Island of Darkness

Winter in the Scottish Orkney Islands. Six hours of daylight. And the darkness favours a killer. ***** When a storm washes the skeletons of two long-missing teenagers onto the rocky Orkney coast, it's an intense start to a new career for reporter Freya. Fate has handed her a story to investigate for the local weekly newspaper just after she has returned to her native islands, determined to rediscover herself after a painful departure from Glasgow. ***** During the investigation, Freya is supposed to collaborate with the seasoned older reporter, Gill. Although her autism spectrum disorder makes dealing with Gill and others difficult, it soon becomes apparent that being different can be an advantage in practice: like Sherlock Holmes, Freya perceives things in unexpected detail and context. ***** However, she has returned home at the worst possible time. The gruesome discovery of the young lovers' remains has opened old wounds and sheds light on a past that no one in the closed island community is willing to admit to the world. Freya's obsession with uncovering the truth transforms a journalistic routine into a cat-and-mouse game in a darkness so thick you could cut it with a knife. Each newly revealed secret threatens her job and her family, and directs the perpetrator's attention to their next victim. Freya inevitably faces the question of whether it is more important to expose the conspiracy or to stay alive.