Raven Black (Shetland Book 1) - Ann Cleeves

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance. 

The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gase on one man - loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst. 

As the write up tells you Catherine Ross is a young 16 year old girl who is found strangled on Hillhead next to the house in which resides Magnus Tait.  Magnus Tait is an old man now, he was always considered a loner and a bit slow. He was linked to the disappearance of another young girl Catriona Bruce some years before and although he was questioned he was never charged.  Now the body of Catherine Ross has been found the community are immediately suspicious that Magnus Tait is responsible.  Jimmy Perez however is not convinced and continues to investigate. 

I have been a follower of the Shetland tv series since series 3 and always wondered what the background story to Jimmy Perez and Duncan Hunter was, including wanting to know which one of the them was the biological father to Cassie and who was the step-father. It was seeing Ann Cleeves announce the release of the eighth and final book in the Shetland series that got me to thinking I should really read the books.  

As I haven't actually seen series one of the tv series I did wonder how different the books would be as they always seem to make subtle changes from the book to what you see on the screen. Although characterised a little differently to that of the character portrayed by Douglas Henshall, Jimmy Perez is definitely the central character to the book  and I found myself immediately immersed within the story. You get a sense of all the characters and just when you think you have it all worked out comes the twist in the story which has been so cleverly written by Ann Cleeves.  I will definitely continue to make my way through all eight books but with the fifth series being filmed I may stagger my reading so that I don't spoil the story line for myself when the new series come back to our screens. 

I had't read any other Ann Cleeves novels before but I think I will be adding her to my list of authors and will also be looking at reading the Vera Stanhope series too. 

Mx