|
|
|
|
This web site is: |
 |
|
|
Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Quartet |
|
|
Amazon Sales Rank: 21612
Publication Date: 2008-06-24
Release Date: 2008-06-24
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 0312359675
Type: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 384
|
Winner of Britain’s coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to U.S. mystery readers.
Raven Black begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.
Average Rating: 
Review: 2009-12-24
Small towns hold secrets worth killing over...
The Shetland Islands, so far from the mainland of Scotland that they can be cut off by bad weather, are the focus for this, the first in a quartet of novels by veteran crime writer Ann Cleeves. The first three are already out in the UK, with a fourth to be published early in 2010 -- in case you become as hooked as I found myself by the end of this great debut.
The Shetlands are so peaceful that people can routinely -- and safely -- leave their doors unlocked. Once, years ago, a young girl named Catriona disappeared, but even the eccentric loner once suspected of being responsible for her death, Magnus Tait, is left alone to live his life as he wishes. Then a second girl -- a young woman, an 'incomer' to the island -- is found dead on the fields near Tait's home. Catherine Ross has been stirring up the island; hoping to make a name for herself as a filmmaker, she's decided to start with what she sees around her. Could that have led to her death, or are the suspicions about Magnus Tait that have been suddenly reawakened valid?
This is a great mystery that had me puzzled right up to the final twist in the tale -- which is a great one. (Cleeves flirts with, but doesn't break, some of the cardinal rules of mystery-writing...) There are red herrings galore, a detective with a suitably intriguing personality and background, who finds himself drawn to Fran Hunter, a divorced single mother and another 'incomer'. Reading this I could almost feel the chill of winter in the Shetlands, with the wind whipping the snow across the treeless hills, and the suspense mounting with every page. It's definitely a police procedural, but that 'procedure' never interferes with the almost thriller-like pace of the book. It's straight on to #2 in this series for me, White Nights: A Thriller (Shetland Island Quartet), while I wait for Red Bones (Shetland Quartet 3) to arrive from the UK.
Highly recommended to any mystery buff.
Review: 2009-12-21
No place is safe
Ann Cleeves has chosen a wonderful setting for this series, the isolated Shetland Islands, where people feel safely distant from the evils of the cities. But as all mystery readers know, no place on earth is truly safe from hatred and desire.
Clever, beautiful, sixteen-year-old Catherine Ross is found strangled on a snowy hillside, near the home of Magnus Tait, a simpleminded old man who lives alone. Eight years earlier Magnus was suspected in the disappearance of an eleven-year-old girl, but never prosecuted.
The locals assume Magnus must be Catherine's killer, but Inspector Perez refuses to jump to conclusions. A police team flies in from Inverness to lead the investigation, and Perez welcomes them and even bonds with them. Nonetheless, it's Perez who uncovers the truth, by patient reconstruction of the personality of the victim.
Jimmy Perez is a very attractive detective, with his hooked nose, wild black hair, untidy clothes and gentle manner. The Perez family have been Shetlanders since a shipwreck from the Spanish Armada centuries ago. Perez falls in love easily, and we can see a romantic interest growing between him and a divorced mother who has a disturbing penchant for finding dead bodies.
Ann Cleeves' small world of insiders and incomers is quite absorbing. Although her writing style is bland, she creates living characters with a wealth of detail about their lives and family history. After easing into the story, the reader begins to feel like a resident of this isolated community, where everybody knows everybody's business.
And for local color, there's the Up Helly Aa, a Victorian invention dressed up as a Norse midwinter festival - not to mention sinister ravens, devilishly cold weather and moody landscapes.
I was totally surprised by the solution of the mystery, which is always fun.
Review: 2009-10-21
Always like her books
Ann Cleeves is a long time favorite of mine. Always like her descriptions of life in the British Isles. The nutty bird watchers, etc.
The front cover describes this book as a thriller, which worried me. But she is not Lee Childs. This is similar to her other books.
Pleased to see that she has new books in print again.
Review: 2009-07-03
Entertaining whodunit
Well written prose about a murder in Ravenswick, a small remote town in the Shetland Islands just north of Scotland. The body of sixteen-year-old Catherine Ross was found by Fran Hunter who had moved back to Ravenswick so that her nine-year-old daughter could have a relationship with her father. Detective Jimmy Perez has a lot of suspects including Magnus Tait a mentally challenged old man who is suspected by most of the townspeople since he was the suspect in an unsolved disappearance of a young girl named Catriona eight years ago. This yarn has so many twists and turns that it is not clear who the actual villain is until the surprise ending.
The most remarkable aspect of this novel is that all the characters are well defined and you feel like you know all of them. The good and the bad. This is a first-class whodunit.
 |
Amazon List Price: $13.95
Choose an Amazon Store
 Buy from Amazon |
|
 Go back to previous page |
|
|
Product reviews, information, best prices and cheap buys for a range of popular products. Ranging from books, video games, DVD's, toys and music. Products include the fabulous Harry Potter, Gordon Ramsay, A Thousand Splendid Suns, The God Delusion, A History of Modern Britain, The Children of Hurin, The Secret, I Can Make You Thin, (Paul McKenna), The Kite Runner , Tricks of the Mind, Derren Brown, Suite Francaise , Catherine Tate Comic, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Shrek 3 the Third, Rocky Balboa , James Bond - Casino Royale , Dad's Army - Series 9, Doctor Who, Prison Break Season 2 , Scrubs - Series 5, Blood Diamond , Doctor Who - Series 3, Dreamgirls, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5, Back To Black, Winehouse, Black Rain, Ozzy Osbourne, Send Away the Tigers, Manic Street Preachers, The Best Club Anthems, Icky Thump, White Stripes, Sweet Warrior, Richard Thompson, 50 cent , abba , akon , amy winehouse , arcade fire , arctic monkeys , avril lavigne , beatles , biffy clyro , beverley knight , beyonce , black sabbath , bob dylan , bob marley , bjork , bon jovi , bruce springsteen , bryan adams , cascada , cat stevens , cliff richard , coldplay , css , dance , david bowie , deep purple , depeche mode , diana ross , dolly parton , elliot smith , elton john , elvis presley , eric clapton , eurovision , fall out boy , fleetwood mac , frank sinatra , funeral for a friend , genesis , groove armada , hawkwind , hed kandi , iron maiden , james , jeff buckley , jimi hendrix , johnny cash , joni mitchell , justin timberlake , kaiser chiefs , kings of leon , led zeppelin , linkin park , love songs , madonna , manic street preachers , mark ronson , maroon 5 , megadeth , mcfly , metallica , michael buble and many more. Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Quartet
|
|
|