Book Synopsis:

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.

Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.

A novel of breathtaking twists and dizzying beauty, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.

My Review:

Wild Dark Shore is an atmospheric, gripping and thought provoking read which I’ve continued to think about long after finishing it .

The story takes place on a remote, wild island off the coast of Australia which is slowly being claimed by the sea. The story is told through the point of view of the family that lives on the island and the mysterious Rowan who washes ashore during a storm. From the start things seem off on the island as Rowan discovers a fractured family cut off from the rest of the world, broken communication equipment and missing residents.

I thought the author did an amazing job with the descriptions of the isolated island that the characters find themselves on and I loved exploring it alongside them all. It often seemed like a character itself prone to quick weather changes that helped or hindered the characters and I wish it existed in real life as I’d love to be able to explore it myself. The family was just brilliant, especially the fabulous Orly and despite initially being a little apprehensive of them I slowly found myself falling in love with them as the story went on.

The mystery side of the story was really well done and I loved following Rowan as she slowly discovers all that has happened on the island. There were multiple twists that I didn’t see coming and sent the story in a completely different direction to what I had assumed which I always love. The ending, oh my goodness what an amazing ending! I was in tears as I read and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I finished reading. I was very sad for the book to end as I really didn’t want to say goodbye to the wonderful family. It’s one of those books I’d love to see a sequel to (even though I know there never will be) as I just want to be able to spend more time with them.

Huge thanks to @canongatebooks for sending me a copy of this book. Highly recommended by me, don’t hesitate just read it!

About The Author:

Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the New York Times, USA Today, and Indie Bestseller WILD DARK SHORE, named Amazon’s Best Book of the Year So Far for 2025; as well as the New York Times Bestseller ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES, winner of the Indie Book Award for Fiction 2022; and the international bestseller MIGRATIONS, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year and the Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020. Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages, and are being adapted for film and television. She lives in Sydney with her partner and two children.

Book Synopsis:

Sofas, secrets and a snowbound road to trouble…

Helsinki, 1982. Recently divorced postal worker Ilmari Nieminen has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but with six days to go – and no money – he’s desperate. 

A last-minute job offers a solution: transport a valuable antique sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland. 

With the sofa secured in the back of his van, Ilmari stops at a gas station, and an old friend turns up, offering to fix his faulty wipers, on the condition that he tags along. Soon after, a persistent Saab 96 appears in the rearview mirror. And then a bright-yellow Lada.

That’s when Ilmari realises that he is transporting something truly special. 

And that’s when Ilmari realises he might be in serious trouble…

A darkly funny and unexpectedly moving thriller about friendship, love and death – The Winter Job tears through the frozen landscape of northern Finland in a beat-up van with bad steering, worse timing, and everything to lose…

My Review:

The Winter Job is dark, funny and oddly heart-warming story of misadventure.

The story follows two recently reunited friends as they transport a valuable sofa across snowy Finland. Sounds simple enough right? However a simple journey soon turns into a wild car chase as the friends are pursued by two communist intent on stealing the sofa to sell and use the profits to fund their cause as well as a crazy, psychopath called Otto.

I thought the characters in this book were brilliant and I really enjoyed following them throughout the book. Ilmari and Antero were easy to warm to and I loved following them on the journey they go on both physically in the car but also emotionally as the conversation in the car turns into a bit of a heart to heart. The bad guys in the book were fantastically evil and Otto especially made my blood run cold as I read as I was never completely sure what he was going to do next.

Overall I loved this book and I can’t wait to read more from this author soon. The story is very gripping with lots of tension that ensured I couldn’t put the book down. The author includes lots of red herrings in the story which kept me guessing and some very funny scenes mixed with some subtle humour that had me laughing out loud as I read. There are some rather dark, gruesome scenes that might not be to everyone’s taste but I really enjoyed going on this rather madcap adventure with some amazing characters.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Karen from Orenda Books for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. The critically acclaimed My Brother’s Keeper was published two years later. In 2011, Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for ‘Best Finnish Crime Novel of 2011’ and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. The Finnish press labelled The Healer – the story of a writer desperately searching for his missing wife in a post-apocalyptic Helsinki – ‘unputdownable’. Two years later, in 2013, they crowned Tuomainen ‘The King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published.

With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland (2018) was an immense success, with The Times calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’, and Little Siberia (2019) was shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA International Dagger, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. The Rabbit Factor is the first book in Antti’s first-ever series. The Rabbit Factor is also in development to become an Amazon Studios film starring Steve Carell.

Follow Antti on Twitter @antti_tuomainen, or on Facebook: facebook.com/AnttiTuomainen.