Some Wednesday Readings

Love Along the Raid: A Morgan’s Raiders Love Story – Caroline Davis at Emerging Civil War. 

Old Tom’s Ash Wednesday – Bradley Birzer.

 

T.S. Eliot’s Long Lent – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Britain: Westminster is running out of time – Lee Cain at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Vikings of Orkney – Warren Frye at The New Criterion.

 

Concerning Kipling – poem by George Bradley at Literary Matters.

 

Photograph: Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, Orkney Islands, Scotland – Maxwell Andrews at Unsplash. Used with permission.

“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.

"Flotsam & Jetsam" by Keith Moray

When you live by the seashore or on an island, a lot of things tend to wash up on the shore: driftwood, the debris from shipwrecks, the proverbial bottles with their messages, perhaps a dead body, a collie tied with ropes to wooden planks. 

Wait, what? A collie?

Inspector Torquil McKinnon of the West Uist police in the Orkney Islands finds the dog, barely alive. Dogs seem to be disappearing, but no one has come across this kind of barbaric behavior. There’s also a rash of burglaries happening, a television program is broadcasting from the island for a week, and some shifty-looking businessmen are hosting a Scottish football star. All kinds of things are washing up on McKinnon’s island.

And then there’s a murder, or two.

Keith Moray

The appropriately named Flotsam & Jetsam is the fourth mystery in the Torquil McKinnon series by British writer Keith Moray. Like its title implies, it meanders in a number of directions, until the bodies begin to turn up. Then it turns into a tightly written police procedural – with always a bit of Scottish humor thrown in (usually courtesy of Torquil’s priestly uncle).

Moray has published six Inspector MacKinnon novels. He’s also published three historical novels, The Pardoner’s Crime, The Fool’s Folly, and The Curse of the Body Snatchers; non-fiction books (under the pen name Keith Souter); and several westerns as Clay Moore. When he’s not writing, he practices medicine as a part-time doctor and medical journalist (he studied medicine at the University of Dundee). He lives in Yorkshire in England.

Flotsam & Jetsam is another solid entry in the series, with well-drawn characters, considerable games afoot, and long-buried secrets finally seeing the light of day.

Related: 

The Gathering Murders by Keith Moray.

Deathly Wind by Keith Moray.

Murder Solstice by Keith Moray.

"Murder Solstice" by Keith Moray

It begins with an apparent husband-wife murder-suicide – but with no apparent motive, so the case is left open. Then, months later, the director of a local museum devoted to the “Hoolish Stones.” Similar to and perhaps older than Stonehenge, falls to his death after what looks like a bit too much alcohol. Not long after, a young woman in a hippie-like spiritual organization falls to her death while keeping watch on the stones for the approaching summer solstice. 

Inspector Torquil McKinnon of West Uist in the Orkney Islands finds his hands even more full. Someone has attacked Calum Scott, the local newspaper editor-reporter-owner, with a brick thrown through the window on the newspaper offices. McKinnon’s own constable is knocked out while investigating the brick incident. 

And Sergeant Lorna Glospie is assigned to McKinnon’s team by his arch-nemesis and boss Superintendent Lumsden to perform an audit, aka spying on the team to find something Lumsden can use to get McKinnon dismissed. What Lumsden doesn’t foresee is McKinnon and Glospie falling for each other.

Keith Moray

Murder Solstice by Keith Moray is the third in the Inspector McKinnon mystery series. And it serves up a mix of New Age spirituality, secret dogfighting, and a considerable number of crimes for a small Orkney community.

Moray has published five Inspector MacKinnon novels, with a sixth scheduled for later this year. He’s also published three historical novels, The Pardoner’s Crime, The Fool’s Folly, and The Curse of the Body Snatchers; non-fiction books (under the pen name Keith Souter); and several westerns as Clay Moore. When he’s not writing, he practices medicine as a part-time doctor and medical journalist (he studied medicine at the University of Dundee). He lives in Yorkshire in England.

Murder Solstice takes its time in helping the investigation team realize that too many dead people are turning up in what can’t be coincidences, but once they understand, the story moves at lightning speed. The mystery is as enjoyable for its Orkney setting, inspector-sergeant romance, and often comic carrying on by the minor characters as it is for the primary crime story.

Related: 

“The Gathering Murders” by Keith Moray.

“Deathly Wind” by Keith Moray.