White Nights by Ann Cleeves

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong Language, Mostly off page sex scene


It’s midsummer in the Shetland Islands, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws an elaborate party to launch an exhibition of her work at The Herring House, a gallery on the beach.

The party ends in farce when one the guests, a mysterious Englishman, bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter, and Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that the man has been murdered.

This is the second book in the Shetland Island series, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one, although this one took a little bit longer to pull me into the story. There's something about the bleakness of the islands as the backdrop of the mystery that I really like about this series. The characters are ok, but it has taken me a little longer to feel attached to them, than I would normally have liked. I do like the main character, and that we are getting to peel back details of his past little by little, but I'm not as fond of the woman he is dating as I would like to be. That being said, the most important thing, is that the mystery keeps me intrigued, and so far that has been the case in both books. I'm hoping the next book is just as good.