From the Bookshelf of English Mysteries Club…

Raven Black (Shetland, #1)

Ann Cleeves

Start date: October 1, 2024

Finish date: October 31, 2024

Discussion: General Archive - current

Why we're reading this: Group read for October 2024
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General Archive - current

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What Members Thought

Aug 15, 2023 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: hoopla, pulitzerandrunnersupandmore, library-request, libby, brit-mysteries, library, crime-thriller-suspense, first-of-a-series, 2023, british

Great book, great writing, I love the atmospheric Shetland Island setting and the recurring characters are worth following, I’m going to bet. Excellent audio performance that capitalized on the creepiness.

One of the big reveals was surprising to me but the other one….I suspected from quite early on (but to be fair, I was tipped off by so many reviews talking about how surprising both were).

My second by this author and I prefer this series to the Vera one, so far. Hope to soon be reading the se ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Sep 02, 2012 Laurel Bradshaw rated it liked it

Shelves: scotland, 1st-of-series, mystery, audiobook, suspense, themes-birds, shetland-islands, award-winner, new-year-s-eve

Originally intended to be a quartet, there are now 6 in the series. 3.5 stars and I can't quite round up to 4, but I'll continue with the series. The setting is interesting, though I didn't feel like I saw enough of it. It has been made into a TV show in Britain, and I think seeing the locale would help a lot. Like most of the main characters, I felt like an outsider looking in. I liked the shifting points of view - it helped keep the suspense. Everyone seemed unreliable and a possible suspect. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2011 Judy rated it really liked it

A teenage girl is found strangled and almost completely buried by the snow on a cold January morning. The police suspect Magnus Tait who is what the politically correct call developmentally challenged. Magnus is the prime suspect because he was the last person to have been seen with the victim and he was the prime suspect in a cold case of a young girl who had disappeared eight years before. The setting is very much a character in this novel. The Shetland Islands are remote islands located off t ...more

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Aug 09, 2019 Jeffrey Marks rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a great series. I highly recommend it. The books make me want to go to the Shetland Islands.

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 31, 2018 Tom rated it liked it · review of another edition

I typically really enjoy crime novels set in Europe. Unfortunately, this one never really sparked much for me. A murder of a teenage girl in a small English town leads to a lot of fingerpointing to an old recluse that's tied into an earlier murder. Maybe wrong time, wrong book, for me, but writing never particularly grabbed me and never really got into the characters. Serviceable but overall disappointing thriller. ...more

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Jul 16, 2011 mary rated it really liked it

Shelves: brit-fic, mystery-contemporary

Loved this --- the seconf mystery set in the Shetland Islands that I have read this year. Just ordered the other three from Amazon to make the whole set.

I was close in guessing the guilty party --- even had the right person on my radar briefly --- but can't claim to have truly solved it. ...more

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Apr 12, 2014 Lillian rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-modern-cozy

3.5 stars - A good read but the ending left me a little disappointed. The characters were well written. But the overall plot was a little dry. I like a few more twists or red herrings. The main character has potential and I will give the second in the series a try.

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