"Death in a Shetland Family" by Marsali Taylor

 

These murder mysteries starring sailor and sleuth Cass Lynch are getting better with each novel. 

In fact, the whodunnit element is increasingly taking a back seat to an exploration of life in the Shetlands. In this novel we enter the horse world with an escaped stallion and a horse show. We learn about crofting, Roman Catholicism, and genetics. And, of course, there is the sailing.

There is also a murder. Cass doesn't know the family herself, but she knows those who do. She listens to the gossip, weaving together the testimonies to try to find a story. Red herrings are deftly presented. Ambiguities are exploited. And in the end Cass is imperilled, captured, fleeing, hunted. This is a skilfully written classic cosy crime with a dash of jeopardy.

Gavin, the policeman boyfriend? He is in the Highlands because his mother is ill. Meanwhile Cass has to tend their small-holding, including hens, ponies and sheep. She worries whether she can cope with living off the water.

Real characters with real dilemmas.

And the book is brightened by some fabulous descriptive passages, of which my favourite were:

• "Even though it was a bonny day, blue and warm as summer, the colours had turned. The orange hens-and-chickens along the Tingwall verges had withered to brown lollipop heads, and the royal purple of the heather on the hill behind them had bleached to a creamy white, with blue pincushions of scabious growing through." (Ch 1)
• "Kitten was the colours of spices shaken over a worktop, ginger and nutmeg and cinnamon all mixed together" (Ch 2)
• "I woke to a shepherd’s warning; the glass of the window reflected a red light onto the white shade of the overhead lamp, and the window framed thin cirrus tinged coral-gold which faded as the sun rose. A grey shroud lay over the hills, somewhere between a summer heat haze and an autumn mist. In the garden, a last magenta rose flared among the cloud shape of the daisy bushes." (Ch 4)
• "The sea was fretted over with ripples; the hills were auburn, with hummocks of moss like jade rocks among the heather." (Ch 7)
• "I looked west as I came out of Cribba Sound, past the Atlantic swell rolling in from the sea road leading to where there was nothing in the world but your ship poised on a saucer of shining water under a great arch of sky, and felt my heart ache for it." (Ch 9)
• "It was only five o’clock, but the light was already mellowing to tints of evening, the hills dusted with gold, the moorgrass stems glistening. The yellow buttons of tansy by the gate were translucent above their fresh green leaves." (Ch 9)
• "The sun was behind the hills now, but there were slanting gold shafts of light through the gaps in the clouds, and over the soft green hills, and the sound was filled with whisky-amber water." (Ch 21)

Marsali Taylor must be a talented artist: she can certainly paint irresistible pictures with words. These passages are a literary equivalent of a promotional film for the Shetlands tourist board. If only she hadn't mentioned the midges!

She's also very good with psychology, showing a deep understand of human (and, in the first quote, horse) nature:

• "He’s got himself into that high state where he wants things to be back to normal but doesn’t quite know how to get there, like a toddler refusing to go to bed." (Ch 1)
• "Even Vaila, who knew her own mind and shared it generously, paused to think when Rainbow suggested caution." (Ch 2)
• "He oozed superiority, but if he really felt that far above us all, he wouldn’t need to try so hard." (Ch 3)
• "‘So,’ I said, summing up, ‘a man in possession of a good croft needs a wife with a good income to support him.’" (Ch 16) Okay, she's nicked that one but it's a lovely bit of humour.

This series now transcends the crime genre. Exceptionally entertaining but also a delightful read.

July 2026

Published by Headline Accent in 2026

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

This is the fourteenth novel in a crime fiction series that gets better and better. The books, in order, with alternative names, are:

• Death on a Shetland Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders (Buried in a Shetland Tomb)
• A Handful of Ash (The Shetland Night Killings)
• The Body in the Bracken (Grave of a Shetland Sailor)
• Ghosts of the Vikings (The Shetland Poisonings)
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders
• A Shetland Winter Mystery
• Death in a Shetland Lane
• Death at a Shetland Festival
• An imposter in Shetland

"An Imposter in Shetland" by Marsali Taylor

This brilliant book has all the usual hallmarks of a Cass Lynch murder mystery. Cass is now mate on a small training yacht taking a party to remote Hebridean island St Kilda where one of the customers, an influencer, disappears. After the cruise is over, another of the customers is found murdered. There is sailing, Cass is imperilled, and there is a denouement in which she solves the mysteries. We have the usual crowd: Gavin the policeman boyfriend and wise old Magnie who speaks broad Shetlandic, Cat and Kitten and Julie the ketling, pre-school (but no longer peerie!) Charlie, Inga and Freya. There's even a cameo appearance from Anders!

There are the features we have come to expect. One of the many delights of a Marsali Taylor book is the use of Shetlandisms which add a touch of colour to the vocabulary. If you can't guess what they mean, there is a glossary at the back, but usually they are obvious from the context, as in "the benkled nose from rugby in his youth" (Ch 1). See what I mean? What a wonderful word: 'benkled'. So expressive!

Another wonderful feature of the books is the occasional insertion of descriptive passages which make me long to visit Shetland (despite the apparently high crime rate):

• "It was two and a half months since I’d been home. Shetland had gone from the first summer green to high summer, with the wildflower verges flecked orange and yellow, cream and rose-pink, and the lambs ignoring their mothers to charge around like mad things. There was the first tinge of purple in sheltered hollows of the heather hills, and the sky was a beautiful bright blue." (Ch 7)
• "The hills of Clousta and West Burrafirth were hazed blue with the warmth of the day; the cliffs of Muckle Roe shone fire-orange before us." (Ch 9)
• "Here, the only sound was the sea mouthing pebbles on the shore and half a dozen dinner-jacketed shalders peep-peep-peeping in the park above it. The sea reflected the blue sky, the daytime moon wavering in the water, a pale half-disk like a wisp of cloud." (Ch 12)
• "It was a bonny, bonny night. The heavens were spread out above us in their sequin glory." (Ch 18) Sequin!

As usual, each chapter is headed with tide times but in this book we have the additional delight of Shetland sayings as epigraphs, such as:

• "Dir nedder Voar nor Hairst noo. A comment on modern farming practices; there’s neither seed time nor harvest. Sometimes applied to [changing patterns of] weather." (Ch 3)
• "Hit’s no for da kyunnen’s göd ta be ower cosh wi’ whitterets [Literally, It’s not good for the rabbit to be too friendly with stoats]: Innocent people should not become too closely involved with shady characters." (Ch 13)
• "Da auld cock craas an da young ane learns: Youngsters pick up the habits and manners of their elders" (Ch 15)

Same old, same old? Not at all. This is a formula which doesn't grow old and 'Imposter', the thirteenth in the series, is told with such brio that it is one of the best. The pacing is perfect: the murder occurs almost exactly at the 50% mark. The moments of high tension are perfectly interspersed with periods of relative calm, as characters and relationships and developed and scenes are set, but we never lose sight of the story. There are three moments when Cass is in mortal danger, one of which involves an exciting rooftop chase. There is a very humorous chapter when Cass is having a makeover. This is a very well written book indeed.

Selected quotes:

• "Our decorative latecomer might turn out to be the ill-natured cow that breaks up a byre" (Ch 1)
• "There was a French proverb, one who loves, and one who lets themself be loved." (Ch 6)
• "Shetland reality wasn’t floating around in diaphanous dresses, it was putting on a wool gansey and a jacket to go for a sail even in the height of summer." (Ch 8)
• "An otter bobbed up twenty metres off, took a deep breath and bobbed under again. I imagined a starfish refusing to be dislodged from its rock and waited until the round cat’s head reappeared. On the fourth time, the head tilted back with something pale waving in its jaws. A crunch echoed upwards." (Ch 12)

A great read!

June 2025

Published by Hachette in June 2025

I read the kindle version

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

This is the thirteenth novel in a crime fiction series that gets better and better. The books, in order, with alternative names, are:

• Death on a Shetland Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders (Buried in a Shetland Tomb)
• A Handful of Ash (The Shetland Night Killings)
• The Body in the Bracken (Grave of a Shetland Sailor)
• Ghosts of the Vikings (The Shetland Poisonings)
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders
• A Shetland Winter Mystery
• Death in a Shetland Lane
• Death at a Shetland Festival

"Footsteps in the Dew" by Marsali Taylor

 

A historical murder mystery set in an exciting period of Viking history.

1150. Shetland. Rannveig, the eldest daughter, has taken the place of her dead mother helping her father run their small farm with sidelines in fishing and pottery. A stranger is found dead in a nearby stone circle. Clues include a footprint and a bead from a broken necklace. Whodunnit? Members of the old paganism, still celebrating Thor even though the country is supposedly pagan? Or was the stranger a spy for one of the three kings who rule Norway in a supposedly harmonious triumvirate? And why was silver stolen from father's hiding place and then put back? 

Rannveig's investigation progresses against a background of Vikings and crusaders. The setting is perfect and includes such archaic processes of justice as the ordeal by bier-right - when the dead man's body is wrapped in white cloth and laid in the church and each man from the locality must in turn place his hand on the body and swear his innocence and the body is watched to see whether it will bleed indicating guilt - and the steeple run in which a man and his accuser must race for the steeple and the first one to touch it is innocent and the loser is hanged but the kinsfolk and friends of either man can impede either runner. 

It's a story which is full of local colour and it also contains the Marsali Taylor trademark pitch-perfect descriptions:

• "The grassy hill sparkled with morning dew ... as if an angel had sprinkled curled shavings of silver over the green blades." (Ch 1)
• "The amber sun shone on the shorn field, strengthening the hay, sealing the goodness in." (Ch 4) 'Shone on the shorn', what wonderful assonance!
• "The turning point between summer and winter was haustblót, the great harvest feast, held three weeks after the autumn equinox, as the dark ate away at the daylight, and the hills turned from their royal purple to rusted pink. On the lower ground, the marsh grass darkened to olive, and the bog asphodel made patches of burnt orange among the bleaching grasses. The wild geese creaked overhead, dark wings spread against the pale sky." (Ch 4) Not only a description from which a painter could create a painting, but also the dark eating the daylight and the geese creaking overhead. Wow!
• "Rannveig was reminded of the way he had walked up the hill after they had told him Midder was dead, as if his feet were too heavy to life." (Ch 9)

I thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery which reminded me of childhood favourites such as The Woolpack by Cynthia Harnett and the Henry Treece series of Viking books including Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklagard, and Viking's Sunset. 

Marsali Taylor is also the author of the Shetland Sailing Mysteries, a series of murder mysteries starring intrepid sailor and amateur investigator Cass Lynch. The series so far is:

• Death on a Shetland Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders (Buried in a Shetland Tomb)
• A Handful of Ash (The Shetland Night Killings)
• The Body in the Bracken (Grave of a Shetland Sailor)
• Ghosts of the Vikings (The Shetland Poisonings)
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders
• A Shetland Winter Mystery
• Death in a Shetland Lane
• Death at a Shetland Festival

May 2025, 135 pages

This novel was originally written in 2015, serialised in the magazine Shetland Life.

My paperback edition was issued in 2020

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Death in a Shetland Lane" by Marsali Taylor

 

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)

Selected quotes:

• "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)

January 2025

Published in 2023; I read the kindle edition

This is the eleventh novel in a crime fiction series that gets better and better. The first ten books, in order, are:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders
• A Shetland Winter Mystery

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"A Shetland Winter Mystery" by Marsali Taylor

 Another murder mystery involving sailor Cass Taylor and her policeman boyfriend Gavin. Cass is on shore  for once, preparing for Christmas with Gavin, Cat and Kitten, when mysterious footprints appear outside their remote cottage: 'Trows' (Shetland fairies) are traditionally active at this time of year. But is this a prank, and how is it linked to the controversial wind turbines being built? 

Then a young boy disappears, possibly one of the prankers ...

What makes this series of whodunnits exceptional is that Marsali Taylor is more and more able to take time with her stories. Much of it is about Shetland's preparations for Christmas and the momentary difficulties experienced by Cass and Gavin as they navigate the early waters of living together, and on land. This is allied to a careful exploration of the relevant characters who are so well-developed that I felt apprehensive about their possible fates. The depth and texture of the story is further enhanced by the (fully explained) use of Shetland vocabulary (eg "She was in a right ammerswak. The goddess poise was gone. She was wearing the pinnie she’d worn yesterday, but the buttons were done up squint."; Ch 8)  and by some superb pieces of description of the Shetland countryside:

• "There had been an intense frost during the night. The orange-brown kelp on the shore was crinkled white with ice, and there was a glaze of ice in the curve by the point where the burn ran down." (Ch 7)
• "It came on a serious shower of snow as we hit the main road. The windscreen wipers quickened to double speed, flack, flack, and still there was snow running down the window, as if we’d caught a foaming wave going over us. The tyres hissed through pools of water on the salted road, but the ditches at each side were white with snow lying on frozen water."  (Ch 18)

I want to go there (maybe not in winter).

In short, it is a good little murder mystery in the classic style, but books of this quality transcend the genre.

Selected quotes:

• "I woke to the rattle of the kitchen Rayburn being riddled, followed by the clank of an ashbucket and the crackling of flames in kindling." (Ch 2)
• "She was a tortoiseshell, with a coat the colours of several different spice jars shaken together over a worktop." (Ch 2)
• "It wasn’t much after two, I reckoned, yet already the air was beginning to thicken at the sides of buildings, and the sky was darkening." (Ch 5)
• "His voice softened to the gentle note of a drummie bee drowsing round flowers in summer." (Ch 6)
• "The downward-angled streetlights lit the frost hanging in the air like spotlights in a theatre" (Ch 12)
• "Motive: love, lucre, loathing." (Ch 18)
• "I have a cousin in Canada who’s so like me that we could use each other to shave by." (Ch 26)

This is a crime fiction series that gets better and better. The books, in order, are:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders

January 2022

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"The Shetland Sea Murders" by Marsali Taylor

 Ninth in the Cass Lynch series and the books have matured so they are less about a murder mystery - though that is still part of it - and more about another fascinating glimpse into Shetland life. And into the life of our heroine Cass Lynch, jobbing sailor, in particular. It starts with a mayday from a ship in trouble on Shetland rocks and there is a thrilling sea-rescue at the three-quarters climax. 

A hallmark of these Shetland Sailing Mysteries are the wonderful descriptions. These have been improving throughout the series and this book is full of them. I luxuriated in these descriptions; the two cited below are from chapter eight:

• "The water was lighter than the land, a pale grey-blue circle around us. There was a blue rim above the eastern hill, which gradually lightened to milky white, then flushed palest gold, darkening the hills below it to a black silhouette where every rock, every house roof and chimney, every telegraph pole, stood out sharp and clear against it. Now I could see the land reflections in the water. Slowly, much slower than in summer, the textures of the land became visible, the knobbled brown of heather and smooth grass, then the houses sharpened into focus, white against the green parks." 
• "The first sun had come through at last, picking up the autumn colours on land, the chocolate hills, the rusty sword leaves of iris in the ditches, the tinted flowering currant bushes around the houses. The orange lobster buoys glowed on the water." 

But also, perhaps for the first time in the series, this book contains some hard social commentary about the position of women relative to men through history and nowadays and the plight and exploitation of refugees.

Selected quotes:

• "She looked frail and delicate, but there was an iron paw inside every one of those little white mittens." (C 1)
• "It was a bonny day to be out, more summer than autumn, with the blue sky fretted with high cirrus, and the hills smooth green. Only the colour of the water betrayed the season, a cold steely-blue." (C 3)
• "Some US president had once said that you had the face you deserved by the time you were sixty." (C 4)
• "He had that straight-at-you look that I associated with someone telling me a lie." (C 5)
• "With the moon waning gibbous towards the neap-bringing crescent, every tide would be slightly lower than the one before" (C 7)
• "Mermaid’s eyes, I’d always thought, indifferent to human wants and failings. Every so often she tried to be chatty about furniture or flats, but I didn’t believe it; she lived in a cavern under water, hidden behind waving kelp, and when she walked on land each step was a knife stab." (C 12)
• "I’d come across some awkward customers in my time, but not many in whom violence simmered so close to the surface, like a shark in shallow water." (C 16)
• "The couch was a deep leather affair which was going to take serious leg muscles to get out of." (C 18)
• "Now I tell you straight, I thought he was as frank as a donkey moving backwards." (C 27)
• "The habit doesn’t make a monk." (C 27)
• "it’s like pedalling in semolina to get anything out of a bank." (C 27)
• "dumb enough to swallow snakes." (C 27)

This series gets better with every book. The books, in order, are:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Death from a Shetland Cliff" by Marsali Taylor

 Another murder mystery to be solved by intrepid Shetland sailor Cass Lynch and her policeman boyfriend DI Gavin Macrae. Cass looks after Tamar, an elderly lady, discharged from hospital after a fall, at her remote croft. The vultures gather from near and far (London and even New Zealand). Some want Tamar to leave her the croft. Others are chasing the rumour that one of Tamar's relatives might be an (illegitimate but, under Scottish law, full) heir to the estate of the laird. Has Tamar got something that thieves want? And what is hidden in the container near the jetty? 

Death provokes further questions. Why did the man fall to his death from the nearby cliff? And when further deaths occur: what happened and why?

As it happened, for once, I was ahead of Cass every step of the way. But it didn't matter. I love these books not for the puzzles they pose, though that is an essential ingredient of all good whodunnits, and not for the inevitably nail-biting finish at the end, but for the quality of the writing, the perfectly-drawn characters, the insight into Shetland life, and the lyrical descriptions of sailing and scenery. 

Selected quotes:

• "Given that I’d lived on a series of boats for the last fifteen years, since I was sixteen, I didn’t see why just being female qualified me for the post of Chief Inspector of Housework" (Ch 1)
• "A brown Shetland wren landed on the drystone dyke that enclosed it, bobbed at us, chittered indignantly, then flew into a cranny between two grey-lichened stones." (Ch 1)
• "The stairs were best grade traditional crofthouse, with a gradient similar to a ladder’s, going straight up between wooden walls." (Ch 1)
• "I was still wary of large animals that had a bite at one end and a kick at the other." (Ch 1)
• "The gold flush along the bottom of the eastern cumulus faded to grey, and the clouds jostled over the sun, leaving only a chink of bright sky." (Ch 2)
• "Outside, the wind had fallen to a cold breath on my bare arm. The sky was not yet dark; there was a band of lavender along the horizon, shading up to creamy-blue that gradually deepened to indigo. Three stars glittered. Even as I watched, the lavender darkened to heather purple." (Ch 2)
• "Her eyes seemed too big, green searchlights seeking out other people’s frailties." (Ch 5)
• "She paused, and tilted her head towards the guest bedroom. ‘No sign of life from there. Probably doesn’t know there is a morning.’" (Ch 6)
• "Loretta had copied the short, flicked-back haircut, and walked as if she expected people to bring her flowers as she passed." (Ch 7)
• "I felt my inner socialist welling up." (Ch 11)
• "I wouldn’t keep trying to have my butter and the money for it" (Ch 15)
• “Why on earth,” I told her, “would he carry poison round with him in his backpack when he’s just coming to redd up kin? It’s a bit overly for a first meeting.”’ (Ch 17)
• "Dealing with disturbed people’s all in a day’s work for Superplod." (Ch 24)

This is a crime novel by a writer at the very top of her game.

August 2021

The brilliant books in this series, in order, include:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Ghosts of the Vikings" by Marsali Taylor

Another Cassandre Lynch whodunnit. I wonder why she's called Cassandre? In the epics of ther Trojan War Cassandra is the princess gifted with prophecy but cursed in that no one will believe what she says. This could make an interesting type of whodunnit in which the detective solves the crime very early on but can't get anyone to believe her and, as a result, is endangered. But that's another book.

Cass sails to Unst, most northern island in the Shetland archipelago, to hear her Maman sing opera. But at the post-performance meal one of the other singers dies. The mystery is compounded by Cass voluntary keeping night watch over archaeological sites for  metal detectorists seeking Viking treasure. And her will she/ won't she relationship with DI Gavin (she is reluctant to have sex with him on board her boat because the mast will wobble and everyone in the marina will know what they've been doing) continues.

Although I was a little confused about the details in the end (even after the murderer was exposed I found it difficult to work out how it was done and what exactly was happening with all the other sub plots) Taylor delivers another wonderful story steeped in sailing and Shetlandish lore and set against a backdrop of the beautiful and beautifully described Shetland scenery. I want to go there!

"The whole city's dressed up like a candy store getting wed." (p 11)

The brilliant books in this series, in order, include:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle

December 2018; 327 pages

"The Body in the Bracken" by Marsali Taylor

This is the fourth in a series of murder mysteries set in Shetland and starring Cass Lynch. The first three are:
Death on a Longship
The Trowie Mound Murders
A Handful of Ash

They're all brilliant.

In this one Cass sails to Scotland to meet policeman boyfriend's family for Christmas; walking on the hills the pair discover a body. Is it that of missing Ivor who has vanished from the Shetlands and if so who killed him? Is the njuggle (mythical water horse) real and what has any of this to do with the removals business owned by the bullying Councillor? And who is trying to kill Cass? Another stupendously satisfying murder mystery.

But the real joy about these books isn't the plot but the fabulous descriptions of Shetland scenery and the everyday nature of life. Cass goes to college, shops at the Co-op, waitresses in a local cafe. The people around her are everyday fold with strengths and weaknesses, the mother with her little boy, the old-timer with his bootleg whisky, the crofter with his antique shop selling trinkets mostly on eBay. A wonderful portrait of a community lends this book such reality and the way people react to horror and murder is so true to life. Almost my favourite moment was the two old women gossiping in the Co-op. The love tussle between solid dependable Gavin and stunningly good-looking Anders was alos great as was the description of the Up Helly Aa festival.

Some of my favourite lines:

• "Ice-hardened brown kelp silvered the sea's edge." (p 1) A hallmark of the books is the beautiful descriptions of the Scottish scenery. 
• "a hesitant way of spacing his words, as if he was translating from Gaelic in his head" (p 3)
• "a fourth cousin, who was so like me that I could have shaved by him" (p 7)
• "I hated those awful railway platform moments" (p 18) when saying goodbye. So do I!!!!
• "I swallowed my natural daughterly desire to say black to dad's white" (p 74)
• "The sky was mottled with racing clouds" (p 85)
• "The returning moon was tipped on her back, with the black disc of the new moon caught in her arm." (p 106)
• "The low sun danced on the water, turning it to whisky gold." (p 111)
• "The house was surrounded by sheds which gave a very good impression of drink men holding each other up." (p 156)
• "Her eyes flared, as if she knew something I didn't." (p 167)
• "I found the words uncoiling in my throat" (p 191)

A very well written murder mystery. August 2017; 223 pages

The brilliant books in this series, in order, include:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle

"The Trowie Mound Murders" by Marsali Taylor

This is the second book in the Shetland series starring intrepid sailor and part time sleuth Cass Lynch, her blond Norse God Anders and his pet Rat, DI Gavin Macrae and old Shetlander Magnie and all the other villagers, some good, some sinister. It follows the excellent Death on a Longship and precedes the utterly brilliant A Handful of Ash

Two mysterious boats come to the marina at Brae. David and Madge in the magnificent but unnamed motorboat annoy Cass and arouse her suspicions with all their questions; Peter and Sandra in the yacht want to investgate the archaeology of the Trowie Mound, and ancient neolithic earthwork. But Peter and Sandra go missing and then, one night, their yacht sails off into the night and disappears and Cass hears the haunting cry of the Selkie out at sea. Somehow all this is linked to the theft of artworks from houses which are being exported via Shetland to the Faroes and further afield. And who is making the pornographic films at the deserted house?

A brilliant murder mystery with a completely logical solution and a chase at the end. It is the realism of the characters that really makes this series stand out from others. When Cass is shut up in a dark space you can really feel her fear of the dark. The police share with her what they can but the reader can share with Cass the thrill of working out whodunnit without any artificial separation between forensic evidence and psychology. But best of all is the thorough grounding in the Shetlands. The scenery is beautifully explained and the people are real. Major characters have mixed motives and flaws. Kids are kids and grown ups are kids grown up. The pain of bereavement is honestly felt. As the book nears its climax we go to an agricultural show and it is just like any other agricultural show and the things that happen there are trivial and real and powerful and true.

Selected quotes:

• A great first line: "'I know how you got that scar', the boy said, eyes travelling along the ragged indentation that ran across my cheek." (p 1)
• "It was ill luck to go round against the sun in Shetland." (p 159)
• "A blackbird shrilled his alarm call from the twisted sycamore at the back of the house." (p 160)
• "I let out a relieved breath that I hadn't known I'd been holding." (p 161)
• "I think you are half-mongoose, like the old English stories by the grandfather f the man who makes the cakes." (p 193)
• "A west Highlands-style burn tumbled down the hill, wooded by spiky-branched electricity pylons." (p 201)
• "The yellow boots fidgeted like a pony who's been asked to stand still." (p 214)

Some of the chapters are introduced by a Shetland proverb of which my favourites were (which I have translated into English):

• A silk Monday makes a canvas week.
• The stone that lies not in your path breaks not your toes. (Mind your own business)
• It's not for the rabbit's good to be over friendly with weasels
• What's foreborne should always be forsworn
• He's the main string of the fiddle
• Angry folk are always worse than angry cattle
• Seldom comes a dove from a crow's nest

A wonderful book. July 2017; 327 pages

The brilliant books in this series, in order, include:

• Death on a Shetland Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders (Buried in a Shetland Tomb)
• A Handful of Ash (The Shetland Night Killings)
• The Body in the Bracken (Grave of a Shetland Sailor)
• Ghosts of the Vikings (The Shetland Poisonings)
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders
• A Shetland Winter Mystery
• Death in a Shetland Lane
• Death at a Shetland Festival

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Death on a Longship" by Marsali Taylor

Chronologically the first Cassandra Lynch murder mystery. The first one I read was the third in the series: "A Handful of Ash" which is brilliant. I have now also read another stunner: the second in the series: The Trowie Mound Murders

Cass arrives back in Shetland as skipper of a replica long boat being used to make a film about Vikings; the star is doubled in the action scenes by her own twin sister who is having an affair with Cassie's dad who wants to cover Shetland with wind turbines. When Cass discovers a body on board her ship whodunnit? Was it someone from the film, or someone wanting to sabotage the film, or a wind farm protester, of Cassie's dad? And why had Cassie's handsome Norwegian shipmate deserted his watch on the night of the murder?

And will Cass, haunted by the death of a boyfriend, ever get a man?

My only problem with this book is that I read it out of order. When you have a series with long-running characters it is difficult to maintain a full list of suspects: those that appear in later books are more or less ruled out as the killer in an earlier book.

The wonderful thing about Marsali Taylor's work isn't the lyrical descriptions of Shetland scenery or the cleverly constructed plot but the reality of the characters. Cass is a character to whom we can all relate: coping with unparently parents, haunted by the past, half envying the settled life of her married friends but lured by the freedom of the sea, attracted to others but unwilling to commit. The only character I hated was Kenneth, the teacher (I used to be a teacher), about whom nothing good can be said: even he must have had a redeeming feature!

Some fantastic moments of misdirection too. I loved the Anders/ Michael relationship.

I have to source book 2.

Some great lines

• "His nose was slightly skafe, as if he had fallen out of too many trees in his youth." (p 7) Who needs to have a translation? I just wondered if it was related to 'skew-whiff'.
• "It wasn't a propitious week, with the silver disk of the moon draining away." (p 10)
• "His sour mouth stretched into what, for him, could pass as a smile." (p 70)
• "Her gaze drifted over my shoulder again, then sharpened to flint." (p 70)
• "He had that annoying teacher's habit of repeating everything." (p 74)
• "I heard their penguin cackle echo round the room." (p 100)
• "I'd been too busy looking at rigging to distinguish ropes." (p 125)
• "If you left him alone to work at his own pace, you could bet your last mooring rope on his answer." (p 127)
• "That is like saying you do not need to listen to music. You will not die without it, but you may want to listen. Life is much more full with it." (p 136)
• "He had the makings of a very good sailor if he managed to stay undrowned." (p 177)

An excellent book.

The brilliant books in this series, in order, include:

• Death on a Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders
• A Handful of Ash
• The Body in the Bracken
• Ghosts of the Vikings
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God