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marko68 's review for:
Red Bones: the Shetland Series 3
by Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves is a really solid author. Having focused only on the Shetland series (apart from the first I quite like her style of writing, it’s not too cliche and there is sufficient of the landscape and history of the area to add interest and to enable Shetland to be another integral character to the cast.
Red Bones is the the 3rd in the Shetland series and introduces us to the island of Whalsay, a small close knit island community just east of the main Shetland island. Apart from being a fishing community, we learn that Whalsay was a main trading port for the Hanseatic League. Ships from Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck sailed here every summer, bringing seeds, cloth, iron tools, salt, spirits, luxury goods and hard currency.
We are also introduced to the Shetland Bus, a regular transport system developed during WW2 between the UK and Norway, also providing an escape life-line for refugees and fugitives.
Cleeves weaves this historical fiction into a modern day mystery with Lerwick based policeman and Whalsay local, Sandy Wilson, at the front and centre with Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez close behind.
While the historical elements of the location certainly feature, they could have been delved into more deeply in my opinion and certainly to my liking. I love nothing more than going between modern day and history, two narratives overlapping and making sense of one another. Red Bones is ripe for this but clearly that was not Cleeves purpose and intent in writing, which I completely understand having read the previous two books in the series.
I love that this series has introduced me to this remote part of Scotland. Yearning to visit now… 4 stars.
Red Bones is the the 3rd in the Shetland series and introduces us to the island of Whalsay, a small close knit island community just east of the main Shetland island. Apart from being a fishing community, we learn that Whalsay was a main trading port for the Hanseatic League. Ships from Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck sailed here every summer, bringing seeds, cloth, iron tools, salt, spirits, luxury goods and hard currency.
We are also introduced to the Shetland Bus, a regular transport system developed during WW2 between the UK and Norway, also providing an escape life-line for refugees and fugitives.
Cleeves weaves this historical fiction into a modern day mystery with Lerwick based policeman and Whalsay local, Sandy Wilson, at the front and centre with Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez close behind.
While the historical elements of the location certainly feature, they could have been delved into more deeply in my opinion and certainly to my liking. I love nothing more than going between modern day and history, two narratives overlapping and making sense of one another. Red Bones is ripe for this but clearly that was not Cleeves purpose and intent in writing, which I completely understand having read the previous two books in the series.
I love that this series has introduced me to this remote part of Scotland. Yearning to visit now… 4 stars.