Die Bucht des Schweigens

by Bernadette Calonego

»Die Polizei hatte sie vor herumwandernden Eisbären gewarnt, aber nicht vor dem Mörder, der in diesem entlegenen kanadischen Fischerdorf sein Unwesen trieb. Und nicht vor der Liebe.«

Die Fotografin Lory Finning bekommt den Auftrag, in Stormy Cove auf Neufundland Fotos für einen Bildband zu machen. Ihre Auftraggeberin Mona Blackwood möchte außerdem, dass sie sich dort »ein bisschen umsieht« – was Lory zwar seltsam vorkommt, aber sie hinterfragt es zunächst nicht. Doch kaum in Neufundland angekommen, erfährt sie, dass in Stormy Cove vor zwanzig Jahren ein Mord geschehen ist, der nicht aufgeklärt wurde und die Dorfbewohner immer noch umzutreiben scheint. Ist der Bildband nur ein Vorwand für Monas Auftrag? Warum interessiert sich die Unternehmerin so sehr für den abgelegenen Ort? Und welche Rolle spielt der attraktive Küstenfischer Noah, zu dem Lory sich mehr und mehr hingezogen fühlt?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Thriller, Ebooks, Crime, Book Club

492 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2015

About the author

I was born and raised in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, on Lake Lucerne, a very picturesque area with mountains and lakes. I grew up in a house full of book lovers. As a child, I sneaked in my brothers' rooms to read their adventure books like "Ivanhoe", "The Leatherstocking Tales", "Treasure Island", "Robinson Crusoe", "Huckleberry Finn". Or I persuaded my mother that I was old enough to read romances (they were really harmless!). To make me happy, I wanted nothing more than read a good book while eating an apple, and to be left alone!

My mother, a poet, encouraged me to try my hand at writing at an early age. My first publication was a fairytale, which appeared in a Swiss newspaper when I was eleven years old.

But I did not turn into a writer right away. I became a teacher, then a reporter and a foreign correspondent.

My career has included working as a reporter/editor for Reuters newsagency in Zurich. My time covering financial news for Reuters inspired my book "The Zurich Conspiracy".

From 1990 to 2000, I was the foreign correspondent for “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the largest circulation daily newspaper in Germany, reporting from Switzerland. After I had emigrated to Canada, I wrote regularly for newspapers and magazines in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

I now reside and work as a crime novelist near Vancouver, Canada, on the beautiful Sunshine Coast (okay, in winter, it is raining a lot). Visitors in my backyard include black bears, racoons, coyotes and bold eagles. You can also find me often in northern Newfoundland on Canada's east coast which is moose, polar bear and humpback whale territory.
My popular mystery thriller series with intrepid RCMP detective sergeant Calista Gates is set in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Come and read my English blog on my website www.bernadettecalonego.com
You can also contact me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BernadetteCa...
Or Instagram @bernadettecalonegoauthor
Or Tiktok @bernadettecalonego.author

I would love to hear from you!

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lori is a photographer who is on assignment in a tiny fishing community. Stormy Cove is a somewhat isolated village in Newfoundland where life is different from what Lori is used to. As she begins to meet and work with the locals, she learns about an unsolved crime from many years ago. After this as well as some other discoveries, she begins to view some of the locals in a different light. Lori is not sure who she can and can’t trust.

When I read a book like this, I often wonder how much is lost in translation. Some parts of the book seemed a little disjointed making those sections a little hard to follow but I wouldn’t say it was too hard to get back into the storyline. Most of it is told from Lori’s perspective with a few “interviews” thrown in here and there from different characters. There were a few surprises in this somewhat suspenseful book.

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book but my computer was hacked so I can't do a decent review as I am too stressed out!
Recommended for everyone.

[Monica Hills · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting of this novel is spellbinding. It takes places in a small fishing village in Newfoundland. I felt like I was actually there based on the author's description. The story is essentially a mystery but there are actually several mysteries going on.

Lori is the main character. She is from Vancouver and has been placed on assignment to take photographs for a coffee table book of this small town, Stormy Cove. However it turns out that this is not the real reason for her being there.

What I did not like about this book is there were too many characters. The author provided a guide to help but I was reading this as an ebook so it is hard to go back and forth. I really liked Lori's back story and there was a budding romance for her which I enjoyed. I just felt like there were too many mysteries going on and it got a little confusing. Not a bad read though overall. This was a goodreads giveaway and I am thankful for the opportunity to try a new novel and author.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. The writing style, the characters, the unsolved mysteries, the budding romance, there was just something about this book. I felt like I was right beside Lori as she photographed Newfoundland (minus the very cold weather). Lori, a photographer fond of berets, is spending a year in a remote fishing village in Newfoundland. She's being commissioned to take photos for a coffee table book. Stormy Cove is completely different than her life in Vancouver. The general store doesn't even sell butter, only margarine. I cannot wait to read more books by Bernadette Calonego.

[i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first thought when I started this book and saw the long list of characters was a pleasant one, it reminded me of the novels by Agatha Christie.


The authors likes reading mystery novels and "sees her books as tales of adventure in which the characters, while perhaps searching for a murderer or love, become involved in the kinds of action that she would like to experience herself." Indeed,when I was reading this appealing story I felt like going to Newfoundland, find a little village full of secrets and discover them myself.

Bernardette Calonego has written a page-turner that won't disappoint readers. The characters are well developed and some of them may make you think of the people you know and what they may be hiding.

So pack up your winter clothes and your fishing gear and head for an exciting read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

www.theleisurediaries.blogspot.com

[Elliot A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for providing me with an ARC of Stormy Cove in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist

I’m slowly, but surely making my way through all the approved ARCs that have been sitting in my to-read shelf on NetGalley for longer than I’m willing to admit.

Up next on my list was Stormy Cove, a mystery.

I mean, what’s not to like for someone like me? We’ve got a fishing town near the Atlantic cost serving as the background. We’ve got moody weather. We’ve got an atmosphere that goes against the perpetual cheerfulness of blue skies as observed from my window in the middle of summer.

And most importantly, we’ve got a mystery. Did I say that already? Sorry, I like atmospheric mystery novels set near water, preferably an ocean.

I got all cozy on the couch with a cup of tea within arm’s reach, ready to read.

The Details

Well, what can I say? Before the first chapter opened, before even the prologue opened, the book provides us with a list of characters that are going to show up in this story.

I thought that was kind of a cute touch. It felt very Shakesperean. A sort of dramatis personae. That was very considerate or so I thought until I flipped through four pages of this list.

It wasn’t considerate, but completely necessary, especially because once the story began, the narrator didn’t waste much time explaining which character was whom and how they were all related.

I have to admit, I already felt overwhelmed and slightly confused by page three of the character list.

No chance I would ever be able to remember all these names once they pop up in the story.
It was a recipe for confusion and frustration.

The narration also jumps abruptly between scenes, time frames and even characters. A few times I caught myself paused mid-sentence, asking myself how the story got to the point it was at. It felt like following the breadcrumbs backwards to remind myself the fifty other details that led to this particular point.

It was exhausting.

The protagonist never truly got established as such, because of all the other characters that crowded the story.

The story itself took a very long time to get started. By that time, I lost all interest in it.

I thought maybe, if I stop trying to follow every little detail and character, I could sort of follow the majority of the story. Sadly, this made things even worse.

The Verdict

Overall, I hate to say this, but this story was a bit of a mess. It felt like the author had a really good idea, pumped it full of caffeine and let it run wild, taking note of what stuck.

With some more editing, better direction and nixing a handful of the characters this could have been a decent mystery novel.

Sadly, I couldn’t get into this one.

ElliotScribbles

[Siobhan Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a classic small-town mystery from an outsider’s perspective. I enjoyed learning about Stormy Cove through Lori’s eyes and learning about the mysteries in the town. There were a lot of characters, to the point that I sometimes had trouble keeping track, because in classic small town fashion, they were all related somehow.

I would have liked the book to have more time devoted to the mystery of Demon Island and what happened there in the 1700s, but I also get that there are mysteries and legends in small towns that are just a short story with no other details.

This was a fun read. Similar to other things I’ve read and also totally different. Loved that it took place in Newfoundland.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The setting completely drew me into this book. I really enjoyed it :)

[Chastity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Translated well, and very suspenseful

Very suspenseful and exciting. Was translated very well, better than most. I really enjoyed " Stormy Cove" and recommend it to everyone

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing and rather complicated plot with lots of plot lines. Lori Finning's assignment to create a coffee table record of life in a remote Canadian fishing village turns into a murder mystery and an investigation of missing women. Rather inevitably it also has a romance strand, and also some danger to Lori herself.

Nicole Zanzarella does a good job with the narration, producing a number of voices to differentiate different characters.

The author also uses not only first voice narration but also some segments when a person is being interviewed about his/her impressions of the main characters in the story. This made for challenging listening.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was probably more like a 2.5 rating for me. I found they were so many characters it was a bit difficult to follow.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bernadette Calonego has written the perfect combination of a mystery and romance in Stormy Cove. The main character is Lori Fenning a free-lance photographer from Vancouver who is hired by a mysterious publisher to take photos for what will become a coffee table book about Newfoundland’s fishermen. She is to document their harsh and dangerous daily lives and the stark beauty of the surrounding area. Lori is sent to the tiny fishing of Stormy Cove. She quickly becomes part of this close-knit community and is befriended by Noah, one of the local fishermen. It’s not long before Lori discovers that this community has a dark past and many secrets that they are unwilling to share. Everyone knows everyone and knows his or her secrets. An unsolved murder and a disappearance twenty years before haunt the community and Lori sets out to find the answers. It’s not long before another murder happens just like before. With the help of Noah, can she untangle the clue? Can Lori find the killer before she becomes the next victim? Can she find safety with Noah or are his secrets part of this mystery?
The characters are strong and well written. The story grabs you from the beginning and won’t let you go until all is unraveled. The growing relationship between Lori and Noah is well done and believable and adds just the right amount of warmth to the story. There are quite a few characters in the book that all seem to be related somehow but a list of characters is provided at the beginning to help you not be confused. This book was originally written in another language and has been translated without losing any of its appeal.
This made a wonderful vacation book.

I received this book from Netgalley and AmazonCrossing in return for a fair and honest review.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lori, a photographer, goes to stay in a remote Newfoundland fishing village in order to produce material for a coffee table book about vanishing communities.

She finds a close community hiding secrets. What happened to the woman who used to live in the house she is renting? What happened to another missing person?

I loved the way the author captures the beauty of the landscape and the atmosphere of the community. All in all a satisfying read.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

[Nanci · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was a bit hard to follow with so many characters. It did help that there was a list of them in the front and I used it often. I enjoyed that's the story was set in Newfoundland, as that's an area we'd like to visit one day, but I thought it could have been told in 100 less pages. 3 stars

[John Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I came across this story's synopsis, I knew I just had to read the novel - and I am so glad I did! I fell in love with the description of outport life and the author's obvious love for the natural beauty of the environment and her respect for the hardships and realities of life in a part of North America that's unlike any other on the continent. And the people - the colourful people! Having lived in St. John's, Newfoundland for six years (almost 20 years ago), I’d briefly worked near a small town on its northwestern coast where the novel is set. Through that experience and with friends who'd grown up in or had family in coastal towns or villages around the province, I received a tantalizing second-hand glimpse of what life in a remote fishing community must have been like. I was there at a time when the cod fishery had finally collapsed, oil had just been discovered in the province's coastal waters, and a 400-year way of life was dying out in the coastal fishing villages. To read Bernadette Calonago's novel made me feel like I was there, with the people and the strictures of life in that harsh, unforgiving (but, to an outsider, beautiful) environment, not to mention re-experiencing the ocean, the barrens, the icebergs, the caplin, the smells and sounds and feel of outport life - even the local excitement surrounding tavern nightlife! A short ways into the novel, I realized that the author could have written about the place and the people with so much truth and detail - and, yes love - only if she'd lived or spent a great deal of time in such a setting herself. And that is exactly what Calonego has done, having split her time between the east and west coasts (in Newfoundland and her home in Vancouver) since emigrating to Canada. The German connection that comes through in the novel's plot, too, tells me that this story is infused with her personal back story and experience (always the mark of a moving literary work). If you love wilderness, colourful characters, a bit of romance, and the intrigue of small-town secrets and grape-vine rumour that shape people and family and history in communities where doors are never locked, in a place as unique as Appalachia or the Yukon, you've got to read Stormy Cove!

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stormy Cove is an unusual book. Originally self-published in German by a Swiss writer, it explores the secrets of a small town on the Northern Peninsula in Newfoundland. It seems to be based on the author's experiences as an outsider, living in such a community, and while many details ring true, some things are lost in the translations, particularly the dialog.
I can only guess how Newfoundland English would be rendered in German, particularly by someone who may not have a complete grasp of the nuances of the local dialect. When translated back again into English what emerges sounds a little unnatural, especially toward the end, when it becomes rather terse. Strangest of all, is the use of familiarities that would be heard in Ontario (such as
the inquisitive eh?) and the complete absence of any Newfoundland grammatical infelicities that typically lace conversations everywhere on the island.
What is genuine are the descriptions of inshore fishing, the landscape, houses, local history. There is also some interesting observations of being an outsider in a close-knit community, for example, when the narrator brings a potato salad to a pot-luck, and the locals, confronted with a
slightly different recipe than what they are used to, don't even try it.
Overall, the plot and characters are complex and interesting.

[Carol Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It reads fast and the story progresses at a nice pace. Bernadette Colonego writes beautifully and her descriptions of the landscape, the town, and the townspeople made me feel like I was actually there. I loved the small town setting where everyone knows each other, no one locks their doors, their lifestyles mirror the harshness and beauty of their environment, they gossip about each other and yet for the most part, support and love each other, too. I enjoyed the bit of romance along with the suspense and mystery of the story where you could never be sure who the bad guy was. I did have trouble keeping the many characters straight even with the help of character list provided at the front of the book. But all in all, it was engaging and unpredictable and would make for a great beach read.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling Story

This story touches on many of the idorciracies that happen in a small town or remote cluster of people. Family secrets behind closed doors that come out and affect other people around them. Secrets and misstepped choices cause people to either fess up to their errors or make more to bury them. This book touched on that and how the outsider felt that uncovering the secrets would free the kind man who helped her from the beginning of her entry into the little remote town.

The only thing that confused me was the inserted interviews with various members of the story as if you already knew how the story ended. The Prologue was written in such a way that you don’t know until the end who the her and he were being discussed.

I definitely recommend this book as it was a really page turner.

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my quest to read a book written by an author from each of the 169 countries of the world. This author was born and raised in a German-speaking part of Switzerland. The book takes place on a remote area of New Foundland, Canada so the story doesn't really relect the author's Swiss background!

This story is about a Vancouver photographer Lori, who temporarily moves to New Foundland for an assignment. She immediately becomes enmeshed in the community where 'everybody knows everything and everyone'. She becomes interested in solving a decades-old murder myster.

There are multiple plot lines and many characters which can get confusing at time. I did enjoy reading about how people work, live, and relate in such a cold, isolated area.

[Sandra Farrar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facinating

The story centers around a small fishing village in Newfoundland and it's people with their traditions and lifestyle. Murder, mystery, mayhem and secrets abound within this particular quaint little village as well as a touch of romance here and there. Frankly, I couldn't put this book down not did I want to. I highly recommend it if you are interested in reading a good mystery.

[M.A. Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this mystery set in Newfoundland by Bernadette Colonego. The story was gripping and kept me in suspense through to the end. But the best part was the description of life in a Newfoundland outport, with all its quirks. The author lives in Newfoundland part time, and I’m sure the details that she provides are true to life. A very enjoyable read.

[Thomas G. Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Newfi tale

A mystery set in a very unusual setting. If you are interested in the Newfoundland area this is for you.
The mystery set in this unusual setting makes the book intriguing.
I think the book is also in good taste as the lack of descriptive sex to enhance the story was refreshing.

[Karen Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Knock out

Here is another slow starter but having read this author before I knew the tempo would pick up and I wasn't wrong. Great thumbs up. Anyone who would like a great read should pick it up and find a new author as I did. I hope she brings Noah and Lori back for some more adventures ,love, murder, etc...

[Tammy Teresa Roos · Rating 4 out of 5]

So atmospheric

This is my fourth book by this author. I have loved them all. She writes such interesting stories. Plus I love how atmospheric they are. I enjoyed the characters and loved how the past and the present came together. If you like murder mysteries I highly recommend this one.

[C.E. DeJoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meet the characters in a small fishing village

I enjoyed the book, thought it well written and liked the mystery elements. However, my favorite part was the picture of life in a small isolated fishing village in Newfoundland.

[LINDA POISSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than I thought

I liked the book first paragraph out. The small little books like this one usually bore me, but this one kept me interested enough to finish it. Love ,murder and fun all in one

[Chris Forrester-Foley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book! Even though I kept hoping it would end the way it did, you were just never quite sure. I like be to travel & this book made me feel like I could actually see the beautiful scenery and town.

[Sarah Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love it when I'm surprised. Stormy Cove is a murder mystery and gentle love story all rolled into one and its the first suspense that I've read in a while where you couldnt guess where it was going until the last page. So glad I gave it a chance and read it.

[Kathy Mireault · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a difficult time keeping up with all of the characters. Since I had the Kindle version I couldn't go back to the beginning to reference the relationships between the many people who lived in Stormy Cove. Also, the main character was not all that likeable.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting mystery!

I loved the descriptions of the people and places of this book. The characters are not what I expected and the village life was compellingly complicated! Very interesting read!