Thin Air

March 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 1, 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).

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2015
Many elements conspire to make the latest entry in Cleeves' Shetland series absolutely engrossing, including a combination ghost story and mystery, a multilayered main character, and a perfect atmosphere for misdirection and murder. In this seventh in the series set on Scotland's Shetland Islands, a group of London friends trek to Unst, the northernmost Shetland Island, to attend a hamefarin (roughly equivalent to a wedding reception) of one of the women in their group. One of the Londoners, Eleanor, has the added incentive of filming a documentary about an alleged island ghost, a little girl who drowned almost 100 years ago. A little girl in white is indeed spotted by at least one other guest, appearing in the tricky light of the long Scottish midsummer's night but then suddenly vanishing. Eleanor, too, seems to disappear into thin air after the reception. Inspector Jimmy Perez looks into what might have made Eleanor run offuntil her body is discovered. Working with the equally complex and surprisingly funny DI Willow Reeves of the Inverness Serious Crimes Squad, Perez, haunted by his memories of his recently deceased fiancee, must force himself to confront the death of another young woman to find the killer. This nicely detailed procedural and rich character study pairs beautifully with Peter May's Lewis trilogy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)