Friday, September 13, 2013

Death on Lindisfarne - The Aidan Mysteries 2 by Fay Sampson

This is a very different kind of mystery than what I'm used to.  Aidan and his daughter Melangell head to the island of Lindisfarne for a week's retreat on Northumbrian saints.   Aidan's a widower of six months and wants to show his eight-year-old the place her mother loved.  There they meet an eclectic group of people, including the Methodist minister running the course and the troubled girl she's trying to save.  The island's cut off from the mainland by the tide twice a day and when one of their group is found dead, they wonder if it's murder and if the killer is still there or if they made it off the island. 

The characters were interesting and it was tough to figure out who the killer was.  There were so many possibilities!  I don't know much about saints and there was a lot of stories and history of many of them, which felt like a lot to me.  I didn't even realize there was a first book in the series until after I read this one, so it works great as a stand-alone.  There's some swearing, which I prefer not to see in Christian books.  There's also some talk about praying for the dead, so the story felt more Catholic.  I didn't like the way the dead person was portrayed one way and then after they were dead, it was said they were at peace now when the minister really didn't know that.  There's always the chance, of course, that they repented at the last possible moment, but it's portrayed as a certainty.  Overall, the story was okay, but I don't plan to read others in the series.

I received this book free from Kregel Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

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