“The Killing Stones” by Ann Cleeves

Jimmy Perez is back, at least in a co-starring role. 

A few years have passed since Perez left the Shetland Islands. We thought that might have been the end of the beloved series by British author Ann Cleeves. But no, he’s returned to the printed page, this time in his new home, the Orkney Islands. (For geographical information, the Shetlands (main city: Lerwick) are northeast of Scotland; the Orkneys (main city: Kirkwall) are more north. (Personal promotion: part of my novel Dancing Prince is set on the fictional island of Broughby in the Orkneys.)

 

Perez, his pregnant wife Willow Reeves, and their young son are living in the Orkneys. The marriage is a bit complicated, in that Willow is technically Perez’s boss; she supervises all police detectives in the islands, although Perze is assigned to a specific police unit with its own boss.

 

Archie Stout, a farmer on the Orkney island of Westray, is found murdered near a gold course. An  odd murder weapon has been used – one of two ancient stones from the Westray history museum, and the other stone is missing. Perez is initially assigned to investigate, but Stout is his closest friend and a friend since childhood. That relationship puts Perez too close to maintain professional objectivity, and Willow steps in, with Perez doing supporting work back in Kirkwall.  

Ann Cleeves

At first it seems that Stout had no enemies, but as Willow on her end and Perez on his soon come to learn, few things were what they seemed. It’s almost as if it would be easier to investigate who didn’t have a motive.

 

The Killing Stones is the new Jimmy Perez novel, and it has all the characteristics of the original Shetland series (minus some of the familiar supporting characters). That includes tight writing, a mystery that seems almost unsolvable, several suspects with motives, a few surprises and twists along the way, and a fast-paced and nail-biting climax. It might not have as much of Perez as the Shetland novels do, but Cleeves is still telling a great story.

 

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 11 mystery novels in the Vera Stanhope series (also a television series), six Inspector Stephen Ramsay mysteries, and several other works and short stories. The Jimmy Perez novels are the basis for the BBC television series “Shetland.” Cleeves lives in northeastern England. 

 

Related:

 Missing in the Snow by Ann Cleeves. 

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

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.

My review of The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Is Harper Lee Rolling in Her Grave? – Kat Rosenfeld at The Free Press.

 

The Doomed Romances of Noir – Vincent Zandri at Crime Reads.

 

The Post-Literate Republic – Adam Smith at The Ford Leadership Forum.

 

At the Archbishops’ Palace in Charing – Spitalfields Life.

 

London Rebuilt 1897 – 1927. A Snapshot of an Ever Changing City – A London Inheritance.

"The Dark Wives" by Ann Cleeves

If you’re a fan of the DCI Vera Stanhope mystery series on Britbox, you know what a find characterization Brenda Blethyn makes of the title character. Even when I see the actress on other programs, I keep expecting her to drive that beat-up old Land Rover, wear her trench coat and fisherman’s hat, and call everyone “Pet.”  

And reading The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves, the newest entry in the Vera Stanhope series, all I can see is Brenda Blethyn. The image is branded on my brain. 

 

In The Dark Wives, Cleeves, a fine storyteller, weaves a dark tale. At a privately operated care home for troubled teens, a young worker is found dead, his head bashed with a hammer. A resident 14-year-old girl is missing. And Vera and her team can find no motive, no suspects, and no clues. Except the missing girl. But having read the diary the girl left behind, Vera can’t see as a killer. What she does begin to see is that the girl is in danger. The diary makes a vague reference to a dark car following her. And more reports of a dark car crop up.

 

The investigation shifts from the Newcastle area in northwestern England to a village some 30 miles to the north. The girl’s grandparents have an old, unused cottage nearby the village. The dead man was familiar with the area, having hiked it many times with his father. And rather brooding over the area and the case are three legendary monoliths, known as “The Dark Wives.” 

 

Ann Cleeves

Through a combination of dogged, routine police work and Vera’s uncanny intuition, the team begins to grasp what’s happening. But they may be too late to save the missing girl.

 

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 11 mystery novels in the Vera Stanhope series (also a television series), six Inspector Stephen Ramsay mysteries, and several other works and short stories. The Jimmy Perez novels are the basis for the BBC television series “Shetland.” Cleeves lives in northeastern England. 

 

The Dark Wives is a classic Vera Stanhope tale, told with imagination and not a small amount of the tension as the case nears its solution. 

 

Related:

 

Missing in the Snow by Ann Cleeves.

 

Shetland author’s lost laptop with draft of next novel found in snow – Lucinda Cameron at The Scotsman.

 

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

 

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 Monday Readings

 

Individualism – Wilfred McClay at Modern Age.

 

Toward the Recovery of American Culture – Matthew Gasda at American Affairs.

 

When Students Become Terrorists – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

The delusions of the West’s politicians – Douglas Murray at The Spectator.

 

Nehemiah Questions Robert Frost About Walls – poem by Cynthia Erlandson at Society of Classical Poets.

"Missing in the Snow" by Ann Cleeves

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.

 

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 Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

 

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.

"The Woman on the Island" by Ann Cleeves

After watching the Vera television series for years, it’s difficult to imagine Vera Stanhope looking any different from Brenda Blethyn’s portrayal – short, always wearing the same raincoat and hat, and somewhere in here 50s or 60s (Blethyn in in her 70s). But, once, Vera Stanhope was a young girl, before she was the rumpled police detective we’ve come to know. 

The Woman on the Island by Ann Cleeves is exactly that – Vera as a young girl. She travels with her widowed father to a tourist island (an island only at high tide). It’s a supposed holiday, but by this time Vera knows her father. Something else is up, and most likely it has to do with his poaching of eggs from highly valued bird species.

 

Ann Cleeves

It is that, but this time it also seems to be more. It’s mid-week, and her father tells her to stay put in their room until he returns. Of course, she doesn’t. She discreetly follows him. What she learns will help propel her on the way to her chosen career of police detective work.

 

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 Woman on the Island is a kind of prequel, but it’s not the same kind of detective story Cleeves is known for with her Vera, Jimmy Perez, and other series. It moves more in the direction of serious fiction, but with just enough mystery to keep it true to form.

 

Related:

 

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.

 

My review of The Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

"Frozen" by Ann Cleeves

I’ve read all of the Shetland mystery novels by Ann Cleeves, which feature police detective Jimmy Perez and are the basis for the popular Shetland television series starring Doug Henshall. And we’re working our way through the Veratelevision series, starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera Stanhope, the police detective based in Yorkshire. It’s based on the Vera Stanhope mystery novels by Cleeves. 

But I haven’t read the Vera books. I’m starting with a freestanding short story, Frozen.

 

In the story, Vera stops by a bookshop in the small town of Corbridge, which is not far from the home where she lives on the rather desolate moors. She’s interested in find a book about the 

Roman soldiers and women who lived along Hadrian’s Wall. The bookstore building is a former chapel, only recently converted to a retail book shop.

 

Instead of a book on Hadrian’s Wall, the shop owner is opening up the old baptismal chamber in the floor before the altar area. And in the chamber is a fully clothed skeleton. Vera recognizes the clothes and a leather band around the wrist. And she knows the skeleton belongs to a 14-year-old girl who went missing years before. But what is she doing in the baptismal chamber of the chapel?

 

The story includes Vera’s familiar colleagues like Holly and Joe, but it’s too short to go beyond a brief appearance for Joe and a slightly less brief appearance for Holly. The focus is Vera pursing the case, with all of the attributes both the television Vera and the print Vera are known for – abruptness, borderline rudeness, a diet that leaves a great deal to be desired, a wardrobe consisting of mostly a scarf and raincoat, and a razor-sharp mind that keeps plugging away until she gets it right.

 

Frozen is a good introduction to Ann Cleeves’ detective, and it looks like I’ll have a new series to read.

 

Related:

 

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.

 

My review of The Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

 

Top photograph: Brenda Blethyn as Vera in the television series.

"The Long Call" by Ann Cleeves

I’ve been looking forward to the publication of The Long Call by Ann Cleeves for months. Cleeves, the author of two popular mystery series – Vera Stanhope, set in Northumberland, and Jimmy Perez, set in the Shetland Islands – was bringing forth a new detective in a new series. 

The promotions for the new Two Rivers series kept to bareboned information – the series would be set in North Devon, the English county that runs from Bristol Bay to the English Channel and separates Cornwall form the rest of England. There was a reference to the police detective – Matthew Venn – having left a religiously conservative family. Other than that, little else was said.

The story begins with a man found stabbed to death on the beach. The body has no identification, so Venn and his team have to find out who the man is before they can move forward. Venn has just come from his own father’s funeral, not as an attendee but as an observer. He is something of a persona non grata with his mother and the members of her church, the so-called Brethren, but it will be some time before we find out why. 

Gradually, we come to learn that the victim worked as a volunteer at the Woodyard, a factory converted to spaces for the arts, community groups, the elderly, and the disabled. The investigation keeps coming back to the Woodyard, the lists of potential suspects keeps growing, and a conflict of interest is mounting for Venn.

Ann Cleeves

The novel has a short introduction by the author, expressing some nervousness with introducing a new character and a new series. Cleeves is one of the best mystery novelists writing today, in the same league as Louise Penny, and it’s a bit odd to begin a new series with what sounds almost like an apology. 

The first two chapters seemed off. The character of Matthew Venn seemed almost one-dimensional, as if Cleeves wasn’t quite sure what kind of character he was. She describes a police detective who, at 40, is tentative, lacks self-confidence, and is still trying to escape his religious upbringing. 

Two supporting characters – Venn’s constable Ross and his sergeant Jen – seem more real. One of the suspects, the Brethren’s retired minister, also seems more real, if played a bit to the stereotyped rigid believer. The third chapter explains more – Venn is married to a man, who happens to be the founder and manager of the Woodyard (and thus the conflict of interest). It’s a surprise, landing without a hint. And the back story has to be worked in, or at least enough of it so that the reader understands. I’m not sure if she’s included enough back story yet, which may be coming in future entries in the series.

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), and Cold Earth (2017), with Wild Fire published in September. She’s also published eight 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.

It takes some gumption even for an established, popular author to step outside her comfort zone and create a new series. The Long Call is an interesting story, solidly based in the police procedural sub-genre like the Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez novels. Cleeves is still finding her sea legs with this new detective, but she is experienced enough and a good-enough writer to get there.

Related:

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.

“Wild Fire” by Ann Cleeves

It’s the end of the road for Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez of the Shetland Police Force.

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves is the eighth and final volume in the Shetland mystery series. Cleeves is ending the popular series because, she says, she’s told all the stories she wanted to tell and she likes Shetlanders too much to kill off any more of them.

Two more die in Wild Fire.

A young nanny is found hanging in a barn of a home owned by English transplants. The nanny works for another family, and the scene is the site of the suicide of the man who previously owned the property. Forensic examination determines that the young woman was already dead when the body was hung. Her purse and shoes are also nowhere to be found.

Perez and his officer Sandy Wilson begin the investigation, but he’s required to call the case in to Aberdeen, and Willow Reeves arrives to lead. We met Reeves in Cold Earth, when she and Perez were investigating a case and soon found themselves investigating each other. Perez has deep feelings for Reeves, but he’s still not over the death of his fiancée Fran, for which he bears a sense of guilt. 

Reeves arrives with some surprise news. She’s pregnant with Perez’s child. Perez responds with anger, believing he’s been taken advantage of or, at worst, used. He knew Reeves had wanted to have a child. The tensions of investigating the murder are overlaid with the tensions of their relationship.

They run across a woman who has a rather spiteful, gossiping tongue, and whose son was involved with the dead woman. Her gossiping tongue apparently gets her into more trouble than she expected; she’s found dead, a victim of strangling. The investigation of the two murders takes Perez and Reeves deep into the lives of the two families involved.

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), and Cold Earth (2017), with Wild Fire published in September. She’s also published eight 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.

As an enthusiastic reader of the Shetland books and an enthusiastic fan of the television program, I’m of two minds about the ending of the series. On the one hand, both the books and the TV program are highly entertaining, with those stark brooding Shetland vistas matching the brooding perspective of Perez. On the other hand, when it’s time for an author to stop a series, the author knows it. And perhaps it’s best to go out on a high note.

Wild Fire is as much the story of Willow Reeves as it is of Jimmy Perez. It leaves fewer clues as to the murderer’s identity for the reader than the previous books, and the solution could have gone in any of several ways – possible motives littered the Shetland landscape. 

But the series is done, and we wish Detective Inspector Perez and his boss Willow Reeves the best in their new career undertakings.

Related:

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.

Top photograph: A view of Lerwick, the largest town in the Shetland Islands and the home base for Jimmy Perez. By Erik via Wikimedia Commons.