Red Bones by Ann Cleeves

I love this mystery series, set in the Shetland Isles. I love the cold wet climate, the isolation, the sheep. Weird, I know. But even if this setting sounds awful to you, if you are mystery fan, you will enjoy this. Some archeologists find some old bones. But wait, are they really old? Then one archaeologist turns up dead. What’s going on? Turns out, even in a place as peaceful and remote as this, there are people who are hungry for money and power, and who don’t want their secrets revealed.

Cleeves is the author of two previous Shetland mysteries, Raven Black and White Nights, both of which (like this one) feature detective Jimmy Perez. A fourth book, Blue Lightning, is due out in September. Her books are a kind of cross between standard British police procedurals and the darker, more detached style favored by the Scandinavian mystery writers. I’ll be really disappointed if she ends the series with Blue Lightning (which I think is likely, given the fact that Amazon bills them as the “Shetland Quartet”). Darn it.

Red Bones is set on the Shetland island of Whalsay. Here’s a link to a lovely batch of photos of Whalsay.

(Book 37, 2010)