BLUE LIGHTNING

TITLE: BLUE LIGHTNING

AUTHOR: ANN CLEEVES

Pages: 357

Date: 12/10/2010

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 4 Shetland Quartet

Library

Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez travels to the Fair Isle with his fiancée Fran to introduce her to his parents. He expects the days there to be difficult, and they are, but not for the reasons he feared.

Fran and his parents get on very well from the start. However, shortly after the couple arrive on the island the woman who runs the local bird observatory is murdered, her body left with bird feathers decorating her hair.

With the Fair Isles being ravaged by violent storms and isolated from the rest of Shetland, Jimmy has to start the investigation into the murder on his own. And from the start he can’t help fearing that more deaths might follow. A fear that is soon proved right. Jimmy faces a difficult investigation that he has to solve before more victims fall.

I love the way Ann Cleeves makes the setting of her books a character in her mysteries. The surroundings are almost as important to the stories as the characters are, and described in such a vivid way that you can see the view, feel the cold and wind and experience the isolation of the place.

The mystery in this book is well plotted, the clues are there and the solution makes perfect sense when presented.

The only thing in this book that I didn’t like was the climax at the end. For obvious reasons I can’t say what that climax entailed, but I do feel that it wasn’t necessary for the story to end the way it did. I would have felt better after finishing the book if it had ended differently. But maybe that’s just me.