“Belle Vie was a cipher, really, a place in whose beauty one might find pleasure or pain, leisure or labour.“ Of Attica Locke’s three standalone novels, The Cutting Season is the only one I enjoyed enough to hold on to a copy of. When I began my reread, I remember wondering why I had lovedContinue reading “Book review – The Cutting Season”
Tag Archives: mystery
Book review – Wild Fire
This review contains spoilers for Raven Black and Blue Lightning. “She became what other people wanted her to be; she reflected back their dreams and desires.” There is an exquisite beauty to the structure of the Shetland series: two quartets, miniatures that try to capture the islands, with a well-defined character arc across each quartetContinue reading “Book review – Wild Fire”
Book review – Cold Earth
This review contains spoilers for Raven Black and Blue Lightning. The penultimate entry in Shetland sees some of the best character writing and plotting of the series, with the book’s major weakness being in biting off more plot than it can chew, for the ending is a little contrived. The premise recalls Raven Black, theContinue reading “Book review – Cold Earth”
Book review – Thin Air
“Guilt was like a shadow, always there, changing shape, darkening the edges.“ This review contains spoilers for Raven Black and Blue Lightning. Of the Shetland mysteries, Thin Air is the creepiest one, leaning gently into the tropes of horror. On Scotland’s northernmost isle, the isle of Unst, two women have gathered for their friend’s hamfarin’,Continue reading “Book review – Thin Air”
Book review – Dark Water
“He walked down the hill into the fog. It lay like a pool over the lower ground, swallowing him up, so that he felt as if he were drowning.” This review contains spoilers for Raven Black and Blue Lightning. Dark Water begins the second of Cleeves’s two Shetland quartets. The division of the series intoContinue reading “Book review – Dark Water”
Book review – Trick of the Dark
I have a special relationship with Trick of the Dark, as it was my first Val McDermid novel. I was just getting into the swing of devouring crime fiction, and I had heard that McDermid wrote some of the most suspenseful and brilliant crime books today. Lo and behold, at the book exchange near work,Continue reading “Book review – Trick of the Dark”
Book review – Blue Lightning
This review contains spoilers for Raven Black. Blue Lightning rounds off the first Shetland quartet and brings off a powerful, emotional finish to one of the best series in crime fiction. Rarely do crime series manage to tell a story about their main characters that are engaging enough to be more than just another excuseContinue reading “Book review – Blue Lightning”
Book review – Red Bones
“This is about bones in the land. Old, red bones.” This review contains spoilers for Raven Black. Red Bones is Cleeves’s third book of her Shetland series. This story centres the island of Whalsay, and brings to the fore Perez’s young, hapless assistant, Sandy Wilson. His grandmother falls victim to what appears to be anContinue reading “Book review – Red Bones”
Book review – White Nights
“There was the feeling that you had to make the most of it, be outside, enjoy it before the dark days came again. Here in Shetland they called it the ‘simmer dim’.“ This review contains spoilers for Raven Black. There is a unique quality to Raven Black that is impossible to reproduce, with the bleakContinue reading “Book review – White Nights”
Book review – West Heart Kill
“The writer of murder, like all writers, must be a miser, conceding revelations bit by bit; for every novel is a puzzle, and every reader a sleuth.“ I waited to read West Heart Kill with great anticipation: it is a clever metafictional mystery set in 1976 on Long Island at a wealthy club. Its keyContinue reading “Book review – West Heart Kill”
Wet Broken Things 