White Nights by Ann Cleeves.


White Nights by Ann Cleeves.

"It's the time of year. The light nights. It makes us all go a little bit mad."

Sounds like Shakespeare? A Midsummer Night's Dream? This is Cleeves' second book in the Shetland series. Tourists are streaming ashore in Lerwick, mainly Americans to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of Shetland. In one breath we are told of how safe the place is then we are confronted with a clown wearing a sinister mask giving out flyers as the tourists disembark.
It's midsummer when the birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. It's a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems! Jimmy Perez has his own down-to-earth style of detective work in between pursuing Fran Hunter, his love interest for the past six months. It's still early days and he is treading carefully.


Bella Sinclair, described as being rather unapproachable, intimidating and rich was exhibiting her art work at Herring House with Fran, in Biddista. Perez was there to give Fran moral support. The turn-out was disappointing. Fran felt raw and exposed, she was desperate to have people view her work, take it seriously and appreciate her talent.

Roddy Sinclair, Bella's nephew had been invited to play and entertain the visitors. He had hit the big time and was due to tour Australia. One of the visitors scrutinized one of Bella's self-portraits which was disturbing and exotic. When he looked at Fran's picture of her daughter Cassie on Ravenswick beach there was an outcry, he then fell to his knees and put his hands over his face. He looked "horrified..as if he'd just witnessed an atrocity. Or seen a ghost." Cleeves stresses the white nights and how this stranger's theatrical performance seemed an act of midsummer madness. Perez believes he is suffering from amnesia. He disappears mysteriously. Who is he?

Kenny Thomson was a crofter, married to Edith. He was the one who discovered the body in the hut near the jetty. Initially he thought someone had played a prank on him-a fertiliser sack filled with straw, swinging from the ceiling until he realised it was human: a scarecrow on a gibbet. The corpse was wearing the mask of a clown. Taylor was brought in to work with Perez, an outsider who felt alien being on the island. Taylor was convinced there was a conspiracy, that the islanders knew who the murderer was. Perez tells him that there were people in Biddista who have things to hide.

 Before the first crime is solved we have a second one. Perez and Taylor have their work cut out trying to solve it. Cleeves keeps you guessing to the end in this exciting novel.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Publisher: Pan ISBN: 978-1-4472-7445-2

COPYRIGHT 2018. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.

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