Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves

Protagonist: Det. Jimmy Perez
Setting: Fair Isle
Rating: 5.0

Engaged now, Det. Jimmy Perez takes his fiancée, Fran Hunter, back home to Fair Isles to meet his parents, just as a fall storm starts brewing. Jimmy's parents have organized a party at North Light Field Centre, a bird observatory. The party is a success, but the next morning Jimmy is awoken early -- there's been a murder at the observatory. North Field's warden, Angela Moore, has been killed; the killer has woven white bird feathers though her dark long hair. With the storm now raging, it'll be days before other detectives and the forensics team can reach the island, so it's left to Jimmy to investigate.

Since the center was locked, it's obvious the killer is either a family member, one of the staff or one of the visitors, “twitchers” pursuing rare birds. Less obvious is who -- there are plenty of people who had reason to dislike Angela. In the midst of all this, one of the bird-watchers spots the first trumpeter swan seen in Britain. “I’d kill to find a bird like this,” one of the suspects proclaims. Yet another motive for murder!

This closed environment, with plenty of suspects, is a traditional mystery device. Cleeves even makes a nod to old-fashioned whodunits, with one of the characters contemplating, "There was an Agatha Christie book she'd read when she was a kid. A bunch of people on an island. Dying, one by one.”

But this is no Christie cozy. Amid the stark beauty of this isolated island, there’s a dark undercurrent. In fact, in the last of a quartet set in the Shetland Islands, Cleeves brings us a very dark book. (The quartet began with Raven Black, followed by White Nights and Red Bones, and I recommend reading them in order.) This atmospheric novel builds the tension slowly until its stunning denouement. I expected a good read, having liked the previous books. Blue Lightning delivers with a thunderous intensity.

Red Bones by Ann Cleeves

Protagonist: Jimmy Perez
Setting: Shetland Islands
Rating: 5.0

This has one of the best opening scenes ever (but to tell you more would be to spoil it). Insp. Jimmy Perez is back. This time his sidekick is Sandy Wilson, a young detective and not the sharpest knife in the block. But Sandy is instrumental, as much of the story revolves around his family. An archaeological dig in Whalsay, on land owned by his family, becomes the site of two deaths -- maybe murder? -- after a set of bones is uncovered by the archaeological team.

Cleeves writes a well-plotted mystery, but I like her books as much for the setting -- the Shetland islands, remote and beautiful -- and characters that feel like real people. This is the third in a quartet, and like the other books, it deals with long-hidden secrets and the insularity of the islands. One of the young archaeologists captures it well when she says: "Once the fog rolls in you feel as if the world outside doesn't matter at all. People here lose any sense of proportion. Tiny incidents that happened years ago fester and take over their lives."

Interview with Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves has become a favorite author. While I really enjoyed her Vera Stanhope novels, her Shetland series has made me a devoted fan (and others, judging from the success of it). In the Shetland books, she writes of a place bleak yet beautiful, with characters whose families go back generations in an insular community, and so secrets are often kept for years -- in short, a perfect setting for murder.

Cleeves graciously agreed to answer some questions about her novels and writing. Below is my interview with her:

Q. Your latest series, the Shetland quartet, is set on the remote, isolated Shetland Islands. Can you tell us how you came to set your series there?

I first went to Shetland more than thirty years ago. I'd dropped out of college and a friend got me a job as assistant cook in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, one of the more remote islands in the group. I couldn't cook and knew nothing about birds... but I loved it. And my cooking must have been OK because I went back the following year as head cook! I met my husband there and we've been back to the Isle and to Shetland mainland many times since. In fact I'm writing this on the train south after a visit to friends there. RAVEN BLACK was conceived after a visit in mid-winter. The place was beautiful - very cold, snow and ice and a big orange sun. There were three ravens, very black against the snow. I thought if there was blood too it would be a stunning image. And primitive, like a fairy story. I wanted to explore what it is to be an outsider - the islands provide a great background for that.

Q. You’d been writing for about 20 years before the publication of Raven Black (the first in the quartet and winner of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime novel of the year) brought you greater success. How does it feel to achieve such success after you’ve been writing for so long?

Absolutely wonderful! And very lucky. It's hard for mid-list writers to be recognised late in their career. There are lots of good writers who haven't received the recognition they deserve, so I hope publishers will look again at their established lists and look at new ways to promote the authors already there. I don't take anything for granted. This is a precarious business. All you can do is write the best possible book and hope that readers enjoy it.

Q. From the very beginning, your books have featured birds – and birdwatchers in the Palmer-Jones series. How did this come about?

My husband is a passionate birder. I started writing seriously when he was warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee estuary on the west coast of England. We were the only residents and lived in an old telegraph cottage. There was no mains water or electricity and there wasn't much else to do. I met lots of birders through him. Most of them were great people, but definitely obsessed! Obsession is a good subject for a crime novel. I killed off a birdwatcher in the first book. The fourth Shetland book returns to the world of birding and is set in Fair Isle. Almost like going back to where it all started.

Q. How do you create your characters? Do they pop up in your mind unannounced, or are they based on people you know?

When I started off I was a very lazy writer and the characters were based on people I knew. Now they're all made up. I think about them all the time when I'm writing. They're lurking in the back of my brain somewhere, so when they come out on the page, it's as if I'm writing from memory not imagination.

Q. Your third Shetland book, Red Bones, is scheduled for publication in February. What’s next after the Shetland series? Will you return to another of your series or start something new?

I'm working on the last book in the Shetland quartet now - one reason for spending the last week there. After that I'll write a Vera Stanhope novel. She's a cop based in Northumberland and I enjoy writing her. Also, HIDDEN DEPTHS, one of the books in which she features has just been optioned for TV here, and it would be good to have a new book out to coincide with a possible film! After that? I'm not sure. I haven't definitely given up on Shetland though.

Q. You recently toured the East Coast of the United States and attended Bouchercon in Baltimore. What were your impressions of the U.S. during this trip?

I always enjoy visiting the U.S. I love the space and the energy and the hospitality of the people. This time I sensed a lack of confidence, a questioning of accepted values. I don't think that's a bad thing. I admire the way people seem to be engaged in politics again - the people on the street checking that residents are registered to vote, kids talking about policies and politicians. It was certainly an interesting time to be there.


Q. Who are the authors you love to read?

A. My favourite authors in the UK are Andrew Taylor and John Harvey, but my real reading passion is translated crime fiction from Scandinavia and mainland Europe. I enjoy Dominique Manotti's work and was delighted when she won the International Dagger this year. Her translators are magnificent! For something light and witty I go for Andrea Camilleri who sets his books in Sicily: you get a wonderful sense of the heat and the food - and the absurd nature of Italian politics. He's brilliantly translated too.

Q. My 10-year-old stepson recently decided he’s going to write a book, and he’s considering two genres: either mystery or science fiction. He asked for my opinion, but now I’ll ask you: why mystery? What’s so special about writing in the mystery genre?

Mystery works for me because I don't have to worry about the plot. If you write in the English tradition - as I do - the plot is really set out in advance. There's a murder, a limited number of suspects, some resolution at the end. That leaves me the space to explore the stuff I really enjoy: relationships, families, the influence of place on people. I like playing with the rules of the form. And I am a real sucker for the cheap thrill of the surprise ending.

Photo courtesy of Duncan Lawrie Private Bank. For more information on Ann Cleeves, visit her website.

White Nights by Ann Cleeves

White Nights by Ann Cleeves
Protagonist: Det. Jimmy Perez
Setting: Shetland Islands
Rating: 5.0

This is Cleeves’ second book in the Shetland quartet, and where the first one left us with the haunting image of black ravens against white snow, this one is set in the summer, where the nights are long and white, because the sun hardly sets. Amid the isolation of the Shetland Islands (very much a closed community), a strange thing happens at a gallery art opening where Perez’s friend Fran is exhibiting. A man starts sobbing, and falls to the floor. When Perez takes him away, the man claims to have amnesia, and has no identification on him. The next day, he’s found dead. Throughout the book, there’s constant mention of another man who went missing years ago, so you know he will soon play a part in the plot. Cleeves cleverly weaves a story about a close-knit community and long-kept secrets. While I figured out who might be the murderer, there was still a shocker at the end.

As murder mysteries, the Shetland quartet is superb. But I also enjoy it for the setting. As Cleeves has said herself, hardly anyone has set stories in this part of the world. While part of Scotland, Shetland has a Norse past that is still celebrated in the annual Up Helly Aa festival, featured in the first book. Cleeves continues to let us look into the lives of Shetlanders in this book, from the fiddle music (to hear it, go to YouTube and seek out Shetland fiddle music) to the shearing of the sheep, described in a beautiful little passage.

White Night was recently released in the United States. The third in the quartet, Red Bones, will be released in the U.K. in February. I highly recommend this series!

Northumbria

Our last day in England before arriving in Scotland had us driving along the Northumbrian coast (photo left) and stopping to have lunch with Ann Cleeves, who makes her home in this area and has set some of her novels here. Cleeves has been writing for more than 20 years, and last year won the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her book Raven Black, set in the remote Shetlands islands.

Cleeves was visiting the Shetlands three years ago with her husband when, she told our group, "I saw three ravens against the snow. I thought if there was blood in the snow, it would be like a fairy tale. That image stayed in my head: Those ravens, so black against the snow." What started out as a short story metamorphosed into her award-winning crime novel (the first in a four-part series). She also explained that she uses the traditional "cozy" form, layered with psychological insights. In Raven Black, Cleeves expertly masters the theme of being an outsider, giving the book a rich depthness.

Cleeves is among the current generation of U.K. writers who are using the traditional British mystery forms and adding so much more. For those of us who love British mysteries, it's a great time to be reading!