Red Bones

I rate this book a solid 4 stars. The cover classes it as a thriller, but I thought it was more of a mystery than a thriller. A woman named Mima is killed one night on Whalsay Island, part of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. At first it is thought to be an accident, because a neighbor was out shooting rabbits at midnight in fog and accidentally shot her. But DI Jimmie Perez suspects that there is more to this and keeps digging. A second person is found dead, possibly suicide. Perez does solve the case,but the killer is not revealed until near the end, and the author left enough false clues, that I wasn’t sure of the who or why until it all came together at the end.
Anne Cleeves writes descriptive books. This series, set in the Shetlands, is best read in order, as I have been doing. Perez is identified as a “Black Shetlander,”i.e. descended form a shipwrecked Spanish Armada sailor in 1588.
Some quotes:
Mima’s house: “Her house was tucked into the hill and you came on it very suddenly.”
Evelyn Wilson, describing university students working on an archaeological dig: “The two lasses from the university were there. What nice wee girls they are, although I think that Hattie could do with a bit of feeding up.. She’s a skinny little thing. All eyes and bone.”
Perez thinking about his boss, the Procurator Fiscal: “He found it hard to explain the role of the Fiscal to English colleagues. Even Fran couldn’t grasp it. ‘But what does she do?’ Perez always said that she was a cross between a magistrate and a prosecuting lawyer, but Fran didn’t even get that.” Jimmie is in a relationship with Fran, an English woman.
I read this library book in 4 days.

In the Shetland Isles, some secrets stay buried for centuries. In an archaeological dig on Whalsay Island, students discover the remains of a medieval merchant’s hime, along with some bones. Much to everyone’s surprise, one of those bones is much more recent.

At the same time, on a dark night, an old woman is shot and killed, presumably in a hunting accident. She owns the land where the dig is taking place, and noone seems to question the wuestion the circumstances of her death. But when one of the students working on the dig is found dead of what appears to be suicide, Jimmy Perez must unravel a series of secrets and lies going back to WWII, when boats and operatives were ferried to Nazi occupied Norway on the “Shetland Bus.”

Ann Cleeves crafts another intricate but compulsively readable mystery with Red Bones. Her characters twist and turn as much as the plot, navigating the tightly woven boundaries and networks of the island communities. There is something fascinating about a world where everyone knows one another, have ties and connections going back centuries. There are nuances and shades of conduct that imbue the story with a flavor you don’t find in settings populated with strangers

This is a mystery that comes apart like a Fair Isle sweater. As Detective Perez unpicks the threads and unwinds the details, the reader becomes enmeshed in the atmosphere and settles into the big reveal with a sense of warmth and satisfaction.

Love all of her books!