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Starting/joining in with buddy reads
By Judy · 1349 posts · 373 views
By Judy · 1349 posts · 373 views
last updated Sep 08, 2025 10:58PM
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White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #2) (August/Sept 25)
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By Susan · 29 posts · 13 views
last updated Sep 04, 2025 12:17PM
What Members Thought
This was different from the other books in the series that I have read so far. A woman is accused of killing an ex-boyfriend and refuses to speak. Will not agree to a defense counsel. Nothing. The judge sends her to jail for contempt. The investigating officer was involved in some sort of accident which affects his memory and thought processes. Sloan is asked to take over.
So, of course, he draws Crosby. They have to retrace the steps throughout the case. Same result? Not exactly.
So, of course, he draws Crosby. They have to retrace the steps throughout the case. Same result? Not exactly.
3.5-4 stars for me, but rounded up for the last half, and because I really like this long-running traditional police procedural series. This one was off to a slow start for me, necessarily because of how the case landed in Sloan’s lap.
The original detective on the case in a neighboring town suffers permanent brain damage after an attack on the job, and must retire from the case. By the time Sloan and Crosby inherit the murder case, a good bit of time has passed, and a young woman has been arrest ...more
The original detective on the case in a neighboring town suffers permanent brain damage after an attack on the job, and must retire from the case. By the time Sloan and Crosby inherit the murder case, a good bit of time has passed, and a young woman has been arrest ...more
Lucy Durmast is on trial for murder but she is taking her right to remain silent to extreme lengths and refuses to say anything - even to the extent of refusing to plead guilty or not-guilty. Her friend Kenneth died of poison shortly after eating a meal which she had cooked and served to him.
Sloan and Crosby are given the task of reviewing what seems like an open and shut case because the original investigating officer is ill. Sloan is not convinced that Lucy is guilty but he cannot at first see ...more
Sloan and Crosby are given the task of reviewing what seems like an open and shut case because the original investigating officer is ill. Sloan is not convinced that Lucy is guilty but he cannot at first see ...more
Inspector Sloan inherits a case when a colleague is injured. A young woman is accused of poisoning one of the young men who worked for her father and is now refusing to speak. Sloan is, as readers of the series know by now, methodical and a lover of justice, so he begins to unravel what happened from the beginning. As always, he is accompanied by the wonderfully annoying Crosby.
Involved is the building of a local tunnel, the building of a new capital city in an African country, plus nuclear prot ...more
Involved is the building of a local tunnel, the building of a new capital city in an African country, plus nuclear prot ...more
When you have been writing a series of detective novels for over five decades the quality is bound to vary wildly. The Inspector Sloan series by Catherine Aird is no different. Some of the books in this series are not great, with rather weak motives and a narrative which threatens to go off the rails at all times. This book is one of her better ones. The motive was too simple and the narrative rather convoluted. I did manage to spot the murderer pretty much as soon as they came in the picture. B
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3.5* This was a further instalment in the ongoing series, set in some vague recent past-50's to 80's-in rural England featuring Inspector Sloan and his rather bumbling sidekick DC Crosby. This time it's a poisoning, with overtones of industrial espionage, anti-nuclear protests, and international trade with a soupçon of rejected love thrown in. A fun series of relatively short novels in a classic golden-age style, this was perhaps not the best one so far but still an enjoyable read.
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Oct 06, 2012
Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
cozy-mysteries
Apr 10, 2024
Gardener0126
added it
Aug 20, 2025
Sandy
rated it
liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
read-2025,
mystery-detective-grp
Aug 08, 2025
Stephanie
marked it as to-read
