Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  3. Red Bones    Shetland Series Book 3 by Ann Cleeves An old woman, Sandy Wilson’s grandmother Mima Wilson, stepped outside her house one night. She is shot and killed. It looks like a hunting accident. Two young women have been conducting an archeological dig on her land. The   discovery of old bones, combined with the memories of the islanders, help solve the mysterious murder but not before another killing increases grief and paranoia. This is book three in the Shetland Islands series. It’s set on the off island of Walsay, which is home to Sandy Wilson, assistant to DI Jimmy Perez whose romantic partner, Fran Hunter, and her daughter Cassie are in London for most of the story. Also, English DI Roy Taylor from the Inverness office is not with the Shetland team during this investigation. As usual with Ann Cleeves storytelling, the background story of the characters and the Island history enrich the mystery. We learn more about Sandy Wilson’s family and the story of the famou

  White Nights    Shetland Series Book 2 by Ann Cleeves There’s been a party in Shetland during those white nights when the light of day fades into a long, twilight evening, known as the simmer dim. Fran Hunter joins flamboyant Shetland artist Bella Sinclair in an art show. A strange man garner’s everyone’s attention as he falls before one of Bella’s paintings. Later, someone finds him hanging in a shed where fishermen store their gear. Local DI Jimmy Perez starts to investigate the staged suicide as a murder. The team includes lead DI Englishman Roy Taylor from the Inverness office and local sergeant Sandy Wilson. The tension increases in the small village of Biddista when another one is murdered. As is her style, Ann Cleeves describes her characters partly through point-of-view narratives and partly by contrasts between the Shetlanders, the tourists, and mostly English incomers as well as their interaction with the stark Shetland landscape. The lead characters are enriched as we