Devil's Fjord by David Hewson

Tristan used to be a cop in a larger city, but when his heart shows signs of weakness, he's asked to leave the force.  He moves to small village that seems magical and takes the part-time job of being the sheriff in charge of the whale hunt.  He has to supervise the hunt and make reports on how many were taken.  The people of the village use the meat and blubber for their households.  He's asked to participate.  He doesn't want to but he wants their respect so he does.  He can't kill even a small whale so that plan backfired on him.  When he sees a young boy who has a whaling knife just stabbing the baby whale, he attempts to stop him.  The boy cuts him and runs.

Severn House and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published May 1st.

He tries to stop the boy and his brother but they get away from him.  Soon the whole village is out there looking.  He's out on a boat looking up and down the cliffsides for caves or openings where they might be hiding.  When they see one of the boys fall from the cliff, they attempt to rescue him.  He's already dead and his father almost get killed by the storm trying to get to him.  The village blames his brother for killing him but Tristan doesn't think so.

This is an isolated village on the coast with just a bit of population.  They've been there forever and don't accept new people well.  No one admits seeing anything.  Then he finds out there have been two other deaths in the past that unsolved.  His administrator doesn't want him looking into them but he does.

He finds lots of nasty little details.  When he finds the bad guy it looks like he, his wife, and the out of town police officer are all going to die.  There's a very ironic twist to this story that surprised me.

Some small towns are strange and hide many secrets.  Tristan tries to find justice but it's nowhere to be found here...