White Nights

Ann Cleeves' mysteries don't disappoint. There were many characters to piece together the plot, but it is good to be challenged. Jimmy Perez is the plodding hero you root for. I read the book in 2 days - needed to know the ending!

I am a picky reader of mysteries and this meets the bill on so many fronts - the characters are developed and interesting, the story and background of the plot are intriguing and one really can't get the clues too easily. White Nights opens with an puzzling scene, a man who attended the opening of the Shetland Art exhibition was found the next day hanging in a fishing hut on a nearby jetty. The community is so intertwined everyone knowing everyone elses business. This book takes place in middle of summer, when there is light for 23 hours at a time. This plays havoc with the sleep-patterns of so many of the islanders. Throwing some of their normal attitudes and behaviour into havoc. I highly recommend this book.

This is the second novel in a projected Shetland Islands Quartet, following Cleeves's award winning "Raven Black." Again the lead character is Jimmy Perez, the local detective inspector. This is the second novel in a Shetland Islands Quartet Again the lead character is Jimmy Perez, the local detective inspector. An unknown Englishman seemingly collapses into weeping at the opening of a Shetland art show. When Jimmy takes him under his wing, the man has no identification and claims total amnesia. The next day his body is found hunging in a fishing hut on a nearby jetty. A seeming suicide is soon identified as murder. Secrets of the past start to emerge about a few of the town folk. Inspector Perez follows the clues with his knowledge of the area making is easier for him to investigate compared of the police from the mainland. The writing was impressive, well written, the characters well-drawn I liked the style, good dialogue and descriptions. The story progresses at a good pace. The Narrator does an excellent job. I highly recommend this story. Looking forward to the next in the series.

I have read all three in the Shetland series and love them. I have been to the Shetland islands twice and can picture exactly where the charaters are in the stories. Also enjoy the trials and tribulations of Perez and the people he meets and works with along the way. Easy to read and hard to put down. Can't wait for the final in the series.

This was a wonderful book with the continuing story of Jimmy Perez who first appeared in Raven Black. The beautiful mysterious Shetland Islands are the setting for this mystery. The long summer nights in this land of midnight sun figure into the ambiance of this book. White Nights has you guessing until the last page. The ending is a shocker! The characters are rich and intriguing. The story is better than average. This book reminded me of Peter Robinson or Priscilla Masters. I can hardly wait until the next book in the series comes out.

This is the second novel in a projected Shetland Islands Quartet, succeeding Cleeves's award winning "Raven Black." Again the lead character is Jimmy Perez, the local detective inspector. An unknown Englishman seemingly collapses into weeping at the opening of a Shetland art exhibition. When Jimmy takes him in tow, he has no identification and claims total amnesia. The next day his body is found hung in a fishing hut on a nearby jetty. A seeming suicide is soon identified as murder. This brings highly aggressive Detective Chief Inspector Roy Taylor to Lerwick from Inverness to lead the investigation, just as he did in "Raven Black." The two cops could not be more different, but both play a part in solving the crimes. Taylor is abrasive and abrupt. Perez is unfailingly polite and gains information through patient inquiry, exploring relationships as he goes. And relationships are at the heart of this book. The stories emerge from them: Relationships among the characters, relationships from the past affecting the present, even relationships between the people and the land itself. The nature of the relationships is determined, almost predetermined, by the deepest natures of the characters involved. Vanity, pride, ego and fear certainly play their parts, but love and its close cousin desire, thwarted, spurned and fulfilled, are what drive events. The crimes and their solutions are the natural outcomes of the relationships. The writing here is as low key as Perez, quiet and almost gentle as it moves the story along to its devastating conclusion. The characters are realistic and well drawn, quite believable and convincing in every respect. If you like slam-bang crime novels with gunfire echoing on the page, this is not for you. But if you want a novel that explores how what is human in all of us can sometimes produce evil, and then explores its devastating consequences, you can't do better than this.