Raven Black

Ann Cleeves' 2006 novel Raven Black received the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for finest crime fiction of the year. Raven Black is the first of Cleeves' "Shetland" mysteries, a series of eight novels divided into two quartets set in Shetland. Ann Cleeves' Raven Black, winner of Britain's famous Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, presents a scintillating suspense series to US mystery lovers.

It's a frigid January morning, and Shetland is covered with snow. Fran Hunter is trudging home when her attention is pulled to a burst of color on the icy ground, ravens hovering overhead. Catherine Ross, her adolescent neighbor, has been strangled. The calm island's residents are fixated on one man—loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. When investigator Jimmy Perez and his mainland colleagues insist on expanding the probe, the entire village is shrouded in suspicion and terror. Catherine's neighbors lock their doors warily for the first time in years, as a murderer lurks in their midst. Raven Black has a strong sense of location and eloquently conveys the struggle between old and new ideals that pervade the novel's secluded island community.

Detailed information:
Author: Ann Cleeves
Genre: Mystery, fiction, cultural, thriller
Published: 2006
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/58702748