thrillers. DI Ben Kitto returns home on leave from the police. Missing Laura is found dead and Ben is drawn back to find out who killed her. Good characters and pacing. Stephen Penning's narration is very good, you know which character is speaking look forward to hearing this narrator again.
I received this audiobook from Simon & Shyster audio UK and Netgalley for a review.

Hell Bay by Kate Rhodes is the first in the series of the Isles of Scilly Mysteries.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this e-audiobook. It was brilliantly narrated by Stephen Perring, who has such a great voice and range and really made the book come to life with the different characters and accents.

I loved the premise of the book. DI Ben Kitto has returned to his childhood home on the island of Bryher in the Scilly Isles to take some time and reflect on his life and career and whether he wants to continue to work for London’s Metropolitan Police Service. Something happened in London that drove him back to Bryher and the reason for his return is slowly revealed over the course of the book. He plans to work in his uncle’s boatyard for a couple of months. However, when the body of Laura Trescothick ,a local teenager, is discovered on a beach he’s pulled back into police work and investigating the murder. Not least because he was the one of the first people on the scene but because he’s the only policeman on Bryher until the police from Tresco can arrive.

I really got a sense of just how remote the island of Bryher is and the reliance on services like the police being on the larger island of Tresco. And, for more services like secondary schools and acute hospitals, you have to get the Scillonian ferry or even fly back to the Mainland.

I liked Ben Kitto as a character, he’s a man with a past and I liked the way he interacted with the islanders. He seems a good egg.

I liked the fact that Ben Kitto, having been born and raised on the island, did get to leave and have a life in London. His life moved on. He’s back and he’s investigating the murder and forced to question everyone he’s grown up with who stayed on the island. As he’s investigating, his reference point for the the islanders is how he remembered his peers when they were school together or how he viewed teachers and elders when he was teenager.

The murder of Laura Trescothick could only have been committed by an islander. Due to bad weather, no-one could have left or travelled to the island. They do say that in a small island community everyone knows each other’s business - but how well do they really know each other when only one of them is a murderer?

This was my first Kate Rhodes book and I will definitely seek out her other books and audiobook versions. Based on this first book, it feels like this would be a great series of books to adapt for TV. I think there would be an appetite to view this and I think the backdrop of the Scilly Isles would prove popular and attractive to Sunday night TV audiences!

Huge thanks to the publishers, Simon & Schuster Audio UK, and NetGalley for making this e-audiobook available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I like a book set on an island, it adds a little something.
That feeling of community.
Everyone knowing everyone.
And in this case, suspecting everyone, as someone has died and the murderer is still on the island.
It's the first in the series, and I'll look out for the next.
Ben was a likeable character, and his interactions with everyone were believable.
A good cast of characters,both to back him up and to suspect.
An enjoyable listen. 


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