AUGUST 2015 - AudioFile
As a group of old friends travels from London to the Shetland Islands for a wedding, Kenny Blyth’s narration offers convincing mannerisms and personalities for each. Eleanor, a bridesmaid, sees a little girl dancing on the beach. She’s convinced she’s seeing the ghost of a child drowned in the 1920s. Her friends scoff, but her interest is piqued, and she begins inquiring into the century-old mystery. When Eleanor is found dead, Blyth’s portrayals of detectives Perez and Reeves are spot-on, particularly as they begin to suspect that her interest in the “ghost” might have led to her death. A wedding, a ghost, a death, credible suspects, and Kenny Blyth’s performance make the sixth book in Cleeves’s excellent Shetland Islands series a whole lot of fun. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/23/2015
In Cleeves’s exquisitely plotted sixth Shetland mystery (after 2013’s Dead Water), bridesmaid Eleanor Longstaff disappears during a wedding ceremony on the island. When she turns up dead in a shallow loch, Det. Insp. Willow Reeves and colleague Jimmy Perez investigate. The pair have difficulty establishing a motive for murder in the close-knit local community and among the university friends who make up the wedding party, but they soon discover that Eleanor was researching a ghost story for a TV show about Elizabeth Geldard, a young girl who died nearly a hundred years earlier but has been repeatedly spotted dancing on an island beach, in a white dress and ribbons. It becomes increasingly likely that Eleanor’s research led to her demise, and if Willow and Jimmy don’t find the killer, her death may not be the only one. Cleeves deftly explores the complicated personal relationships of the principal characters in this atmospheric installment. Agent: Sarah Menguc, Sarah Menguc Literary Agent (U.K.). (May)
From the Publisher
A riveting read.” —Val McDermid
“Cleeves returns to a sea-bound land of crofters' cottages, barren rocks and fog, especially the fog surrounding the murders...the well-constructed procedural gains another dimension from Jimmy's re-engagement with his work and his life.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Cleeves has an unusually deft hand with characters; not one of them seems purely plot functional, and Perez's character keeps deepening with each book. The rough islands cresting the Atlantic fit the bleakness of the murders depicted here. This series is one of two that Cleeves has going; the other stars Northumberland detective Vera Stanhope and is a hit BBC series.” —Booklist (starred)
“Absorbing...Cleeves keeps readers guessing until the final page.” —Publishers Weekly
Library Journal
05/01/2015
Insp. Jimmy Perez arrives from the Scottish mainland to investigate the disappearance of a young English woman from a wedding party. When her body is found, questions arise over whether her death is suicide or murder. A well-developed police procedural marks Cleeves's sixth "Shetland Mystery" (after Dead Water).
AUGUST 2015 - AudioFile
As a group of old friends travels from London to the Shetland Islands for a wedding, Kenny Blyth’s narration offers convincing mannerisms and personalities for each. Eleanor, a bridesmaid, sees a little girl dancing on the beach. She’s convinced she’s seeing the ghost of a child drowned in the 1920s. Her friends scoff, but her interest is piqued, and she begins inquiring into the century-old mystery. When Eleanor is found dead, Blyth’s portrayals of detectives Perez and Reeves are spot-on, particularly as they begin to suspect that her interest in the “ghost” might have led to her death. A wedding, a ghost, a death, credible suspects, and Kenny Blyth’s performance make the sixth book in Cleeves’s excellent Shetland Islands series a whole lot of fun. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
