Raven Black is set on Shetland and begins on a cold New Year’s Eve with two young women, Sally Henry and Catherine Ross, calling on a lonely old man, Magnus Tait. Magnus is what people refer to as ‘slow’ and suspicion hangs over him about the disappearance of a young girl, Catriona Bruce, eight years before, whose body has never been found. Magnus was never charged but the rest of the town keep away from him. Catherine, an outsider, dares Sally to come with her to visit the old man.
A few days later Catherine’s body is discovered close to Magnus’s house and people fear he’s struck again. Both victims lived in the same house and both their names began with ‘C’. Enter Detective
Jimmy Perez, originally from Fair Isle. He is soon joined by Inspector Taylor’s team from the mainland and though it seems that it’s an open and shut case against Magnus, Perez and Taylor have their doubts.
It’s only with the disappearance of a third child that the truth comes to light about all the crimes.
It’s not difficult to see why Raven Black won the first Duncan Lawrie Dagger. It had me captivated. I kept suspecting one
person after another of Catherine’s murder and I didn’t come close to getting the right person. All the characters seem real and it feels as if their lives are continuing after the book has ended. There is strong sense of place and of the dreadfully cold weather. Apparently the author has almost finished the second book of a planned quartet and it can’t come soon enough.
As usual the experience is heightened by Gordon Griffin’s masterful reading, with his wide variety of accents and ability to convey different ages. It was a real disappointment to get to the end of the last tape.
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Karen Meek