Raven Black (Shetland Island Series #1) by Ann Cleeves
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Web ID: 16835571Raven Black
This is another one that is part of my “Cleaning Out the TBR Closet” 2024 challenge. This one has been on my list for years (Jul2021). As a fan of Cleeves Two Rivers series, I wanted to check out her other work. GR friend, Linda, helped me decide between this series and the Vera Stanhope series when she said that the Shetland series was “grittier”. Yep, sounds like my kind of story, and the series setting is on an island (Shetland) off the coast of Scotland. Shetland is a small town and I really love small town crime series. The book summary is pretty worthless, so I’ll elaborate by saying that the primary storyline is about Inspector Jimmy Perez investigating the death of a 17yr old girl, Catherine, who was seen the day before with Magnus, an older man with a reputation of being dangerous. Magnus was investigated eight years earlier about another local girl who had gone missing. Magnus is also probably on the spectrum based on the way that he is described as being “different” and “kind of slow”. Magnus also keeps a pet raven (black), who was injured and can no longer fly. He has apparently taught the bird to talk with a limited vocabulary. There is also a secondary story of Fran, the woman who found Catherine’s body, who has an odd and somewhat complicated history/relationship with Catherine’s father, Eune. Fran is divorced and returned to Shetland so her daughter could be closer to her father, Duncan, and Eune is widowed and came to Shetland with Catherine for a fresh start. There is also a storyline of Shetland Inspector, Jimmy Perez, who is divorced and who also moved back to Shetland for a fresh start after his divorce. While Jimmy was initially in charge of the investigation, it is soon taken over by DI Taylor from Iverness and Jimmy is not particularly impressed with DI Taylor. Anyway, the suspect list is not without some rather questionable characters, besides just Magnus. There’s Robert, who lives off his rich father’s money and has a reputation of being the town womanizer with a penchant for younger women (late teens). There’s also Scott, a teacher of Catherine’s who was infatuated with her. Then there’s the secret “boyfriend” that while some have seen, nobody knows his name. It bears mentioning Catherine was quite often not very nice or kind to many and was not very well liked. There may have been those who would have liked to see Catherine “disappear”. Most of the story seems to flip back and forth between Magnus, Jimmy, Fran, Sally (one of Catherine’s friends) and revolves around the investigation of Catherine’s death and finding the killer. From pretty early in the story, Magnus was at the top of the suspect list because not only was he seen walking with her from the bus stop the day before her death, but Catherine and Sally went to Magnus’s house on New Year’s Eve. So that blurb in the book summary about no one coming to Magnus’s house on New Year’s Eve is not true. Just thought I would mention that; inaccurate book summaries are a pet peeve of mine. It’s well into the second half that a whole new storyline pops up and Jimmy resolves most of the storylines in a kind of frenetic and yet straightforward way. My overall opinion of the story? It was a really weird story! However, I liked it, but I think I do want to check out the Vera Stanhope series before I decide which one I want to commit to. The character development for most of the MC’s was good, which is vital for a character driven story like this was. The pacing was fine, a little slow in some parts, but not enough to drag down the rest of the story. Once again, the storyline was weird, but in a good way; I like weird stories! The writing style was very good and had me guessing through the whole story, making that ending a bit of a shocker! I love shocking endings! I’m looking at an overall rating of 3.8 that I will be rounding up to a 4star read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Raven Black (thoughts)
I've been meaning to start this series for awhile now after enjoying one of this author's other mystery series (the Two Rivers series). I'm so glad that I finally had the push to pick this one up when it was recommended to me. This mystery was the perfect book to lose myself in. I found myself caught up in the mystery of who killed this young girl as well as learning more about the residents on this small, isolated island. I especially found Jimmy Perez, the investigator, to be an interesting main character to read about. The overall mystery was solid and I really didn't see the ending coming. I'm excited to continue on with this series and see where the next book takes these characters. If you enjoy mysteries and especially police procedurals or detective fiction, give this series a try. I definitely plan on continuing on with the second book in the very near future. Four stars.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Love it!
Exciting story that keeps you on the edge until the end. Love the description of the characters and the landscape of Shetland Islands. Will definitely get the follow-up book.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com