Category: Mystery

Book Review – White Nights by Ann Cleeves

Genre: Fiction; Mystery; Crime

Note: There are NO spoilers in this review. When discussing in the comments, please provide a spoiler warning if needed.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

There’s something so special about a novel that makes you feel like you’re sitting next to a campfire listening to someone tell you a story. And that’s what White Nights by Ann Cleeves feels like. It’s a comfy crime novel without too much drama but just enough twists and unexpected reveals to make it a novel to remember. 

White Nights is the second novel in the Shetland Island series. Again we follow Inspector Jimmy Perez. The launch of his soon-to-be girlfriend’s art exhibition leads to questions as a strange man appears, causes a scene, and disappears into the night. The next morning, when his body is found in the boat house nearby, the murder investigation begins. 

This novel is set in Shetland during a time of year when the sun never fully sets, putting it’s residents and visitors on edge. While those who live in Shetland year-round are more accustomed, a detective visiting from the mainland can’t get a handle of the constant daylight. Throughout the novel we see his anxiety rise and tensions become more strained. While this doesn’t have a huge impact on the investigation for Inspector Perez, it adds a nice dynamic to the novel.

“The winters were so bleak and black that in the summer folk were overtaken with a kind of frenzy, constant activity. There was the feeling that you had to make the most of it, be outside, enjoy it before the dark days came again. Here in Shetland they called it the ‘simmer dim’.”

Ann Cleeves, White Nights

Inspector Perez has lived in Shetland his whole life, and this allows us to gain an insight into the characters of the story we wouldn’t otherwise have. We learn about the strange, intricate relationships of these people who have known each other their whole lives. These personal relationships are ultimately what helps Jimmy read through the lines and solve the case.

The slow and steady pace of following a detective around town as he interviews witnesses, suspects, or anyone else who might know something is so comforting and peaceful to me. I settled into a cadence and just let the rhythm carry me through the pages. 

This kind of novel is where I go when I need a break from the dramatic, emotional, and over-the-top. It isn’t for everyone, but if you crave an escape and somewhere to turn your brain off and just disappear for a while – Ann Cleeves is the author for you. 

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What I’m Reading – White Nights by Ann Cleeves

I picked up my first Ann Cleeves novel, Raven Black, a few years ago, and I was hooked. She really knows how to write a crime novel. So when it was time to pick up my next book, White Nights was an easy selection.

I’m in the process of reading every book on my to-be read (TBR) cart and wanted a small break from the usual fantasy novels I read. I quickly read through Verity by Colleen Hoover (so quickly that I didn’t have time to write a “What I’m Reading” post for it) and wanted a little more thriller/crime before I returned to the fantasy world.

Ann Cleeves is a brilliant writer and an excellent story teller, so I knew White Nights would pull me in. I was right. From the moment I picked up the second book in the Shetland Mysteries series, I’ve wanted to keep reading.

If you enjoy crime/thriller novels and haven’t read anything by Ann Cleeves yet, I highly suggest you add her to your list. You won’t be disappointed.

Also, for those who enjoy a good thriller novel but have a distaste for the violent and graphic content that often comes along with those – Ann Cleeves is a great author for you. While there is violence and death it’s never described in a graphic or terrifying way.

Synopsis

It’s midsummer in Shetland, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets.

Artist Bella Sinclair throws a party to launch an exhibition of her work and to introduce the paintings of Fran Hunter. The Herring House, the gallery where the exhibition is held, is on the beach at Biddista, in the remote north west of the island. When a mysterious Englishman bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from, the evening ends in farce. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter in a boathouse on the jetty, a clown’s mask on his face.

Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that this is a local murder. A second murder Biddista only reinforces this belief. But the detective’s relationship with Fran Hunter clouds his judgement. And this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.

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#FemaleAuthorFriday – Ann Cleeves

I’m standing at my bookshelf, trying to decide who’s next for #FemaleAuthorFriday, and select Ann Cleeves because I loved her novel Raven Black.

I walk back to my computer and enter her name into Google. Holy shit … she’s written like 30 books and even has a few television show adaptations under her belt. I’ve had a treasure trove of crime novels waiting to be read and I had NO clue. I’m a terrible book nerd.

One could say my TBR just grew quite a bit. 

Ann Cleeves has had an amazing career. From being the first recipient of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for Raven Black to being awarded the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association, the highest honour in British crime writing – she’s done it all. You can read her full biography here on her website. 

It’s been a few years since I read Raven Black, but I remember being at the beach with my family and unable to put the novel down. I flew through it. I’m sometimes overly critical of thrillers and crime novels, especially if I can accurately predict the ending, but this one had me on my toes until the end. 

Thanks to this post, I’ve learned that this novel is the first in the Shetland Series, so I’ll be running to the bookstore after writing this. 

For my last post I provided the synopsis for all of Lisa Maxwell’s novels, but I don’t think I want to sit here and pull the overview for 30 books. I also don’t think you really care to read all of that. So I’ve selected the four main books from the Shetland Series. 

For Ann Cleeve’s full catalog, check out her Goodreads Author Profile.

Raven Black (Shetland Island #1)

Raven Black begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.

White Nights (Shetland Island #2)

It’s midsummer in the Shetland Islands, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws an elaborate party to launch an exhibition of her work at The Herring House, a gallery on the beach.

The party ends in farce when one of the guests, a mysterious Englishman, bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter, and Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that the man has been murdered. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella’s musician nephew, is murdered, too.

But the detective’s relationship with Fran Hunter may have clouded his judgment, for this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.

Red Bones (Shetland Island #3)

An island shrouded in mist and a community with secrets buried in the past . . .

When a young archaeologist studying on a site at Whalsay discovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient find – or a more contemporary mystery?

Then an elderly woman is shot in a tragic accident in the middle of the night. Shetland detective Jimmy Perez is called in by her grandson – his own colleague, Sandy Wilson.

The sparse landscape and the emptiness of the sea have bred a fierce and secretive people. Mima Wilson was a recluse. She had her land, her pride and her family. As Jimmy looks to the islanders for answers, he finds instead two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness have lasted generations.

Surrounded by people he doesn’t know and in unfamiliar territory, Jimmy finds himself out of his depth. Then there’s another death and, as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists, Jimmy must dig up old secrets to stop a new killer from striking again . . .

Blue Lightning (Shetland Island #4)

Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to the Fair Isles to introduce his fiancee, Fran, to his parents. When a woman’s body is discovered at the renowned Fair Isles bird observatory, Jimmy must investigate the old-fashioned way.”

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Book Review – Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Genre: Fiction; Mystery; Thriller

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Note: There are NO spoilers in this review. When discussing in the comments, please provide a spoiler warning if needed. 

Over the past two weeks I have found it very difficult to write this review. Not because I don’t have a lot to say, I have many things to say. I’m so good at being excited and passionate. I’m not very good at sharing negative feedback on the books I read. 

While browsing 2nd and Charles, I came across Chevy Stevens’s debut novel and knew immediately I wanted to read it. I really enjoyed her novels Those Girls and Never Let You Go. I have one requirement for thriller/mystery novels – I want a surprise ending or revelation. In the two novels I read previously, the “big reveal” was flawlessly executed but, unfortunately, this one fell short. (Or perhaps I was used to her twists enough that they were easier to spot.)

The style of the book really stood out and had me hooked right away. The narrator/main character, Annie O’Sullivan, recounts her abduction and what came after to her therapist. It’s a style I haven’t read before and I really enjoyed it at the start of the novel. Definitely a creative way to allow the narrator to tell us what happened to them. In this story, it allows for more honesty than might have been present if Annie were talking to someone else like a close friend or family member. 

For me, once we move past the story of Annie’s abduction, the one-way conversation with her therapist starts to feel a little off. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I think at the point where she stops talking about what happened to her and starts discussing the daily events happening in her life it loses some of the genuine feeling. I want a real-time account of everything that was unfolding, not a calm and collecting re-telling more than a week later. 

Here is this woman, who was kidnapped and etcetera (I promised no spoilers) and she’s just calmly sitting there talking about it with her therapist. Her world is literally falling to pieces, even after she comes home, and the experience is too clean. It’s all too easy. 

From the moment she escapes (not a spoiler, she starts off talking to her therapist and immediately mentions that it’s all past tense) it just all feels too clean. 

And then, as with every other Chevy Stevens novel, the victim effortlessly loses herself in the arms of a man with a savior complex? Nope. Too easy. Too clean. 

All of that to say – I finished the book. I stayed up late reading and hoping for a BOOM kind of ending. Toward the end when I started to realize what was happening and how events were unfolding, my reading slowed. There was so much build-up, so much potential, but at the end I felt like the story took the easy way out. I wanted to be surprised, but turning the final pages I only felt disappointment. 

If you are going to read a novel by Chevy Stevens, I recommend Never Let You Go as a first. It has everything you want in a thriller. 

Buy Still Missing by Chevy Stevens at my local bookstore here, Scrawl Books (Reston, VA). 

Have you read Still Missing or other novels by Chevy Stevens? Let’s talk about it! Leave a comment or send me a message.

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