Fantastic Narration

I've enjoyed all the Ann Cleves books I've read and this was made even better by being narrated in the proper accent. The story is a good twist on the country house mystery, but also very moving in parts.

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Another wonderful wise story

There is something so humane and wise about Anne Sleeve’s books which puts them a cut above other thrillers. A very satisfying story with wonderful narration by Kenny Blyth.

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Back on form!

This story was back to form. intriguing, evocative and not too obvious. And the increasingly annoying, angel-like Fran is gone. Now Jimmy can be proper grumpy and solemn. I'm going straight to the next one.

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Don't read the other reviews!

One of them seriously gives away a major plot point. It you love the Shetland series, you'll live this. If you don't, buy something you do like.

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3 people found this helpful

Great story with twist and turns

Kept you guessing all the way through. Follows the personal lives of the main characters and can't wait for the next book.

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Great ending

Fast paced, twisting story with plenty of guesswork to be done along the way - excellent narration.

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Great listen

I did not guess who did it .Plot was engaging and so was performance. Should be 5 stars but fingers failed .Would seek to hear many more like this

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All because of a birding obsession, a curlew!

This Shetland book, takes us to Fair Isle. The most remote & sparsely inhabited island in the UK, it's perhaps best known to knitters, lovers of it's beautiful Fairisle jumpers and to ornithologists because of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory & guest house. It's the latter group that are to the fore in Blue Lightening as the story is centred around the field centre, the obsession that is twitching [the pursuit & observation of a rare bird]
The season is nearly over, only the staff & a few visitors hoping to see a migratory bird blown off course remain at the birdwatching centre. Whilst a fierce October storm rages, the scientific adminsistrator, a celebrity in her field, is murdered, her body posed, her hair ringed with bird feathers including one from the critically endangered Slender-billed Curlew. With the weather closed in around the isle, preventing any access to or from by boat or plane, it's left to Inspector Jimmy Perez, home to introduce Fran, she having proposed to him at the end of book 3, Red Bones, to his parents, to investigate alone this 'locked room' / locked isle mystery. Only the residents of the the centre are under suspicion, however, as dislikable a character as the victim was, none of them seem to have motive enough to commit her murder. But, it seems birding passions run deep, deep enough to revenge an old injustice and kill again when amateurs' play detective.
Having in the not so distant past, watched the tv series Shetland's adaptation of the novel, thought I might be overly familiar with the storyline, wrong. The book's plot is stronger, more insightful into the world of obsessive bird watching - being a lover of Swans, enjoyed the Trumpeter's sighting. Fair Isle's atmosphere, landscape is wonderfully evoked, one can feel a sense of the place. As for the conclusion, sad but as not into romantic fiction, often find the personal lives of detectives detracts from their more interesting criminal cases, it left me hopeful & looking forward to Perez's new direction.

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1 person found this helpful

Enjoyed this book.

Enjoyed this book, narration was good.
I always seem to enjoy books by Anne Cleeve.

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bereft

poor Jimmy, can't bear his lonely isolation, give me more of him. Great story Ann

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