Thin Air (Shetland)

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There are a couple of bodies in Thin Air and a whole lot of mystery surrounding them. There are ghostly sightings and people keeping secrets and not much chance, for me anyway, of guessing the murderer. There were lots of possibles and I was convinced by one of the author's red herrings into suspecting the wrong person entirely. Joanne Butcher (8 July 2014). "Vera writer Ann Cleeves gains honour from University of Sunderland - The Journal". journallive. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019 . Retrieved 24 May 2016. 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. Perez is still feeling his way about gingerly through this murder investigation, but with less second-guessing of himself. He's become more comfortable as the guardian of Cassie, his fiancee's daughter. Of course, Perez is still feeling the pangs of grief but doesn't seem totally overwhelmed with them.

So if you're in the mood for a highly atmospheric, picturesque detective drama in the British Shetland Isles, try this one. So Jimmy is doing much better in this book, it's been a year since he lost Fran and he is working cases. The fact that he is able to leave Cassie with her father for some over nights says a lot about how much he has loosened up. He still has pain over Fran, but is trying to be better and make sure Cassie sees her grandparents. 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 Shetland Islands breed some very unusual folks, not surprising really when the daylight lasts well into the night and every time you want go somewhere you have to catch a ferry. It's a very different kind of life style. Interestingly, when a body is found in a field it is left there for hours (with a police guard of course) while the necessary officials travel by plane or ferry from the nearest hub to investigate. 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.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. Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands... 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.

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. The first book is the adaptive basis for The Long Call ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as DI Matthew Venn. 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. 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.A difficult mystery to work out, as usual with the series. That’s enjoyable of course,as mystery readers enjoy being mentally engaged in the puzzle throughout the book and needing to work for it. Shetland' gets full six-part series on BBC One". Digital Spy. 3 April 2013 . Retrieved 24 May 2016.

She lives in Whitley Bay, [1] and is widowed with two daughters. [4] Honours, awards, and media appearances [ edit ] The flow of the book works from beginning to end and I honestly didn’t put this one down until the murderer was revealed. 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. Her last Shetland book Wild Fire was published in September 2018. Ann has a long association with Shetland and confesses to being in love with the place.

About Shetland - the series

Welcome to Shetland in mid-summer. Light fills nearly the full twenty-four hours and casts eerie and disorienting shadows. The fog rolls in and out and swirls all around, distorting distances and sound and enhancing the sense of isolation on these remote islands. The quirkiness of the people who have lived here all their lives or have chosen to leave the bustling mainland seems exaggerated by sleepless nights. In THIN AIR, a group of four southerners arrives at the most northern island, Unst, to celebrate their friends' wedding. By the end of the book, one of them is dead, and the lives of the others are changed forever. This time the story is set in Unst, Shetland's most northerly island. A 'homefarin' brings three old university friends there with their partners, to celebrate the wedding of one of them to a Shetlander lad. Two of the group, Eleanor, a film producer who's in the middle of a project, about ghosts & contemporary hauntings and Polly, a librarian who specialises in folk stories, British myths & legends, both separately claim to have glimpsed a little girl in white with ribbons in her hair dancing on the beach, a seeming spectre who disappeared into thin air. Then Eleanor goes missing, only for her body to be discovered, obviously arranged, in a small nearby lochan close to a standing stone. A still grieving Jimmy Perez along with Sandy, who growing slightly more confident in his own policing skills are called into investigate. They're joined by the short-tempered, scruffy Willow Reeves, who I find too childish, irritating to be a chief inspector!!! I am obviously in the mood for light, relaxing reads, and this one, a murder mystery with a touch of suspense and a pinch of ghostliness was a great experience. 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.