‘The Dying Light’ by Daniel Aubrey

Published by Harpercollins,
19 June 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-00862443-9 (PB)

Orkney, midsummer 1997, and six teenagers have taken a boat over to the deserted island of Copinsay. Soon, a quarrel breaks out. In the aftermath, suddenly one of them, Michael, sees someone moving around outside. The novel then moves to present day, DI Fergus Muir on his way to view a dead man, dressed in office clothes, inside the Neolithic tomb known as the Dwarfie Stane.

Two intriguing starts, and the pace rattles on from there. Reporter Freya Spence was involved in bringing a paedophile ring to book, and the notebooks of her late father, a policeman, suggest one more person was involved, with the initials SC. She and Fergus Muir make a good pair, the older, experienced local man and the young woman who grew up in Orkney but left it for many years. Part of Freya’s fairly mild autism is a tendency to get obsessed with things, and now her father’s notebook is driving her to finish what he started. The key seems to be the disappearance of a teenage boy, back in midsummer 1997 – and so the two plots are neatly meshed together.

Freya’s a sympathetic heroine, filled with doubts and difficulties, and I enjoyed Muir’s police sidekick, dynamic DS Eilidh Murray, fresh to Orkney from the city, and determined not to let this chance of excitement pass her by. Orkney was also a character in the story, with vivid descriptions of the places, a real feel for the community life, and occasional use of the distinctive dialect. It ends with an explosion of violence that’s extra shocking in this quiet community.

A fast-moving page turner, with interesting characters and a real feel of Orkney in the setting. It’s part of a series, and the plot is linked enough with the first book, Dark Island, to make me recommend reading that before The Dying Light.

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, his debut novel, Dark Island, is 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.  The Dying Light is his second book.  

Marsali Taylor grew up near Edinburgh and came to Shetland as a newly-qualified teacher. She is currently a part-time teacher on Shetland's scenic west side, living with her husband and two Shetland ponies. Marsali is a qualified STGA tourist-guide who is fascinated by history, and has published plays in Shetland's distinctive dialect, as well as a history of women's suffrage in Shetland. She's also a keen sailor who enjoys exploring in her own 8m yacht, and an active member of her local drama group.  Click on the title to read a review of her recent book

An Imposter in Shetland

www.marsalitaylor.co.uk