When teenage girl Catherine Ross is found murdered in Shetland, suspicion immediately falls upon loner Magnus Tait. Residents of the secluded village of Ravenswick have not forgotten another young girl who disappeared eight years earlier and who was never found. Magnus had been arrested - although never charged - for that crime. In this instance, the dead girl had only moved to Shetland six months earlier and was considered something of an outsider. Inspector Jimmy Perez is the Officer assigned to the case, together with a team from Inverness. Perez, who is also considered an outsider of sorts, due to his name and swarthy appearance is determined to get to the bottom of the matter, and doesn't want to simply blame the most obvious suspect without proper proof.

As he digs deeper into the lives of the residents and starts to uncover secrets, it soon becomes clear that there are several people who may have had the motive and opportunity to kill Catherine...

This is the first in a series of four books set in Shetland and featuring Inspector Perez. I enjoyed it greatly and will definitely be reading the three further books. The writing flowed easily and I did genuinely find the book hard to put down.

There were several characters who I felt could have been the prospective murderer, but it did keep me guessing until the very end. As one would expect there were red herrings and a few subtle clues thrown in along the way - but knowing which was which was not easy!

I have not been Shetland so couldn't say how accurate the portrayal of life there was. However, the book certainly created an atmosphere of isolation and mistrust, and painted a picture of a place where everyone thought they knew everyone else's business.

I have to say that the characterisation was not brilliant. Perez is well drawn and a very likeable character, but apart from that the character who was brought most vividly to life was ironically, Catherine Ross. Most of the other characters were rather stereotyped, especially the males. However, this is definitely a plot driven, rather than character driven book, and the plot was enough to keep me hooked! I did not predict the ending at all, although I thought I had on a number of occasions!

Despite the subject, this was an absorbing read and one that it would be easy to lose yourself in for a few hours. Recommended, especially to fans of crime fiction. ( )

I found it difficult to finish this book. None of the characters appealed to me, the plot "twists" were rather predictable, and except for the Shetland Island setting - which was not described well enough in my opinion - the story was nothing new. I truly don't understand why it won an award!
Magnus Tait is a typical small village outcast and too obvious suspect. Jimmy Perez is the typical outsider policeman in a small village, trying to decide whether to stay or go. The women, teens and children are cardboard cutouts, without much personality except through the voices of others.
This book needs more of the "show it, don't tell it" type of writing. ( )

Set in the Shetland Islands, this is a well written mystery about a teenage girl who is found strangled. The town implicates Magnus who is somewhat impaired because several years ago a young girl went missing and he was the main suspect The detective handling the case is a very nice guy and with the help of another detective from out of time solves the case. ( )

There are two facts I must convey to you before reviewing the book. One: I am extremely uncomfortable, to the point of pain, around people with cognitive and/or communicative disorders or inabilities. Two: I was the object of my pedophile mother's sexual interest until I was fifteen.

Unsurprisingly, these aren't the sorts of themes I find enjoyable to find in my leisure reading. "Raven Black" has both! I was thinking seriously of abandoning the read, just quietly taking the book back to the library and forgetting it existed. Cleeves managed to make that an undesirable option, and in doing so, made it possible for me to hold a very unflattering mirror up to my character.

The younger of my two grandsons is autistic. It is extremely hard for his mother to cope with the demands of two active, intelligent, communicative children plus an active, intelligent, uncommunicative one. I don't know how she does it. I would be incapable of doing one-third what she does, with (at long last) support and help from her (second) husband.

Magnus Tait, one of our POV characters, is cognitively impaired. It was *horrible* for me to read the sections of text told from his POV because I could not bear to be in this close contact with him. It made me think of the helpless inability I feel when confronted with my autistic grandson...that sense of having nothing of myself to offer, of withdrawal from avoidable contact...no one can tell me the boy isn't aware of it, and while Magnus isn't autistic, it was a close-enough situation, and to know from the inside what chill and distance feels like...well, how awful, how awful to know it, feel it, and be unable to *understand* it.

At least I understand. But funnily enough, that fails to make it better. It makes it worse.

Pedophilia is present in several characters, no spoilers so no names, and the object of desire's POV is used in the story as well. It's unbelieveable to me that Cleeves can recreate the unmixed-but-unsettled feelings of a child who holds that kind of intoxicating, terrifying, inappropriate power over an adult. I hope not, for her sake, but I felt "takes one to know one" so many times in reading certain parts of the book.

The thriller aspects of the book were nicely done, though as an old hand I pegged the murderer and motive fairly early on...but, discomfitingly, I found that I wanted the truth not to be what I knew, but what my prejudices drooled over.

I recommend this book to the unsqueamish. It's strong stuff. Nothing that happens in it is gratuitous. The guilty, and I mean those morally guilty, are punished severely. There is a bleak pleasure in that. ( )

The first book in The Shetland Island Quartet a mystery series set on the islands. This book is set during the brutal winter with little light. It is a choice for a RL book group.

The characters are well done, the setting is fascinating and the story is interesting. I thought the writing flowed. I ended up reading it very quickly.

The story is of the murder of a teenage girl. She is found strangled on a hillside. It is near the home of the island outcast. He is an old man with limited mental abilities. He is also suspected of the murder of a 10 year old girl when she disappeared after visiting his mother, 20 years ago. There was not enough evidence to charge him, but in the minds of the islanders he is guilty.

The story follows Policeman Jimmy Perez as he tries to find the killer of the teenager. He tries to keep an open mind, and investigate what happened, not just frame Magnus.

Jimmy is dark, and not of Viking stock, though he and his family are Shetlanders. Supposedly he had an ancestor from the Spanish Armada who swam ashore on Fair Isle. He had to board on the main isle when he was in high school, and he knows what it means to be thought an outcast.

There are police specialists from Inverness who have to be called in for their scientific skills and the joint force takes on the investigation. Jimmy has to make sure the team works together and doesn't compete, and end up fighting each other.

The story is about the murder, but it also looks at the small group of people involved, their lives, pasts, and connections. It looks at how they all know each other's business and are trying to live with their difficulties. It is very interesting and you really think they are real people.

The first murder of the 10 year old girl is also opened up when her body is found as well.

I went on to read the next book in the series immediately after this one. ( )