by Ann Cleeves
First published 2006
Magnus Tait spends New Year's Eve alone in his house, hoping for visitors who will never arrive. The solitary man has become an outcast in his Shetland Islands community. When morning breaks, someone discovers the corpse of a teenage girl near his home. The locals immediately suspect Magnus of the killing. Inspector Jimmy Perez takes on the case and begins investigating the crime. His search for answers pulls him into the buried secrets of Shetland's history. The deeper Perez digs, the more he uncovers truths that the islanders have kept hidden for years. The investigation becomes a journey through the community's past, revealing connections that stretch back further than anyone expected. Perez must navigate between the present crime and historical mysteries to find the real killer. The case forces him to confront how the past shapes the present in this tight-knit island society.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, brooding, dark, gritty, introspective, suspenseful
Tropes: buried-secrets, outsider-detective, past-shapes-present, unreliable-suspect
Setting: Shetland Islands
Period: New Year's Eve, Contemporary
390 pages · Paperback · Pan
Content warnings: death, murder