When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found in a traditional Shetland boat, outside the house of the Fiscal down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in from the Hebrides to head up the investigation.
Since the death of his fiancee, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out the loop, but his interest in this new case is stirred and he decides to help the inquiry - for Willow, his local knowledge is invaluable as the close-knit community holds many secrets.
Markham - originally a Shetlander but who had made a name for himself in London - had left the islands years before to pursue his burgeoning writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl, Evie Watt, who is now engaged to a crofter. He had few friends there, so why was he back in Shetland?
Willow and Jimmy are soon led to Sullum Voe, the heart of Shetland's North Sea oil and gas industry. In a community where traditional values are held very dear by some, the advent of new energies, even renewables, is not always welcome. It emerges that Markham was chasing a story in his final days. One that must have been - for someone - significant enough to warrant his death...
Ann Cleeves worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of Murder Squad, working with other northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black. Ann lives in North Tyneside. The Crow Trap, Telling Tales, Hidden Depths and Silent Voices from Ann's Vera Stanhope series are all major ITV productions and Red Bones, the third in Ann's Shetland series, became a major BBC1 two-part drama in autumn 2012.
ISBN:
9780230760172
Binding:
Hardback
Pub. Date:
23/01/2013
Category:
Crime & Mystery
Imprint:
Macmillan
Pages:
Stock:
To order
Price:
$39.99 AUD