Review of The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves (1999, Pan)

Three women working for an environmental consultant move into Baikie’s Cottage on a farm in the North Pennines to conduct a survey of the area for a potential new large quarry. On moving in, Rachel, the head of the team, discovers the hanging body of her friend Bella Furness, the farmer’s wife, who has unexpectedly committed suicide. Convinced that there must be more to Bella’s death than looking after her crippled husband, Rachel along with her mother, start to ask questions. Botanist Anne Preece has her own secrets, including an affair with the owner of the quarrying company. Grace Fulwell is a secretive young woman specialising in mammal habitats who keeps herself to herself. When another death occurs, Inspector Vera Stanhope takes charge. She knows the area well having stayed in Baikie’s Cottage as a child. Her approach to solving the murder is to leave the women in the cottage as bait and encourage Rachel and her mother to keep investigating – creating a crow trap – hoping to lure the killer into the open. But it’s a dangerous strategy, especially since she’s unsure of the killer’s identity from the handful of likely suspects who are all linked to the quarry in one way or another.

The Crow Trap is the first book in the Vera Stanhope series (and the third episode of series one of the television series Vera) set in the North East England. In this outing, Vera investigates a death seemingly linked to a potential new quarry in a scenic part of the North Pennines. The first two fifths of the novel introduces the reader to the three women who move into Baikie’s Cottage to conduct an environmental survey of the area, along with the backstory of the farmer’s wife whom the women discover dead from suicide when they arrive. Only once a murder occurs does Vera enter the story. While she’s accompanied by her Sergeant, Joe Ashworth, the focus is very much on Vera, how she conducts the case, and her own backstory given her childhood links to the cottage. No other police officers feature to any real extent, with the tale concentrating on the lives of the three women, the key actors linked to the quarry development, and Vera’s slightly unconventional approach to solving the crime by setting a crow trap – using the women to try and lure the killer into the open. Cleeves creates a nice puzzle and keeps a number of viable suspects in the frame until the denouement, but what sets the book apart is the emphasis on character development and intersecting biographies. Much time is spent on fleshing out each of the four lead women plus the farmer’s wife and establishing their back stories and links to suspects. The result is an engaging, intimate tale, but also one that felt a little flabby and overly long at times. Regardless of the slow pace, the combination of three-dimensional characters and a well-constructed plot kept the pages turning.

Review of Dead Water by Ann Cleeves (Macmillan, 2013)

Journalist Jerry Markham has travelled home to Shetland, claiming to be working on a secret story that appears to be related to the energy industry. He’s not long back on the islands when he’s runoff the road and murdered, his body left in a rowing boat in front of the Fiscal’s home. Usually Inspector Jimmy Perez would run the investigation, but he’s still trying to come to terms with the death of his partner and being the carer for her seven year old daughter. Instead, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is sent from the mainland to head up her first murder investigation. Bought up in a commune on a Western isle, Willow has rebelled against her parents beliefs though she carries some of the lifestyle. Willow and a local sergeant start to trace the movements of Markham and possible motives for his death. The journalist seems to have rubbed a number of people the wrong way before leaving for London under a black cloud, abandoning a pregnant young woman. Only a small protest group were happy with his questions concerning new green energy projects. As Reeves and her team struggle to find convincing leads, Perez starts to take an interest in the case. Slowly coming out his shell as he starts to piece together clues, forming an uneasy alliance with Willow.

Dead Water is the fifth book in the Jimmy Perez Shetland series. After the death of Perez’s partner in the last outing, the detective is at a low ebb, bringing up Fran’s seven year old daughter and thinking of quitting the police. When a journalist is murdered, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is sent from Aberdeen to lead the investigation. Willow doesn’t seem like the usual kind of detective, seemingly a little laid-back and unconcerned about appearance, but she’s ambitious and disarming. She soon senses that the local Fiscal has a personal connection to the case and the journalist’s former girlfriend, who he’d abandoned whilst pregnant a few years before, is being economical with the truth. The case makes slow progress but gradually works its hooks into Perez, who increasingly takes an active role. In finding his feet, however, Perez habitually takes solo-runs, chasing down leads without consulting Willow creating a little tension between the two that they continually try to smooth over. Cleeves nicely balances the personal dynamics within the police team with the puzzle of the case, creating a character-driven police procedural with plenty of intrigue.  As usual there is a strong sense of place, with the Shetlands performing as more than a backdrop.  The denouement felt a little contrived, but overall an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Review of Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves (Pan 2010)

Inspector Jimmy Perez has taken his fiancée, Fran, to visit his parents who live on the remote Fair Isle.  They arrive just as a large storm blows in cutting the island off from the rest of the Shetland Isles.  Perez has not managed to escape work, however, as the head of a local bird observatory is killed on his first night there.  He starts to investigate the murder on his own, the weather preventing reinforcements and a crime scene team from travelling.  The three centre staff and the five visitors all seem shook up by the death, but one of them is almost certainly the murderer, and they might kill again to protect their identity.  Perez must make quick progress, but the weather and lack of resources conspire against him.

Blue Lightning is the fourth book in Ann Cleeves’ Shetlands series, and in my view the strongest one in the sequence.  Cleeves uses a classic setup of a murder amongst a small number of characters who are isolated and have to remain together whilst the lone detective tries to determine which one of them is the killer and to prevent further deaths.  As with the other books there is a strong sense of place and good contextualisation, this time with respect to bird watching, and strong characterisation.  Where the story excels, however, is with respect to its emotional register, which is difficult to discuss without giving spoilers.  The plot unfolds as one might expect with the setup, with Perez trying to determine why the head of the bird observatory was murdered and by whom.  In that sense it’s rather a straightforward tale, but Cleeves mixes it up with a couple of savage twists that are somewhat signposted, but nonetheless have deep emotional impact and leave the reader surprised she had the nerve to perform them.  Overall, an interesting take on an established mystery trope.

Review of Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (Pan, 2009)

On the small island of Whalsay in the Shetland Isles two young archaeologists are undertaking a dig on the croft of the elderly Mima Wilson, hoping to find the remains of an old merchant house.  In a practice trench they discover a human skull and other bones.  The following night Mima is shot dead in a seemingly tragic accident.  Inspector Jimmy Perez journeys to the island to investigate, aided by Sandy Wilson, the grandson of the deceased.  Perez is not convinced it’s an accident, but there’s little evidence to suggest foul play.  As the two cops probe, the long-standing tense relations between two island families surface, with rumours circulating as to the provenance of the old bones.  When a second death occurs, this time a supposed suicide, Perez knows he’ll need to use the past to flush out the killer before they strike again.

Red Bones is the third book in Ann Cleeves Shetland series featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez (here are my reviews of books 1 and 2).  The strength of the tale is the sense of place, atmosphere, characterisation and social relations.  Cleeves drops the reader into the wild landscape and seascape of the Shetland Isles, vividly portraying the desolate and isolated beauty and the close relationship between people and place.  Moreover, she nicely captures the close knit nature of small communities, inter-linked through familial connections and generations of friendships and rivalries, and uneasy relations with blow-ins and visitors.  The style is quite descriptive, providing plenty of detail about each character, their back story, the settings, and historical context.  This works to produce an interesting narrative, but also leads to a slow pace, perhaps fitting of the setting and tale, and to some repetition in observations.  The plot is relatively straightforward and I felt the police procedural elements were a bit thin, especially with respect how each death is dealt with, for example in terms of postmortems which should have been standard and would have transformed the investigation.  Rather it is driven more by gut instinct and a certain amount of bumbling around.  Overall, an enjoyable, atmospheric tale.

Review of White Nights by Ann Cleeves (2008, Pan)

On the Shetland Isles the white nights of mid-summer when the sun barely sets over the horizon has everyone a little crazy. One evening a practical joker gate-crashes the opening of an art exhibition in the remote village of Biddesta. The next morning he is found hanging in a boat shed. Inspector Jimmy Perez was at the launch, hoping to start a new relationship with artist Fran Hunter. He's called to the scene and the local doctor rules the death murder rather than suicide. Whilst Perez waits for Chief Inspector Roy Taylor to arrive from Aberdeen, delayed by fog, he gets to work investigating the crime. The village of Biddesta is small, but tight knit, with a long shared history and secrets. The hanged man not yet identified, another murder is committed; this time a famous local musician is found at the bottom of a cliff. Taylor is wound like a cog, always wanting to force the pace of the investigation, whereas Perez is more reflective and circumspect. As a shetlander, Perez knows the people and place, but the puzzle of the deaths and the reason behind it are elusively out of reach and take a while to fall into place.

White Nights is the second book in the Shetland Quartet. My review of the first, Raven Black, is here. The strength of White Nights is its sense of place and characterisation. Cleeves immerses the reader in the small community, ways of life, and landscape of the Shetland Isles. The characters are well penned and the relationships between them credible and compelling. The telling was a little too descriptive at times for my tastes, especially near the start, but Cleeves has a nice easy going style of storytelling that is pleasant to the eye. I thought the middle of the book, once the investigation is well underway and Taylor is adding spice to tale, was excellent. My main problem was the resolution, which didn't quite gel for me. Regardless, this was a good, solid enjoyable read and I look forward to the third book in the series.

Review of Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (Pan, 2006)

Catherine Ross moved to the Shetland Isles shortly after her mother’s death. Worldly wise and aloof, and let roam freely by her grief stricken father, she observes the islanders through the lens of her camera. On New Year’s Eve she travels home with a local girl her own age, Sally Henry, a shy, self-conscious girl who has never quite fitted in at school. On a dare they stop at old Magnus Tait’s cottage. A bachelor crofter, Tait, a simple man with learning difficulties, has been ostracized by the local community after the disappearance of a small child several years before. The following night, Catherine Ross disappears, her body discovered the morning after in the snow in the field opposite to Tait’s cottage by another blow-in, artist Fran Hunter. Inspector Jimmy Perez starts a murder investigation, soon joined by a team flown-in from Aberdeen. The locals are convinced of Tait’s guilt, but Perez has an open mind in the absence of any compelling forensic evidence. Piecing together the life of Catherine Ross though is no simple matter as she has managed to rile a number of people all of whom have something to hide.

Raven Black is compelling read. The plotting is strong and the prose nicely structured. Rather than follow the story from a single perspective, Cleeves elects to produce a multi-stranded narrative. The result is a multi-layered and textured story and a sense of being immersed in a community. Cleeves is particularly good at penning her characters and evoking a sense of place. The police procedural elements are realistic without the technical aspects being dwelled upon and the social relations between the cast members are believable. For a long time this was a 5 star read. I did, however, feel slightly let down by the end. On reflection, I think my issue was that the motivation of the killer was not really fully explained, nor why the victim did not fight back. Otherwise, this was a very fine read and I’m looking forward to tucking into the next book in Cleeves’ Shetland series.