A Jennifer Dorey Mystery Series

Dark Sky Island, Lara Dearman’s follow-up to the first Jennifer Dorey mystery is sure to find fans in readers of Susie Steiner and Sharon Bolton.

An inspector and journalist join forces to uncover long-buried secrets, simmering resentments, and a chilling murder in a tiny, remote island in the English Channel.

The tiny island of Sark lies isolated in the dark waters of the Channel Islands. No cars are allowed. No streetlamps light its paths. It is the world’s only Dark Sky Island. This breathtaking patch of land seems the picture of tranquility—but at its heart lies a web of murder, deceit, and hidden danger.

When bones are discovered on Derrible Bay and an elderly resident is violently murdered, DCI Michael Gilbert from the nearby island of Guernsey is called in to tackle the case. With his department under fire, he needs to find the killer—and fast. Joining him is newspaper reporter Jennifer Dorey, whose father died in a mysterious drowning off the island. As Michael struggles to crack the case and Jennifer launches her own investigation, the island’s residents are left reeling and soon, their dark secrets begin to unravel threatening everything.

On an island steeped in superstition, where tales of hauntings and devil craft abound, Michael and Jenny race to discover the truth in Dark Sky Island, the second tantalizing installment of Lara Dearman’s Jennifer Dorey mysteries.

Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves and Elly Griffiths, a gripping, atmospheric debut that transports readers to the Channel Island of Guernsey, immersing them in the hunt for a killer whose secrets are rooted in the insular community’s own dark past.

I’m not afraid of the darkness…Only what it hides.

Finding a drowned woman’s body on the beach is the last thing journalist Jennifer Dorey’s fragile psyche needs. She left London for her island home of Guernsey, England, in the aftermath of a traumatic incident that shook her to her core. Now, as a local newspaper reporter, it’s Jennifer’s job to prove the woman’s death…but she uncovers something far bigger and more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

Jennifer enlists the help of DCI Michael Gilbert to investigate a pattern of similar deaths over the last fifty years. Though he’s looking forward to a comfortable—and imminent—retirement, Gilbert joins the journalist on a dark trail of island myths and folklore that leads to the door of a Nazi soldier’s illegitimate son. But as Jennifer gets closer to learning the killer’s identity—and his painstaking plans for mayhem—she falls ever deeper into his grasp.

Sinister deeds unravel in the darkness in The Devil’s Claw, Lara Dearman’s exhilarating debut novel.