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Thin Air: A Shetland Mystery: 6 (Shetland Island Mysteries)

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The flow of the book works from beginning to end and I honestly didn't put this one down until the murderer was revealed. I did like the writing in this one a lot and the clues that Cleeves leaves for us to find. This one felt more intricated and at times reminded me of a Vera Stanhope novel. Just with a lot less loathing of colleagues that Vera has going on most of the time. I'm going to throw the blurb in here. It's much more descriptive than I can make it. And please, humor me, and fall in love with the beautiful cover too, like I did. Where, as usual, the author distinguishes herself and makes this book outstanding is in the description of the island, its people and the island life. The author has no illusions and doesn’t assume that everyone living on the island is simple or innocent in any way. She does, however, maker us understand that it is a slower and different way of life from that outside the islands. The lifestyle of the islanders is very much wrapped up in the landscape and environment in which they live. I really got a feeling of the isolation of the islands and also of the traditions which are so important to the people who live there. There is a slight element of a ghost story here connected with the legend of a dead child – this is nicely interwoven with the story and adds an interesting, eerie note from time to time. In fact, the tension and atmosphere is extremely well done in this book and there is a developing feeling of menace all the way through the story. Ann Cleeves' striking new Shetland novel explores the tensions between tradition and modernity that lie deep at the heart of a community, and how events from the past can have devastating effects on the present.

But Jimmy Perez is a cop, a good cop, and even though it seemed to me that he secretly felt that Right was done in Eleanor's death, he set out to solve the crime that was committed in the course of setting things straight. Willow, the new Chief Inspector we met in the previous book, is a great character. She's just awkward enough to make Jimmy feel off-balance yet protective. He's still reeling from his love's death; he's still growing accustomed to being a single dad; he's got Sandy the PC Plod character making him crazy yet advancing in his own detecting capabilities under Jimmy's tutelage. Jimmy's a man with a lot on his plate. Eleanor wouldn't be someone he'd care much for in life and I suspect he'd simply do the minimum were it not for the cast of Shetland originals wrapped deep in the case's toils. For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries. Thin Air" takes place 6 months after the events in the last book, "Dead Water". We follow Inspector Jimmy Perez as he is called away to help find a missing woman who was in Shetland for a wedding party. Many people think that the English woman is just missing, but when she is found murdered, Jimmy, Sandy, and Willow have to find out who wanted the woman dead and why. Four friends -- two couples -- have come to Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands, to help a friend celebrate her wedding to a native of the island. The same night as the celebration, one of the four vanishes, leaving behind a text message that reads like a suicide note. The body is found the next day, with Inspector Perez and Chief Inspector Willow Reeves called to handle the investigation.Of course the ending was a surprise. At least this time around. Common sense could have pinched me on the nose and I would have gotten the culprit, but I was just not in the mood for it. Okay that's my excuse. The investigation starts to take the investigators Jimmy Perez, Sandy Wilson, and Willow Reeves into ghost stories, abandoned crofts, and family histories better left forgotten. This is a fast pace read that will leave you confuse until the end. Another plus about this book you, the reader, get a sense of what the island looks and feels like with the descriptions of cliffs, voes, planticurbs, and wildlife. Eleanor Longstaff was found murdered on Unst in Shetland which is the furtherst north a person can go in the United Kingdom. She was in Unst to celebrate the hamefarin (wedding reception) of Caroline Lawson and Lowrie Malcomson, friends from college. Upon her death, people start to talk about the ghost of Peerie Lizzie, a ten year old girl, who drowned in 1930 on the island. Polly Gilmour, a college and long-time friend of Eleanor's, starts to actually see the little girl. Six friends - three couples - come to Shetland. One set, Lowrie and Calorine, to celebrate their marriage (or the like). Then Caroline's two best friends, Polly and Eleanor, and their partners. Eleanor has her own production company is intending to make a documentary about a local ghost story - sightings of a child that drowned many years ago. Polly and Eleanor both claim to have seen the ghost after a walk on the beach. Then one night, Eleanor gets murdered. Jimmy Perez and Willow investigate. It's the usual claustrophobic island life investigation into dirty family secrets. Sandy kind of came into his own in this one I thought. We get to see an old love of his, but he is also wondering about the death of a young girl from about 70 years ago and how it can tie into this case now.

I really enjoyed this one. I think it was because the mystery in this one at least made better sense than the last one. It wasn't great either, but there were clues there that you could follow in retrospect after you got to the end. So if you're in the mood for a highly atmospheric, picturesque detective drama in the British Shetland Isles, try this one.Cleeves excels at creating a sense of place and painting visual pictures which employ all the senses. Even though few will be able to visit these rather remote islands, you have a true sense of being there, with the long days and weather contributing to the plot. To this, she adds just a touch of the supernatural still leaving you to question whether it truly is. It also means, in this series, that the resolution at the end is lengthy and complex, and sometimes stretches credibility a little more than more direct mystery solutions. The missing woman was part of 2 couples who travelled from London to see one of their friends marry an island man. The women have known each other since uni so you'd think they had no secrets between them. You'd be wrong. Willow finds herself thinking of Jimmy in a different way in this one, and I can see where the wind is blowing there. But I like that it didn't take precedence over the actual mystery.

Unfortunately after the party, one of the English girls is found murdered. Who could have murdered the outsider is the question of the novel. The local myth of Perrie Lizzie, a young girl found drowned many years ago plays a part in the mystery. Has the young girl appeared as a ghost and a participant in the murder? The BBC has a series based on the characters in the novels. It's had three seasons to date and a fourth will be produced. It's recently become available on Netflix so I suppose I'll binge it one day soon. I was completely enthralled by Ann Cleeves' other series, Vera Stanhope, in its ITV incarnation, and Brenda Blethyn is my idea of Vera. The seventh season is due next year, 2017, and I will be there for it with bells on. I've been more cautious in approaching the adaptation of this series because Jimmy is portrayed by actor Douglas Henshall, very much not the man I see in my mental movie of the series. A bit like Peter Capaldi as the Doctor...just about exactly wrong from my viewpoint. Thin Air” is very well done, with a plot that takes us around and amongst the islands, leading us down one path to another, with very good twists along the way. Cleeves is a wonderful writer and one who should be on any mystery-reader’s list.The setting is ominous with dense fogs obscuring the horizon until it is difficult to see where reality begins and ends. The legend of the child who had drowned when she slipped away from the girl who was watching her infests the lives of the local residents and creates a sense of impending doom.

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