The basis for the hit series "Shetland" now airing on PBS. Winner of Britain's coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves's Raven Black introduces a dazzling suspense series to U.S. mystery readers. It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a splash of color on the frozen ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor, Catherine Ross. The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man--loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when detective Jimmy Perez and his colleagues from the mainland 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 neighbors nervously lock their doors, while a killer lives on in their midst.
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A teenaged girl—a relative newcomer and outsider in a Shetland village—is found dead, with the village pariah the presumptive murderer. But he’s most certainly not the only suspicious character narrator Gordon Griffin tackles. This village is teeming with half-told histories and implied proclivities—almost too many. Griffin does justice to the full array: suspects, mourners, potential next victims, and some unnecessary bit players. If the plot plods a bit as it wades through them all, it’s not Griffin’s fault. His portrait of the elderly Magnus, vulnerable yet disturbing, keeps the story engaging. The moments when Magnus interacts with Inspector Jimmy Perez, a man preoccupied by his sense of personal failure, are the most absorbing.
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