I rate this book a solid 4 stars. The cover classes it as a thriller, but I thought it was more of a mystery than a thriller. A woman named Mima is killed one night on Whalsay Island, part of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. At first it is thought to be an accident, because a neighbor was out shooting rabbits at midnight in fog and accidentally shot her. But DI Jimmie Perez suspects that there is more to this and keeps digging. A second person is found dead, possibly suicide. Perez does solve the case,but the killer is not revealed until near the end, and the author left enough false clues, that I wasn't sure of the who or why until it all came together at the end.
Anne Cleeves writes descriptive books. This series, set in the Shetlands, is best read in order, as I have been doing. Perez is identified as a "Black Shetlander,"i.e. descended form a shipwrecked Spanish Armada sailor in 1588.
Some quotes:
Mima's house: "Her house was tucked into the hill and you came on it very suddenly."
Evelyn Wilson, describing university students working on an archaeological dig: "The two lasses from the university were there. What nice wee girls they are, although I think that Hattie could do with a bit of feeding up.. She's a skinny little thing. All eyes and bone."
Perez thinking about his boss, the Procurator Fiscal: "He found it hard to explain the role of the Fiscal to English colleagues. Even Fran couldn't grasp it. 'But what does she do?' Perez always said that she was a cross between a magistrate and a prosecuting lawyer, but Fran didn't even get that." Jimmie is in a relationship with Fran, an English woman.
I read this library book in 4 days.