Raven Black (Shetland Quartet 1) by Ann Cleeves

[Lumo]

Raven Black (Shetland Quartet 1) by Ann Cleeves

 

Genre: Modern Crime fiction - set in Shetland

 

 

Synopsis from Amazon:

 

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter

[Ruth]

Yes, I've read it. I thought it was excellent, although I totally agree with your spoiler.

 

I have the next one in the series on my tbr mountain, but I know people who have read the whole series and say it gets better with each book.

 

Apparently they're making it into s tv series too:)

[nicx27]

I've read it too and thought it was a great read, although I know what you mean about some of the characterisations missing something.. I felt the second in the series, White Nights, was even better though. I have the third one to read at the moment from the library.

[willoyd]

I enjoyed it too - the plotting worked very successfully for me. In terms of characterisation, I said this in a review I wrote at the time:

 

Cleeves tells much of the story through internal dialogue, and we see the story from the perspective of four of the characters....Using their viewpoints also develops their personalities nicely and naturally. Others are drawn in somewhat paler outline, but sufficiently to move the story along. Not just paler, but also harsher. I was amazed at how virtually every parent/child relationship amongst the islanders seemed problematic, and at the lack of any 'normal' adult relationship; you could come away from a book like this thinking that Shetland family life was seriously dysfunctional. And are all Shetlanders so alienated from school, fellow students and their teachers? Or is it that Ms Cleeves is primarily interested in loners? Whatever, this felt a bit heavy handed.

 

In summary, I thought this a well crafted story, good enough that I look forward to trying the next one out in the series. I have to admit it felt perhaps a little bit too heavily crafted, marginally too carefully worked, to rank as a great read, but definitely worth exploring further to see how the series develops.

[Lumo]

Interesting to hear that at least some of the later ones are good too.

 

Also interesting about it being made into a TV series, I will try and read them before they are made, if it is on TV before I have read them despite not really wanting to I will probably end up watching the programmes before having read them all.