Wild Fire

July 1, 2018
A long look into the dynamics of a troubled family is needed to solve several murders.Inspector Jimmy Perez is intrigued when he gets a visit from Helena Fleming, a newcomer to the Shetland Isles who's well-known as a designer of garments featuring Shetland wool. The local man from whom Helena and her husband had purchased their house hanged himself in the barn after he landed in dire financial straits, causing not only consternation but a certain resentment among the locals. Now Helena has received little images of gallows and hanged men written on bits of graph paper and is concerned about the effect they might have on her autistic son, Christopher, who's already being taunted by some other children. Because his dead lover, Fran, was an artist and he helps care for her daughter, Jimmy is sympathetic to Helena's plight. But it takes the discovery of Emma Shearer, a friend's nanny who's found dead in the Flemings' barn, to kick the investigation into high gear. When Jimmy's boss, Willow Reeves, arrives from the mainland and reveals that she's pregnant by Jimmy, their fragile, complex relationship is shattered by his inability to come to terms with her news. Instead, he and his team focus on unearthing motives for Emma's strangling. Emma had to deal with a boyfriend whose protective mother hated her, the not-totally-unwelcome attentions of Helena's infatuated husband, and her problems with at least the two older Moncrieff children, whose welfare had been left almost entirely in her hands while their parents pursued their own interests. The deeper the detectives dig into Emma's unfortunate past and those of their suspects, the more convoluted and difficult the case becomes.Fans disappointed to see the last of Cleeves' hero will be happy to know that the final case in this complex, character-driven series (Cold Earth, 2017, etc.) is a tour de force.

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Starred review from July 9, 2018
In CWA Diamond Dagger–winner Cleeves’s excellent eighth Shetland Island mystery (after 2017’s Cold Earth), designer Helena Fleming and her family have settled in a remote community on Shetland, where she has become a local celebrity by using “Shetland wool to create garments that were shown at London Fashion Week.” One day, Helena is dismayed to find a crude drawing tucked inside a copy of the Shetland Times depicting a gallows. Soon afterward, her 11-year-old son discovers the body of their neighbor’s young nanny, Emma Shearer, hanging from a beam in their byre. Det. Insp. Jimmy Perez, who initially takes charge of what could be a murder case, calls in a crime team from Inverness, which includes his occasional lover, Willow Reeves, who brings emotional complications to the investigation. A number of local residents appear to have had some sort of an ax to grind with Emma, and several suspects emerge. Intricately plotted and elegantly written, this installment is billed as Perez’s final case. Series fans will be sorry to see the last of him. Agent: Sarah Menguc, Sarah Menguc Literary Agent (U.K.).

Starred review from August 1, 2018

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot: to make an end is to make a beginning. Jimmy Perez, Cleeves's brooding Shetland Islands police officer, returns for his final compelling case (after Cold Earth). A family new to the islands has been subjected to poison-pen letters. The son then finds a young woman--a nanny to another family in the area--hanged in their old barn. The death is deemed suspicious, and DCI Willow Reeves, Perez's boss, is dispatched from Inverness to lead the investigation. Soon another body is recovered. Life is complicated for Perez, who blames himself for the murder of his beloved girlfriend and now has growing admiration for Reeves, who's just arrived with shocking news for him. As the dense Shetland fog shrouds the islands, the pair work to unravel decades of secrets and cruelty to catch a murderer. VERDICT Throughout the "Shetland Island" series, Cleeves lovingly depicts the Scottish island life, and this volume is no exception. Fans may be saddened but certainly not disappointed by this final installment. [See Prepub Alert, 3/12/18.]--Penelope J.M. Klein, Fayetteville, NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018

The good news: here's the next in Diamond Dagger Award Winner Cleeves's beloved "Shetland Island" series starring Inspector Jimmy Perez. The bad news: it's the finale. Designer Helena Fleming and her architect husband have remade their lives by moving with their children to a distant corner of the Shetlands. Then Helena starts receiving spooky hanged-man-and-gallows drawings.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.