A YOUNG couple move from London to an island off the west coast of Scotland at the start of The Saved by Liz Webb (Allison & Busby, £16.99). Langer has “a population of eighty-three, one pub and one shop” – which these days, of course, gives it one more pub and one more shop than most mainland villages. But it is very isolated, and when the weather turns bad it can be entirely cut off. That suits Calder and Nancy, though each for different, unspoken reasons. 

The island comes complete with a mysterious disappearance from years ago, a local church which looks a lot like a cult, and eventually a violent death. In other words, all the cliches of this type of crime story are present – but hold on tight, because Webb is about to twist every one of them inside out. 

We’re on another island in Good Half Gone by Tarryn Fisher (Graydon House, £16.99), and this one, in Washington State, hosts a hospital for the criminally insane. So, when Iris chooses to work there as an intern, readers might be forgiven for rolling their eyes and asking “What could possibly go wrong?” Iris isn’t innocently blundering into danger, though. She’s not there to learn a trade, but to solve a mystery.