A review by bethpeninger
Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves

3.0

It's time for Jimmy to introduce Fran to his home island of Fair Isle. Jimmy's mom jumps at the opportunity to throw Fran and Jimmy an engagement party to welcome Fran and celebrate their impending marriage. All of the local characters turn out not just to celebrate Jimmy and Fran but to let loose a little. The revelry includes the staff and visitors of the bird-watching group that works on the island. When the night ends with the murder of the director of the center, Jimmy is the only one qualified and available to begin investigating the death. What's clear is the murderer is a bird-watcher, either staff or visitor, and it's up to Jimmy to figure out who it is. When another body is found, Jimmy starts to worry that he's not going to be able to stop the body count from rising until help can get to the island. The weather, as usual, is a factor in the investigation. Meanwhile, Fran is "stuck" with Jimmy's parents and bored out of her mind, and one of the bird-watching visitors sees a rare bird for the first time ever in this part of the world, causing a rush of press and visitors to the island, threatening to muck up the murder investigation. As all the pieces of this murder puzzle begin to fit together, Jimmy sees who the murderer is and is desperate to keep Fran out of the picture.

This particular title felt tedious to me. The isolation of the Shetland Islands and the specific isolation of the outer islands, like Fair Isle, is starting to get to me as a reader. Despite that "criticism," this is another solid addition to the series, although the ending shocked me. I didn't believe what I had read at first. I thought I had misunderstood, so I had to reread it and sit with it for a moment. As a viewer of the TV series, I find it interesting to see how the book series was transformed into a TV series - what elements the writers took from the books and changed them for TV.