Raven Black
Crime, Mystery
Ann Cleeves
Shetland Island, Book # 1
Pan Macmillan
2006
ebook
378
English
August 16, 2018 August 19, 2018
It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance . . .
The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man - loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst.
About the book
Raven Black is the first book in the series Shetland Island, which talks about a group of islands in the north of Scotland, full of traditions and snow.
The book begins with a curious old man who hears a knock at the door on New Year’s Eve. They are two clearly drunk girls entering their home. A few days later the body of one of the two girls is found by a woman, Fran, who has just brought her daughter Cassie to school.
The old man is immediately blamed but from the story we get that he has mental problems, moreover because some years ago he was blamed for the disappearance of another girl younger than Catherine (the dead girl) who has never been found. Is there a connection between the disappearance and the recent murder?
To investigate is Jimmy Perez, an islander from a neighboring island, who has had some problems in his youth feeling an outsider compared to the population of the main island.
I liked the book more or less, it’s a bit slow at first but it takes pace after the discovery of the second body. It was clear who was the killer and why, although sometimes I thought the killer was just an “idiot”, but now that I think about it, it was all a staging…
I will read the next two books because I already have them, I bought “a book in three” with a good deal so I must read them even if I wasn’t impressed about the style. It is a simple case solved normally without major twists. Maybe I’ll change my mind after the third book.
