British mystery writer Ann Cleeves, she of Shetland and Vera, fame, faced the kind of disaster that strikes fear into every author’s heart. She lost her laptop, which just happened to contain the only copy of her latest manuscript. Happily for Cleeves, a young woman found it – buried in snow – and turned it in.
Cleeves did what any writer would do – she used the story as the basis for a short story. Missing in the Snow isn’t about a missing laptop; instead, it’s not the laptop that’s missing, but the author.
Jimmy Perez no longer works on Shetland. He, his wife Willow, and their young son live in Orkney, but he arrives at Lerwick in Shetland to help with a case. Nicholas Manners, a writer of thrillers, had come to Shetland for research. He’d been at his usual table in the Lerwick library and had chatted with the librarian. And then he was gone. The librarian assumed he’d gone to where he was staying.
When a friend who’d invited the author for drinks gets concerned when her guest is a no-show, she checks his house. The door is unlocked, the mobile phone and laptop are there, but there’s no author. The thriller writer is truly missing – and it’s been snowing.
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| Ann Cleeves |
Cleeves has published eight mysteries in the Jimmy Perez / Shetland series, including Raven Black (2008), Red Bones (2009), White Nights (2010), Blue Lightning (2011), Dead Water (2014), Thin Air (2015), Cold Earth (2017), and Wild Fire (2019). She’s also published nine mystery novels in the Vera Stanhope series (also a television series), six Inspector Stephen Ramsay mysteries, and several others works and short stories. The Jimmy Perez novels are the basis for the BBC television series “Shetland.” Cleeves lives in northeastern England.
The best part of Missing in the Snow is to find out what Jimmy Perez, Tosh, and Sandy have been up to since the final Shetland novel. And perhaps Cleeves can be encouraged to develop a new story in the series.
Note: Missing in the Snow was offered by Cleeves’ publisher as an inducement to sign up for her newsletter. It’s not yet available through the regular book distribution channels.
Related:
Shetland author’s lost laptop with draft of next novel found in snow – Lucinda Cameron at The Scotsman.
The Woman on the Island by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Red Bones by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Raven Black by Ann Cleeves.
My review of White Nights by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Dead Water by Ann Cleeves.
My review of Thin Air by Ann Cleeves.
Some Thursday Readings
Revolve – poem by Sanjeev Sethi at East Ridge Review.
Hunter Biden and the ‘Deep State’ – Eli Lake at The Free Press.
Swan Upping Season – Spitalfields Life.
What’s in a Name? Solving the Mystery of an Italian Confederate – Joseph Casino at Emerging Civil War.
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