Dark Island

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE McDERMID DEBUT AWARD 2024**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT PRIZE 2024*

Midwinter in Orkney.

Six hours of daylight.

A race against time to catch a killer.

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’My debut novel of the year’ CHRIS LLOYD

’I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’ NASHEEMA LENNON

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Reporter Freya Sinclair has always known she was different. While waiting on the outcome of an autism assessment, Freya uproots her life in Glasgow, quitting her job at one of Scotland’s top broadsheets and taking a local beat in her childhood home of Orkney. But her plans for a quiet life are shattered when human remains are exhumed by a winter storm on Orkney’s wild Atlantic coast.

The identity of the bones opens old wounds in the islands, and sheds light on a darker truth nobody wants to accept. As the nights draw in, Freya’s obsessive hunt for answers turns into a cat-and-mouse game, with each secret she unearths threatening her job, compromising her family, and exposing new victims to a killer who’s watching from the shadows...

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’Daniel Aubrey can do for Orkney what Ann Cleeves has done for Shetland in this absorbing novel. It transported me’ MARION TODD

’Twists and secrets galore ... A nail-biting thriller you’ll never forget’ CAROLINE MITCHELL

’A tense read with emotional honesty ... Freya is a triumph’ CALLUM McSORLEY

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’I absolutely raced through this exciting murder mystery. Daniel Aubrey’s writing transported me. Freya is such a brilliant and complex character’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

’If you’re a fan of location-based mysteries, such as LJ Ross or GR Halliday, you need to get your teeth into this series NOW’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

’Pacy and well-plotted and I loved the Orkney setting. I really liked Freya and there’s lots of action and twists but it never at any point felt far-fetched’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

’Everyone should read Dark Island. I loved the neurodivergent character at the heart of the book. The ending was extremely moving’ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Daniel Aubrey is a former journalist whose previous jobs included writing for a local paper in Spain and working as a sub-editor at an international press agency in Hong Kong. Now living in Scotland, he has written his debut novel, Dark Island - a crime thriller about neurodivergent reporter, Freya Sinclair, who uncovers a disturbing conspiracy following the discovery of human remains on Orkney’s wild Atlantic coast.