Black Rock Bay by Brianna Labuskes

It's been 15 years since Mia had been on St. Lucy's Island, Maine. This tiny place, home to about 200 residents year round, was isolated, battered with horrible weather, and full of bad memories. Mia Hart is now a police detective in Rockport and was sent to the island to investigate the death of a journalist on Black Rock Bay because it was familiar to her having grown up there. She's accompanied by her partner, Detective Izzy Santiago, and they are meant to determine if Robert Twist ended up in the ocean due to murder or suicide -- then off and away within a couple of days. That's the plan but it all starts going awry fairly quickly after their arrival. For one thing, NO ONE on the island will answer their questions truthfully. Even though Mia knows most all of them, she also knows that they protect each other and lying is something that everyone does very well. How can they solve this case and get back home before winter storms keep them stranded. With every contact and interview, the investigation gets steered off course and Mia is hampered by her own history there. Can the detectives get to the bottom of this very complex web of secrets, lies and obstruction? NO SPOILERS.

This was a very complicated and, at times, very frustrating read. Because of the evasiveness of the answers given by the townspeople, it was hard to figure out what was going on and which of the possibilities could be eliminated for the various scenarios. The description of St. Lucy's made me shiver as I could feel the cold and the isolation of the island so very well done with the writing style. There were so many characters to keep track of and hard to wade through the information. Add to that the fact that the detectives couldn't get cell or internet service -- well, they had to operate in a vacuum surrounded by so many untrustworthy people. The chapters alternated between the points of view of both Mia and Izzy -- the insider and the outsider -- which gave another dimension to each interaction and experience they shared. This wasn't a particularly fast read but I sure spent a lot of time trying to outguess the author to figure out where this was all going, the motivation, and the revelations that would explain it all. This is the first book I've read by this author and I did enjoy the atmospheric tension and, though a bit slower of a pace than I'm used to, I would try another book by Brianna Labuskes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - mystery featuring two female police detectives, remote island, winter,