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Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Mysteries: 1 Tapa blanda – 24 junio 2008
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The basis for the hit series "Shetland" now airing on PBS.
Winner of Britain's coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to U.S. mystery readers.
Raven Black begins on New Year's Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.
- Longitud de impresión384 páginas
- IdiomaInglés
- EditorialSt. Martin's Press
- Fecha de publicación24 junio 2008
- Dimensiones13.84 x 2.54 x 20.83 cm
- ISBN-100312359675
- ISBN-13978-0312359676
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Críticas
"A riveting read." --Val McDermid
"Chilling...enough to freeze the blood." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"Chilling...enough to freeze the blood." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"Deserves the top crime writer's prize in the United States this year. Don't miss this standout." --Rocky Mountain News
Contraportada
" "
"A fine and sinister psychological novel in the Barbara Vine style. Cleeves is part of a new generation of superior British writers."
---"The Globe and Mail" (Canada)
"A riveting read."
---Val McDermid, author of "A Place"" of Execution" "Beautifully constructed . . . brings alive the tensions in a place where everyone knows everyone else and nothing can be forgotten. Raven Black is lively and surprising."
---"Times Literary Supplement" (UK)
"Ann's characterization is worthy of the best writers in the field. . . . Rarely has the sense of place been so evocatively conveyed in a crime novel."
---"Daily Express" (UK)
"With a cast of well-drawn and convincing characters and an unexpected conclusion, "Raven Black" is the perfect novel to while away the long winter evenings by the fire."
---"The Tribune" (UK)
""Raven Black" shows what a fine writer [Cleeves] is . . . accomplished and thoughtful."
---"The Sunday Telegraph" (UK)
"Cleeves is a very good writer---strong on atmosphere, plot andpeople."
"---The Times" (UK)
Biografía del autor
ANN CLEEVES is the multi-million copy bestselling author behind two hit television series—Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall, and Vera, starring Academy Award Nominee Brenda Blethyn—both of which are watched and loved in the United States.
Shetland and Vera are available on BritBox in the United States. An adaptation of The Long Call, the first book in her Two Rivers series, will premiere on BritBox in 2022.
The first Shetland novel, Raven Black, won the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel, and Ann was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2017. She lives in the United Kingdom.
Extracto. © Reimpreso con autorización. Reservados todos los derechos.
Raven Black
Book One of the Shetland Island QuartetBy Ann CleevesMinotaur Books
Copyright © 2008 Ann CleevesAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312359676
Chapter One
Twenty past one in the morning on New Year’s Day. Magnus knew the time because of the fat clock, his mother’s clock, which squatted on the shelf over the fire. In the corner the raven in the wicker cage muttered and croaked in its sleep. Magnus waited. The room was prepared for visitors, the fire banked with peat and on the table a bottle of whisky and the ginger cake he’d bought in Safeway’s the last time he was in Lerwick. He could feel himself dozing but he didn’t want to go to bed in case someone should call at the house. If there was a light at the window someone might come, full of laughter and drams and stories. For eight years nobody had visited to wish him happy new year, but still he waited just in case.
Outside it was completely silent. There was no sound of wind. In Shetland, when there was no wind it was shocking. People strained their ears and wondered what was missing. Earlier in the day there had been a dusting of snow, then with dusk this was covered by a sheen of frost, every crystal flashing and hard as diamond in the last of the light, and even when it got dark, in the beam from the lighthouse. The cold was another reason for Magnus staying where he was. In the bedroom the ice would be thick on the inside of the window and the sheets would feel chill and damp.
He must have slept. If he’d been awake he’d have heard them coming because there was nothing quiet in their approach. They weren’t creeping up on him. He’d have heard their laughter and the stumbling, seen the wild swaying of the torch beam through the uncurtained window. He was woken by the banging on the door. He came to with a start, knowing he’d been in the middle of a nightmare, but not sure of the details.
‘Come in,’ he shouted. ‘Come in, come in.’ He struggled to his feet, stiff and aching. They must already be in the storm porch. He heard the hiss of their whispers.
The door was pushed open, letting in a blast of freezing air and two young girls, who were as gaudy and brightly coloured as exotic birds. He saw they were drunk. They stood, propping each other up. They weren’t dressed for the weather yet their cheeks were flushed and he could feel the health of them like heat. One was fair and one was dark. The fair one was the prettier, round and soft, but Magnus noticed the dark one first; her black hair was streaked with luminescent blue. More than anything, he would have liked to reach out and touch the hair, but he knew better than to do that. It would only scare them away.
‘Come in,’ he said again although they were already in the room. He thought he must sound like a foolish old man, repeating the same words, making no sense at all. People had always laughed at him. They called him slow and perhaps they were right. He felt a smile crawl across his face and heard his mother’s words in his head. Will you wipe that stupid grin from your face. Do you want folk to think you’re dafter than you really are?
The girls giggled and stepped further into the room. He shut the doors behind them, the outside door which had warped with the weather and led into the porch, and the one into the house. He wanted to keep out the cold and he was frightened that they might escape. He couldn’t believe that such beautiful creatures had turned up on his doorstep.
‘Sit down,’ he said. There was only the one easy chair, but two others, which his uncle had made from driftwood, stood by the table and he pulled these out. ‘You’ll take a drink with me to see in the new year.’
They giggled again and fluttered and landed on the chairs. They wore tinsel in their hair and their clothes were of fur and velvet and silk. The fair one had ankle boots of leather so shiny that it looked like wet tar, with silver buckles and little chains. The heels were high and the toes were pointed. Magnus had never seen footwear like it and for a moment he couldn’t take his eyes off them. The dark girl’s shoes were red. He stood at the head of the table.
‘I don’t know you, do I?’ he said, though looking at them more closely he knew he’d seen them passing the house. He took care to speak slowly so they would understand him. Sometimes he slurred his speech. The words sounded strange to him, like the raven’s croaking. He’d taught the raven to speak a few words. Some weeks, he had nobody else to talk to. He launched into another sentence. ‘Where are you from?’
‘We’ve been in Lerwick.’ The chairs were low and the blond girl had to tip back her head to look up at him. He could see her tongue and her pink throat. Her short silk top had become separated from the waist band of her skirt and he saw a fold of flesh, as silky as the material of her blouse and her belly button. ‘Partying for hogmannay. We got a lift to the end of the road. We were on our way home when we saw your light.’
‘Shall we have a drink, then?’ he said eagerly. ‘Shall we?’ He shot a look at the dark girl, who was staring at the room, moving her eyes slowly, taking it all in, but again it was the fair one who replied.
‘We’ve brought our own,’ she said. She pulled a bottle from the woven shoulder bag she’d been clutching on her knee. It had a cork jammed in the top and was three quarters full. He thought it would be white wine, but he didn’t really know. He’d never tasted wine. She pulled the cork from the bottle with sharp, white teeth. The action shocked him. When he realised what she intended doing he wanted to shout to her to stop. He imagined the teeth snapped off at the roots. He should have offered to open it for her. That would have been the gentlemanly thing to do. Instead, he only watched, fascinated. The girl drank from the bottle, wiped the lip with her hand, then passed it on to her friend. He reached out for his whisky. His hands were shaking and he spilled a couple of drops onto the oilcloth when he poured himself a glass. He held out his glass and the dark girl clinked the wine bottle against it. Her eyes were narrow. The lids were painted blue and grey and were lined with black.
‘I’m Sally,’ the blond girl said. She didn’t have the dark one’s capacity for silence. She’d be one for noise, he decided. Chatter and music. ‘Sally Henry.’
‘Henry,’ he repeated. The name was familiar, though he couldn’t quite place it. He was out of touch. His thoughts had never been sharp, but now thinking took an effort. It was like seeing through a thick sea fog. He could make out shapes and vague ideas but focus was difficult. ‘Where do you live?’
‘In the house at the end of the voe,’ she said. ‘Next to the school.’
‘Your mother’s the school teacher.’
Now he could place her. The mother was a little woman. She’d come from one of the northern isles. Unst. Yell, maybe. Married a man from Bressay who worked for the council. Magnus had seen him driving around in a big 4x4.
‘Aye,’ she said and sighed.
‘And you?’ he said to the dark girl who interested him most, who interested him so much that his eyes kept flickering back to her. ‘What do they call you?’
‘I’m Catherine Ross,’ she said, speaking for the first time. Her voice was deep for a young lassie, he thought. Deep and smooth. A voice like black treacle. He forgot where he was for a moment, picturing his mother spooning treacle into the mixture for the ginger cakes she’d made, twisting the spoon over the pot to catch the last sticky threads, then handing it to him to lick. He ran his tongue over his lips, became embarrassingly aware of Catherine staring at him. She had a way of not blinking.
‘You’re not local.’ He could tell by the accent. ‘English?’
‘I’ve lived here for a year.’
‘You’re friends?’ The idea of friendship was a novelty. Had he ever had friends? He took time to think about it ‘You’re pals. Is that right?’
‘Of course we are,’ Sally said. ‘Best friends.’ And they started laughing again, passing the bottle backwards and forwards, throwing back their heads to drink, so their necks looked white as chalk in the light of the naked bulb hanging over the table.
Continues...
Excerpted from Raven Black by Ann Cleeves Copyright © 2008 by Ann Cleeves. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Detalles del producto
- Editorial : St. Martin's Press; Reprint edición (24 junio 2008)
- Idioma : Inglés
- Tapa blanda : 384 páginas
- ISBN-10 : 0312359675
- ISBN-13 : 978-0312359676
- Peso del producto : 386 g
- Dimensiones : 13.84 x 2.54 x 20.83 cm
- Clasificación en los más vendidos de Amazon: nº4,655 en Misterios de detectives tradicionales (Libros)
- nº5,146 en Misterio y crimen internacional
- nº11,214 en Procedimientos policíacos
- Opiniones de los clientes:
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I think that there are many characters that don't add to the story, and are there only to "confuse" you about whom the murder really was - I personally don't like this style.
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A teenage girl is killed in the present time, making a link to the past disappearance of a female child, some years earlier. Ann Cleeves builds up an uneasy atmosphere in this book - an essential element to a murderer mystery. She does this via a well-thought-out plot, injected with chilling events. But, she also uses the believable and fallible characters of Shetland, with several possibilities emerging as the culprit (s). Ms Cleeves paints Shetlanders as spirited, but stoic people. Natives, who are somewhat idiosyncratic and sometimes eccentric. They are almost like a large family who know each other's business.
"...This was Shetland, where you couldn’t fart without the whole place knowing."
You also get the feeling, Shetlanders are very much their own people who belong to their harsh environment and outsiders remain outside. One of those outsiders is DI Perez, a Fair Islander.
The isle of Shetland itself, has it's own personality, too, perhaps stemming from isolation. The author captures its unique and raw beauty perfectly, adding a heavy dose of eeriness. The final stages of the book builds up by using, arguably, the most important event of the year, Up Helly Aa, the fire festival (an apt setting for the book’s ending).
Initially, I had some difficulty connecting to 'book' Jimmy Perez for, as he isn't similar to 'TV series' Jimmy, played by Douglas Henshall. However, the storyline soon takes over and I accepted the differences in the lead character and a few other circumstances that differ from the TV version. I feel confident to press on, reading the rest of the series, now.
In the days following the new year newcomer Fran Hunter discovers the body of Catherine Ross, a sixteen-year-old lass who arrived with her grief-stricken and preoccupied father from Yorkshire in the wake of her mothers death. Seemingly strangled by the vivid red scarf that she wore the locals are very keen to land the blame at the door of elderly simpleton, Magnus Tait, a man who to all intents and purposes has been ostracised by the residents of Ravenswick. It took an outsider in the form of Catherine to show a little kindliness and the last sighting of her entering the home of Magnus spreads like wildfire around the village. Catherine Ross isn't the first girl to go missing though, and the memories of eight years ago and the fate of Catriona Bruce are on everyone's mind. Once living in the home that Catherine and her father now occupy, Catriona was never found and her fate to this day remains shrouded in mystery. Tait's home was also the last sighting of Catriona on that day, his mothers baking the draw. For some locals including the obvious conclusion is that Magnus Tait is responsible for both, and Catherine's father makes clear his own bitterness that the perpetrator has been allowed to strike again. But as secrets are revealed, Magnus becomes to look like a very convenient fall guy for the events which have rocked the once peaceful community.
In the Northumbria setting it is the indomitable DCI Vera Stanhope who ruffles the feathers of the locals, open minded and without the prejudices that almost seem to be set in stone. In Shetland the man who stands apart from the locals is Inspector Jimmy Perez, a man who hails from neighbouring Fair Isle and attended the local school before his police training in Aberdeen. A marriage collapse with his former wife, Sarah, in the aftermath of a miscarriage has seen Jimmy return closer to home, although not close enough for his mother's liking as she frequently mentions in her phone calls. Inspector Jimmy Perez insists the investigation is carried out properly and ensures that a veil of suspicion is thrown over the whole community. Convictions needs evidence and tittle–tattle leaves Perez untouched. He does not believe that Magnus Tait has the capabilities and mindset to cover his tracks and as the questions continue the locals consider just how safe they are and suddenly people are looking their doors. Although Inspector Jimmy Perez is the detective on the island, a case this serious inevitably brings back up from Inverness. Acting as Senior Investigating Officer is DI Roy Taylor, a man with a huge presence and the assured confidence that the case will be wrapped up pretty swiftly. For some locals, it is Jimmy who they find themselves easier to communicate with; a scruffy but astute man with a restlessness air and an understanding of how things work in the local community. Eventually the early resentment between DI Roy Taylor and Perez evaporates as they find themselves united in the quest for the truth.
For some, like Fran, a single-mother to daughter, Cassie, she is intelligent enough to see how the community have closed ranks against her, outside of the trust that insulates the well-respected folk of Shetland. It is Fran who gives Perez his first insight into the hostility that the locals have despatched at the door of Magnus Tait. Relaxed and non-judgemental, Fran strikes up an excellent rapport with the affable Perez, and points to a possible romantic connection in the future. Cleeves takes her readers straight to the heart of the workings of life in Ravenswick, introducing a diverse cast with their own opinions about the events. Cleeves draws such well defined personalities for each of characters and her attention to detail means that readers never feel short changed with one dimensional stereotypes. Raven Black has a fantastic sense of location running throughout the novel, not just in ensuring the inhospitable weather conditions fill the pages, but also the traditions and habits of the culture are conveyed. Raven Black points an unremitting spotlight on the locals and as with any of the DCI Vera Stanhope series, Cleeves depiction of the community transports her readers to the throbbing pulse of the valley. Perez is both as perceptive as Vera and as unsettling for those with something to hide. The final denouement provides answers for events, both recent and eight years previously, and unravels on a suitably fitting evening on the occasion of Up Helly Aa, an annual celebration in nearby Lerwick.
Although readers are only furnished with the opinions of the locals as to the young Catherine Ross after her demise she seems to draw plenty of opinion with most men fixated by her beauty and charm whilst an equal number comment on her enigmatic aloofness that appeared stuck-up, almost as if she didn't need friends. Cleeves portrayal of Catherine, the victim, is honest, never falling into the trap of portraying Catherine as "whiter than white", as Cleeves soldiers on and delivers an insightful view of a young adult struggling with her own problems. With a cast of genuine suspects venturing into double figures, Raven Black is a brilliant first outing in the Shetland series and I shall certainly be looking forward to my next 'visit' with Ann Cleeves!
Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)
This is the first novel in Cleeves’ Shetland series, the books behind the successful TV series of the same name. She captures the atmosphere of the island beautifully – the mixture of that feeling of claustrophobia where everyone knows everyone else’s secrets and the isolation of the small villages outside the main harbour town. She also shows how old traditions remain side by side with the increasing modernisation of life, as the islanders prepare for the big annual festival of Up Helly Aa; perhaps not as ancient a festival as some like to believe, but one that has become a part of life and a major tourist attraction over the years.
The plotting is excellent, as Perez tries to work out whether the two cases are linked or separate. Being in the third person past tense, the reader is allowed to see the story develop from a variety of perspectives, including Perez himself as he investigates, Magnus Tait as he waits knowing that the finger of suspicion will be pointed in his direction, and Sally, daughter of a teacher at the local school and Catherine’s best friend. This lets us see events from different angles, gradually giving a rounder picture of the victim and the various suspects.
Magnus is very well done – he is a man with what we’d probably call learning difficulties, able to function but well aware that he lacks social skills. Cleeves does a great job of making the reader find him both creepy and rather sad at the same time. Through Sally’s eyes we see the life of youngsters on the island, socially and at school. She and Catherine were drawn together mainly by being treated as outsiders – Catherine because she has newly arrived on the island, and Sally because she’s the daughter of a rather unpopular teacher.
Perez’ character is only revealed to certain extent in this opening novel, leaving plenty of room for development in later instalments. He’s from Fair Isle, an even smaller, more remote community, and is under pressure from his parents to return there. The break-up of his marriage has left him unsure of what he wants in life, but he’s no angst-ridden maverick. He’s a thoughtful, fair officer who tries hard not to be swayed by popular opinion but instead to look to the facts of the case. In this one, he finds himself becoming attracted to a young woman, Fran, another incomer, who found Catherine’s body, and this budding relationship allows us to see his human, off-duty side.
There are plenty of other characters – parents, other pupils, boyfriends and so on – to provide a wide pool of suspects and witnesses, and these are all drawn equally credibly although with a little less depth. Late on, I had an inkling about how one aspect of the story was going to play out, but I didn’t get close to the main solution. When it came though, I found it both credible and satisfying.
Overall, I thought this was an excellent start to the series and am keen to read more. I’m also happy to have finally broken my duck with this well-known and much loved author, and am now equally eager to read her Vera Stanhope novels. If someone as successful as Ann Cleeves actually needs my recommendation, then she most certainly has it! 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.