The Blood Stand (Faroes #1) -Chris Ould
Almost a year ago I wrote a post about five new mysteries that caught my eye on a visit to Barnes & Noble. Here are the books that were included in that post :
- Out of the Blues – Trudy Nan Boyle
- Close Your Eyes – Michael Robotham
- Summit Lake -Charlie Donlea
- The Blood Strand – Chris Ould
- Savage Season – Joe R Lansdale
After finishing The Blood Strand on Thursday, I have read three out of five of the above books. They have all been great! I read both Summit Lake and Close Your Eyes in April of last year, shortly after I had spotted them at B&N. But for some reason I never got around to The Blood Strand. Once again, it may have been too many books to little time!!
Anyway last week when I was in the library I saw Ould’s latest release The Killing Bay among the new books. Rather than plunge into that book, I decided that it would be better go back and read The Blood Strand first And now I am anxiously awaiting a return visit the the library to pick up up Faroes #2 and make a return visit to the islands.
The Blood Strand’s Setting the Faroes Islands
I love books that take me to places that I’ve never been, Actually, The Blood Strand takes me to a place that I’ve never even heard of the Faroe Islands. So if you are like me and don’t know about these islands, here some information about the islands. From Wikipedia:
The Faroe Islands, also spelled the Faeroes, is an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about halfway between Norway and Iceland, 320 kilometres (200 miles) north-northwest of Scotland. Its area is about 1,400 square kilometres (541 square miles) with a population of 50.030 in April 2017. The Faroe Islands is an autonomous country within the Danish Realm
The land of the Faeroes is rugged, and these islands have a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc): windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Despite this island group’s northerly latitude, temperatures average above freezing throughout the year because of the Gulf Stream. Read More
About The Blood Strand
From the back cover of the book..
Having left the Faroes as a child, Jan Reyna is now a British police detective, and the islands are foreign to him. But he is drawn back when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else’s blood at the scene. Then a man’s body is washed up on an isolated beach. Is Reyna’s father responsible?
Looking for answers, Reyna falls in with local detective Hjalti Hentze. But as the stakes get higher and Reyna learns more about his family and the truth behind his mother’s flight from the Faroes, he must decide whether to stay, or to forsake the strange, windswept islands for good.
My Thoughts about The Blood Strand
One of the reasons that this book first caught my attention was its location. The Faroes Islands remind me a lot of the Outer Hebrides, the location of Peter May’s wonderful Lewis Trilogy. I can;t even imagine how people live on these islands. I think it was raining almost all through this book! But the residents of the islands are a tough, close-knit group of people. The newcomer to this group is Jan Reyna. His mother left the island and her husband when Jan was an infant. A short while later she committed suicide. His mother’s suicide left Jan with lots of questions about the hows and whys of his early life, These questions were never answered by the aunt who raised him in England. And they were only partially answered in The Blood Strand
Jan returns to an island he doesn’t remember to visit a father he doesn’t like and the two half-brothers he barely knows. Soon after his arrival, Jan joins with Faroese detective Hjalti Hentze and the other members of the Island’s police department, As they try to determine what happened on that fateful night.,when his father was found after having a stroke. With a shotgun across his lap and the blood of a dead man in his car, it appeared that .Reyna’s father may have killed someone. Ould does a good job of keeping up the suspense as Jan and Hjalti try to solve the crime.
Overall I enjoy the book very much. I think that Ould did a great job of creating a unique character in Jan Reyna. Jan Reyna returns to a world where he may belong,but is certainly not part of. As such, his quest is to not only solve a murder but also to answer questions about his life. Why did his mother leave his father and what drove her to suicide?. The Blood Strand answers none of these questions was completely. So I am eager to move on and discover more along with Jan. The Library Journal puts it well,,,,,,
“Leaves the reader satisfied but with that edgy sense of more to come. For anyone who’s visited the Faroes with Ould, it’s a beautiful feeling.”
So check out The Blood Strand, while I visit The Kiling Bay.!!
Rating: Four and a half thumbs up out of five!
Links for the Further Exploration of The Blood Strand and Books of Chris Ould
Goodreads
Walking The Blood Strand with Chris Ould | Titan Books: Library Journal
An interview with Chris Ould, author of The Blood Strand – My Bookish Ways
Note: Farose Islands map- Source:By TUBS – Own work This vector graphics image was created with Adobe Illustrator.This file was uploaded with Commonist. This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this: World location map (W3).svg (by TUBS)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15469427
