Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
I want to make sure readers know, though this is the continuation of Ann Cleeves Jimmy Perez character, it’s not a “Shetland” mystery, the action takes place on Orkney, several miles off the coast of Scotland. I honestly really enjoyed this book–hence the 5 stars–because I think that Cleeves did a great slow burn of bringing us back into Jimmy’s life and how it’s changed, head nods to prior books, but the ability to make you become invested in who killed Archie Stout.
We find Jimmy at a different place in his life (he is with Willow, they have a 4 year-old son and are expecting another child in a few weeks) and just feels content. When someone he considered a brother is found murdered though, Jimmy is thrown and finds himself trying to get to the bottom of who could have killed his friend and why. The book shifts between Jimmy and Willow’s third person points of view as they keep interviewing and narrowing down their suspects.
I thought that Cleeves did a great job of showing us different sides of Jimmy and Willow in this book. They felt the same, but more grown-up. We also get some old characters referenced here and there so the book felt familiar. But moving things out of Shetland where Jimmy knew everyone to them having to deal with parenting their young child and investigating murder was great. Willow is still Jimmy’s superior, but he doesn’t really answer to her, but he does anyway. I liked how these two work and how Willow knows when to push and step back from him now. Their prior dynamic caused a lot of tension in the last few books.
The plot about killing Archie loops in the history of two stones and the island of Orkney to boot. I loved how Cleeves weaved everything together.
The flow of the book really worked and towards the end you get a last minute scare that had me on the edge of my seat. Cleeves is known for killing her darlings so I was really tightly wound until the very end.