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Raven Black
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Series: Shetland Island, Book 1
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
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White Nights
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Shetland detective Jimmy Perez finds a body in a hut used by fishermen, it seems to be a straightforward case of suicide. He recognises the victim - a stranger with amnesia who had disrupted a local party the night before his death. Yet this is no desperate act of anguish but the work of a cold and calculating killer. As Perez investigates, he finds himself mired in the hidden secrets of the small Biddista community. Then another body is found. Perez knows he must break the cycle before another death occurs. But this is a crazy time of year, when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems....
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Red Bones
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident, Shetland detective Jimmy Perez is called to investigate the mystery. The sparse landscape and the emptiness of the sea have bred a fierce and secretive people. As Jimmy looks to the islanders for answers, he finds instead two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness have lasted generations. Then there's another murder and, as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists, Jimmy must dig up old secrets to stop a new killer from striking again....
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Blue Lightning
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle. It’s a community where strangers, while welcomed, are still viewed with a degree of mistrust. With the autumn storms raging, the island feels cut off from the rest of the world. Tempers among the trapped islanders become frayed. Enough to drive someone to murder? When a body is discovered, the islanders react with fear. With no support from the mainland, Jimmy has to investigate the old-fashioned way.
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best yet
- By Saraswati on 03-06-2022
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Dead Water
- Shetland, Book 5
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When the body of a journalist is found in a traditional Shetland boat, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed, and he decides to help the inquiry. Originally a Shetlander, the journalist had left the islands years before to make a name for himself in London, leaving a scandal in his wake. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?
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Wild Fire
- Shetland, Book 8
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Drawn in by the reputation of the islands, a new English family move to the area, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny’s body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wildfire. With suspicion raining down on the family, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate, knowing that it will mean the return to the islands of his on-off lover and boss Willow Reeves, who will run the case.
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Another great book.
- By Chantelle on 29-09-2018
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Thin Air
- Shetland, Book 6
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a local. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears—apparently into thin air. Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor’s disappearance than they first thought.
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thin air
- By Anonymous User on 05-12-2021
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White Nights
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Shetland detective Jimmy Perez finds a body in a hut used by fishermen, it seems to be a straightforward case of suicide. He recognises the victim - a stranger with amnesia who had disrupted a local party the night before his death. Yet this is no desperate act of anguish but the work of a cold and calculating killer. As Perez investigates, he finds himself mired in the hidden secrets of the small Biddista community. Then another body is found. Perez knows he must break the cycle before another death occurs. But this is a crazy time of year, when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems....
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Red Bones
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident, Shetland detective Jimmy Perez is called to investigate the mystery. The sparse landscape and the emptiness of the sea have bred a fierce and secretive people. As Jimmy looks to the islanders for answers, he finds instead two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness have lasted generations. Then there's another murder and, as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists, Jimmy must dig up old secrets to stop a new killer from striking again....
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Blue Lightning
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle. It’s a community where strangers, while welcomed, are still viewed with a degree of mistrust. With the autumn storms raging, the island feels cut off from the rest of the world. Tempers among the trapped islanders become frayed. Enough to drive someone to murder? When a body is discovered, the islanders react with fear. With no support from the mainland, Jimmy has to investigate the old-fashioned way.
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best yet
- By Saraswati on 03-06-2022
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Dead Water
- Shetland, Book 5
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the body of a journalist is found in a traditional Shetland boat, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed, and he decides to help the inquiry. Originally a Shetlander, the journalist had left the islands years before to make a name for himself in London, leaving a scandal in his wake. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?
-
Wild Fire
- Shetland, Book 8
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawn in by the reputation of the islands, a new English family move to the area, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny’s body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wildfire. With suspicion raining down on the family, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate, knowing that it will mean the return to the islands of his on-off lover and boss Willow Reeves, who will run the case.
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Another great book.
- By Chantelle on 29-09-2018
-
Thin Air
- Shetland, Book 6
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a local. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears—apparently into thin air. Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor’s disappearance than they first thought.
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thin air
- By Anonymous User on 05-12-2021
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The Crow Trap
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Three very different women come together at isolated Baikie’s Cottage on the North Pennines to complete an environmental survey. Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman hiding plenty of her own secrets.
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Enjoyable but...
- By DebManning on 16-10-2019
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The Seagull
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A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper - and Vera played a part in his downfall. Brace promises Vera information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer, if she will look out for his family. He tells her that Marshall is dead, his body buried close to St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay.
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Good story but woeful voices
- By Amazon Customer jo on 24-10-2017
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Cold Earth
- Shetland, Book 7
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
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Performance
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In the black days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of peaty water and mud smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez becomes obsessed with finding out her identity and what she was doing there.
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Telling Tales
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It has been 10 years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of 15-year-old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie’s innocence. Abigail’s killer is still at large. For one young woman, Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend - and of that fearful winter's day when she had discovered her body lying cold in a ditch.
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Love Vera Stanhope
- By Tracey A Zvirblis on 06-10-2019
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Silent Voices
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When DI Vera Stanhope finds the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, she wonders briefly if, for once in her life, she’s uncovered a simple death from natural causes. Then Vera spots ligature marks around the victim’s throat...Vera revels being back in charge of an investigation again, working with Sergeant Joe Ashworth to find a motive. While Joe struggles to reconcile his home life with the demands of the case, death has never made Vera feel so alive. The duo investigates the victim’s past and discovers a shocking case, involving a young child.
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So much better than tv adaptation!
- By Mimosa on 10-12-2020
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The Glass Room
- Vera Stanhope, Book 5
- By: Ann Cleeves
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- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but when one of her neighbours goes missing, she feels duty-bound to find out what happened. It’s an easy job to track the young woman down to the Writers’ House, a country retreat where aspiring authors gather to work on their novels. But things get complicated when a body is discovered and Vera’s neighbour is found with a knife in her hand. Vera knows that she should hand the case over to someone else. But the investigation is too tempting and she’s never been one to follow the rules.
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keeps you interested
- By Amazon Customer on 29-05-2021
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Hidden Depths
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A hot summer on the Northumberland coast and Julie Armstrong arrives home from a night out to find her son strangled, laid out in a bath of water and covered with wildflowers. This stylised murder scene has Inspector Vera Stanhope intrigued. But then another body is discovered in a rock pool, the corpse again strewn with flowers. Vera must work quickly to find this killer who is making art out of death. As local residents are forced to share their deepest, darkest secrets, the killer watches, waits and plans to prepare another beautiful, watery grave....
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Too Good to Be True
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When young teacher Anna Blackwell is found dead in her home, the police think her death was suicide or a tragic accident. After all, Stonebridge is a quiet country village in the Scottish Borders, where murders just don't happen. But Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez soon arrives from faraway Shetland when his ex-wife, Sarah, asks him to look into the case. The local gossips are saying that her new husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna. Could Tom have been involved with her death?
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Enjoyable
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Harbour Street
- Vera Stanhope, Book 6
- By: Ann Cleeves
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- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
As the snow falls in Newcastle, Detective Joe Ashworth and his daughter, Jessie, travel home on the busy Metro. When the train stops unexpectedly due to bad weather, Jessie notices that one woman doesn’t leave, and when trying to wake her they find that the passenger has been fatally stabbed. With no witnesses DI Vera Stanhope looks into the victim’s past and discovers she lived for years on Harbour Street, in a run-down Northumberland fishing town.
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The Moth Catcher
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- Unabridged
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Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist named Patrick, to look after the place while they’re away. But Patrick is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley - a beautiful, lonely place to die.
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The Darkest Evening
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Janine Birkett
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope's only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy that she becomes disorientated and loses her way. Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver's door open, Vera assumes the driver has sought shelter, but when she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat. Afraid they will freeze, Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she immediately recognises as the house her father, Hector, grew up in.
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Vera
- By Sandra on 01-10-2020
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The Long Call
- Now a major ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as Detective Matthew Venn
- By: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Ben Aldridge
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father's funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family, too. Now he's back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.
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Attention
- By Linda on 28-04-2021
Publisher's Summary
It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man – loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst.
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What listeners say about Raven Black
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Raelene
- 17-11-2018
Raven Black
Loved this book. Had to listen to it a couple of times to get the characters in the right place. The narrator did a great job.
3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-11-2020
Loved it!
Was brought here by the TV series. Not usually a fan of crime novels but I enjoyed every minute. I had to buy the second book straight away !!
2 people found this helpful
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- Jennifer
- 10-11-2020
Ticks the boxes for a good crime novel
Had me hooked and guessing to the end. This is crime fiction to intrigue and entertain, providing insight into characters, a remote setting, its culture, events and environment and the implications of these. I'd love for there to be a sequel. I feel I want to keep following the characters too see how they get on. Terrific narration.
1 person found this helpful
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- sandra lobb
- 29-09-2020
Raven Black
Very descriptive and great clear audio.The storyline easy to follow and the guilty doesnt present as a suspect for the listener.
1 person found this helpful
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- Susan Westgarth
- 28-09-2020
great storyline
enjoyed this book very much
didn't guess the culprit until the end and it was a surprise.
1 person found this helpful
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- Sarah
- 29-02-2020
Absolutely gripping!
I love how the author describes the scenery, smells, sounds, people & emotions and creates an incredibly vivid and engrossing story you have to drag yourself away from.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 26-12-2018
twists throughout
really enjoyable narrator excellent smooth tones and added to the shetland story. plot great interesting characters.
1 person found this helpful
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- Beverly
- 18-10-2018
Shetland
Another great book in this series. Love all Ann Cleves stories. Narrator is very good
2 people found this helpful
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- Jane Bennett
- 13-06-2022
Disappointing
I kept waiting for this to improve. It didn’t. I kept listening at least partly because of the setting me a good reader. But Im not sure it was worth the time.
When it finally ended, it felt rather anti climactic and somewhat pointless. A bunch of not very believable characters (the main policeman excepted) doing various things… to what end? I gather other people like the writer as she’s written a few but I’m not sure I could be bothered to try another.
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- Jon
- 08-04-2022
Great story
Interesting, in a different area than I’m used to. Good mystery.
Better at 2x speed narration.
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- Robyn
- 01-09-2020
I am so glad it’s a series!
Fantastic book narrated by an excellent voice. I loved the slow burn of the story as we get to know the characters and the island itself. The ending threw me totally, which I loved, and I’m just so happy to know it’s the first of a long series! Downloading the next one immediately.
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- Sharon
- 12-02-2020
Treat yourself to a taste of the Shetlands!
I love this series. I actually read book 2 first, but now I have finally read the first one. Love the characters, and they seem very very realistic. The author really knows how to give you a taste of life in the Shetlands. Her language is wonderfully descriptive when talking about places, characters, and thoughts. It may seem a little bleak at times, but not nearly so compared to Scandinavian fiction. Jimmy Perez is a great hero, and is relatable to any of us who have felt a bit different at one time or another. I can only recommend this book and series!
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- Margaret
- 01-09-2018
WOW!
I love the Shetland series from Ann Cleeves. Having visited the island I feel she reals brings to life the atmosphere of the place in her books and this is helped so much with the fantastic reading in this story by Kenny Blyth. His accents are great and the pace is just right.
There are so many twists in the story that I absolutely did not see the ending. It was also great to learn more about some of the characters that I knew from the later Shetland books.
34 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 26-01-2019
Beautifully narrated
This recording is beautifully narrated. I found I looked forward with anticipation to the next time I could listen in. The story was gripping.
23 people found this helpful
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- Ellen
- 06-01-2019
Brought in the sale and pleasantly surprised
As a rule I prefer the Vera Stanhope series of books and would not have used a credit on Raven Black however it was a gripping story, lots of twists and turns and a brilliant plot and unlike some of the later Vera books the narration was perfect. Would recommend
10 people found this helpful
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- Mark
- 09-01-2019
Great read
Great story, well read. Kept me coming back for more. Can't wait for the next book.
9 people found this helpful
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- Mike Bingham
- 04-01-2019
another Ann Cleeves 5star offering.
Brilliant book....many stories woven around the central plot...well written....keeps you guessing. The accent and tone of Kenny Blyth brought the characters to life. Ann Cleeves and Kenny Blyth....a winning combination.
7 people found this helpful
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- karen gibbons
- 02-01-2019
Wonderful Listen
Well constructed plot with twist and turns. Characters believable . I easily conjured up the landscape of the Islands. The narrator's voice was a delight to listen to. Have yet to listen to a book by this author that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed.
4 people found this helpful
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- lisa
- 13-02-2019
Slow
This book was extremely slow burning. Didn’t really enjoy it. Not much to say.The plot was interesting but not really a twist . I would not consider it a 5 star rating
3 people found this helpful
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- Esther
- 31-12-2018
A Great Thriller
A really enjoyable book, from start to finish it had you guessing, the narrator was superb. I cannot wait to listen to the next one.
3 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 31-12-2018
Predictable
Don't think I would read another book by this author. Felt as if things were being explained too simply in case I was unable to work them out for myself. Guessed who the murder was before the police spoke to the murder. A bit disappointing.
3 people found this helpful
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- JPH
- 14-10-2018
A Good Mystery
Enjoyed the story. It involves two mysteries, the murder of a confident teenage school girl Catherine Ross originally from England, and a missing child Katrina that dissapeared eight years prior and who has never been found.
Magnus Tait is a lonely old man, and a bit simple. He spends his time waiting for people to call on him but no one ever does.
Magnus had been suspected of being responsible, for katrina and was questioned at the time by the police but never charged. The treatment he received by the Police was not a pleasant one so he's very wary of them. The villagers treat him as a pariah and warn the school children not to go near him.
Then eight years later a girl is murdered and it looks like Magnus's nightmare is about to start again.
A good mystery that keeps you guessing. Reccomended.
13 people found this helpful
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