Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Mysteries

I had temporarily forgotten about Ann Cleeves and that was ungrateful of me because for several years she provided me with hours of rich entertainment. Moreover I once had the pleasure of observing her serving on a panel of writers at a mystery writers' convention (London, 1990). I do not remember the other three panellists, but the total and very entertaining illusion that I was watching an extraordinarily bright, witty sixth former, barely subduing her amusement at the whole business, lives on. She began by writing stories based around `twitchers' - UK-speak for birdwatchers - which were as informed by insider experience as they were well plotted and well furnished with interesting characters. `Twitchers' visit many interesting haunts around the British Isles so it was a well-conceived basis for a series infused with a strong sense of place. Then she launched a new series centred in Northumbria with a regular police inspector to solve her mysteries. These I found even more successful. Now she turns up nineteen novels later with Raven Black, set in the Shetland Islands. Ann Cleeves' sense of place is as strong as ever and I suspect that any readers who have longed to retire from it all among the hills and wild beaches of Shetland will find this book a bracing douche of reality. However, to each their own. Some years earlier a young girl vanished and a local, slightly retarded, loner was suspected, even more by the community than the police. Now Catherine, a sixteen year old schoolgirl, who with her only friend, Sally, had recently called at the earlier suspect's cottage, is found dead with ravens pecking her viciously. Inspector Perez arrives from Lerwick. He is not in charge of the case, but is the local man and the man in the field. An odd man, born on Fair Isle, a tiny island even more remote than Shetland, descended (according to legend) from the survivor of an Armada wreck, almost too sympathetic both of suspects and victims, he doubts the `scapegoat's' guilt. He wanders the community, drinking tea, listening more than questioning. The community has fewer secrets after the passing of this gentle man. Ann Cleeves has matured into a novelist capable of deeply observed characters. I shall rush to catch up on other novels from recent years.

Have you ever read a new-to-you author and wondered what on earth took you so long to discover them? RAVEN BLACK is Ann Cleeves 19th novel and I'm wondering why I wasn't aware of her before now. She has two series and a number of stand-alones to her name. RAVEN BLACK is the first of a planned quartet of books set on the Island of Shetland, one of a large group of small islands to the North of Scotland of which only fifteen are inhabited. It's a small place, easily cut off from the rest of the world if the weather is bad. Everyone knows everyone else and people feel comfortable going out and leaving their house unlocked. This sense of security is shattered when sixteen-year-old Catherine Ross is found one cold January morning lying in the snow, strangled to death with her own scarf. The obvious suspect is old Magnus Tait who everyone knows isn't "the full shilling". Magnus lives alone in the cottage of his late mother and was the prime suspect a number of years earlier when a young girl named Catriona disappeared. Detective Jimmy Perez is the first investigator on the scene. He grew up on the neighbouring Fair Isle and is familiar with the locals and the way of life. Determined to get a head start before the Senior officer and his team arrive from Aberdeen on the mainland Jimmy begins to question the locals. Luckily for Jimmy his senior officer, the driven energizer-bunny Inspector Taylor, is wise enough to recognize that Jimmy's local knowledge is an asset and allows him to have his head. Together they try to unravel the inter-connecting relationships and secrets to discover who killed Catherine. RAVEN BLACK works well on a number of levels. First off it's a first-class whodunit. All the clues are there if you can figure it out (I didn't). On top of that, the author gives the reader a glimpse of life in a small isolated community. A fascinating layer-cake of things determine attitudes: an unacknowledged hierarchy revolving around how long a given family has lived on the island and their prosperity or otherwise; open secrets that aren't spoken about; the difficulties recent arrivals have in being accepted and a whole host of other things. I could give you examples but that would spoil half the intrigue of the book. On Ann Cleeves' website (...) Anne has given her reasons for planning on writing only four books in this series. To quote the author "While Shetland couldn't sustain an indefinite series - there are limited plot lines and it would stretch credibility to have too many murders in such a small community - I would like to write more about Jimmy Perez. The islands lie so far to the north that seasonal variation is dramatic. I think Shetland could carry four novels, each set at a different time of the year. It will be like reading about four different places. The pace and flavour of each book will be different, reflecting the season in which it's set." I shall look forward to Cleeves' next Shetland book with a great deal o

This mystery is set in the Shetland Islands which gives it a different and somewhat mystical air from the start. But far better than the setting are the plot and the characters. There is not a cut-out character in this book. From the retarded old man/prime suspect to the police inspector to the single mother divorcee, the teens, one of their mothers and on and on. Every character is drawn with complexity. They are likeable and detestable and they all draw the reader in from the outset. "Knowing" so many characters in a book is rare and makes for a rich novel whether or not it is mystery. The plot, too, is terrific. Immediately upon the discovery of the body, the town suspects the old man since the population has always "known" he abducted a girl years before. It's a bit too obvious, or so the inspector thinks. As characters enter the scene, every one waves a flag of suspicion. There is motive and opportunity aplenty. Until the very end there is suspense and mystery. This is a great mystery that deserves the awards that Ms Cleeves won. The police inspector is such a great character - intelligent, calm, conflicted in his personal life (without dark cynicism so popular these days) - that I hope Ms Cheeves brings him out in another novel.

When I find a book like this, I want to share my enjoyment with the world of readers. It was truly one of the best I've read in a long time. From the first sentence to the last, it held my interest. I've never been to the Shetland Islands but I feel as though I have now. And, the psychological element of the characters is intriguing. Motives for the murders abound, and just when you think you know who the killer is, you're surprised at the ending. Ms. Cleeves has a wonderful writing style. She gives us a cold, but beautiful island populated by people who bring their inner demons to this isolated spot of the world. I'm eager to read more of this author's work.