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Another brilliant murder mystery set in Shetland and starring sleuth and sailor Cass Lynch.
Shortly after her band's triumphs in the Shetland heats of a national talent show, the gorgeous backing singer falls to her death. But was she pushed? And has this anything to do with the singer's boyfriend, accused of scuttling a rival's fishing boat, or a recently exhumed Book of the Black Arts?
As ever, Cass is on the spot. The usual characters are all here: Gavin the policeman boyfriend, Cat and the newly pregnant Kitten, Maman and Magnie and Peerie Charlie. And behind the investigation lies all the everyday life of Shetland and the big question: can Cass settle down with Gavin for a life on shore or is their love doomed?
The joy of this beautifully written series is the feeling of verisimilitude. Whether Cass is performing CPR, sailing with killer whales, playing with a four-year-old or helping at a food bank, this author takes the time and trouble to make me feel part of the Shetland community. As always there is the dialect, carefully crafted so that even a soothmoother like myself can understand what the locals are saying (and there's a glossary in case I struggle). This is so much more than a murder mystery: it is a welcome to another world.
There are also some beautiful descriptions:
- "I went out to sniff the air and was met by an outrage of cheeping from within the flowering currant bushes" (Ch 4) Outrage!
- "The sea was back to winter cobalt, the hills dusted with icing sugar." (Ch 23)
- "the speed o’ him was like the sun upon the wall." (Prologue)
- "all the aerodynamic qualities of a flattened-out sugar bag." (Ch 3)
- "the former Hilltop bar, where we’d tried to buy an underage pint (we’d failed because the sneaky folk of Mid Yell had got an ex-teacher on the bar for regatta night, who could tell the age of teenagers to the second)" (Ch 17)
- "Merran nodded, but continued telling her story backside foremost." (Ch 21)
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