White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #2)****

Reading dates: 26 December 2020 – 18 January 2021

I really don’t understand how come I did not like Raven Black, when I am really loving Ann Cleeves’ Shetland Island quartet (which comprises, so far, eight novels). Like with the TV series, I love the landscape, the island-ness of the cases and the communities this creates. All the mysteries I have read have a locked room quality and I am also discerning a seasonal change.

White Nights refer to the light in the summer, when it is never fully dark. I can sleep through most things (noise, light, worry …) but the characters do mention how disturbing the lack of night is for their rest. I wish there was a bit more of the summer in it, the outside, the food, the temperature … Somehow this Jimmy and the one in Blue Lightning felt the same but I am sure the seasons do affect him. I am a lot more effervescent in summer.

The plot is good and the murders that occur reveal a tension between islanders and incomers which I think is interesting. But the resolution is not quite there for me.

I don’t see the killer as a killer. Motive might be good but practicalities are not, in my experience. Not that I have committed murder, but I know what it takes to move an unconscious body!