Book review: Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

This week Hastings District Libraries has reviewed Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. Photo / Supplied

Reviewed by Miss Moneypenny
Hastings District Libraries

Although I have seen a few episodes of the television series Vera, I haven't previously read any of Anne Cleeve's crime novels. Nonetheless the quality of the television series has encouraged me enough to read her Shetland series.

This is the first in a so far eight part series set on Lerwick the main island in Scotland's Shetland Islands. It starts in the very bleak New Year with local Fran Hunter discovering the body of her teenage baby sitter Catherine in a field surrounded by ravens. Suspicion immediately falls on intellectually disabled Magnus Tait, who has previously been the main suspect in the disappearance of a girl a number of years earlier.

Shetland born and bred Jimmy Perez, is the detective in charge of the Shetland Islands. Not known for its high crime rate Jimmy brings in six Inverness police staff to assist including Liverpudlian Detective Inspector Roy Taylor; a man prepared to exhaust all avenues in the search for the murderer.

As the storyline progresses each chapter moves deftly between the principal characters/suspects. Whilst this allows the reader to see the story through many eyes it also makes you aware that someone is not telling the truth.

As one has come to expect in police dramas set in small out of the way places, the slower pace and the lack of any real urgency allows the author to quietly reveal the personalities that make up the story and in this case how these people live and survive in such a harsh landscape.

Apart from the human characters there are the ravens. Although it is probably true that birds are not in themselves nasty cruel creatures I really don't want to meet any ravens especially in such an inhospitable environment as the Shetlands.

For most of the story I felt I knew who was likely or was unlikely to be the murderer. I know now I was being led into a false sense of security and when the murderer was revealed I can honestly say I didn't see it coming.

This slow moving mystery has cleverly set the scene for more crime solving in this close knit Shetland community.

Black Raven is available to place a hold as an eBook
For more information visit www.hastinglibraries.govt.nz or phone 871 5000