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COLD EARTH
by Ann Cleeves
Pan Macmillan, May 2017
389 pages
$16.90 CAD
ISBN: 1447278224


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Even in today's interconnected world the Shetland Islands remain truly isolated, their inhabitants' lives largely shaped by the often bleak weather and the cloistered existence unique to that remote part of the world. Local DI Jimmy Perez is part of a group burying Magnus Tait, an elderly member of the nearby village of Ravenswick, when an ominous rumbling catches his attention. It had rained heavily for days, and the earth had loosened, sending a wall of mud and stone hurtling down the hill and toward the mourners.

The mourners scramble to get out of the way, Perez pulling an elderly man to safety. Happily, when it has ended no one seems to have been hurt. But the slide has also engulfed a nearby cottage and a search of the debris reveals the body of a woman in a red silk dress. Someone had been living there.

At first Perez and his team focus on the routine task of identifying the woman. But their work takes on a new significance when the pathologist reveals that the victim had not died in the mudslide. She had been strangled, and their efforts morph into a murder enquiry, one that will turn the quiet village upside down.

Can there be anyone in the English-speaking world who claims to be a fan of crime fiction yet is still unaware of Ann Cleeves? COLD EARTH is her thirtieth novel, and the seventh book in her Shetland series. Also filmed as a highly successful television series (along with her equally accomplished Northumberland tales featuring DCI Vera Stanhope), the series will appeal to readers in search of forceful yet nuanced writing combined with an atmospheric setting. Cleeves has the ability to weave evocative prose out of the most mundane details of everyday life, as witnessed in the following account of someone preparing dinner:

"She set down the knife, slipped her feet into the pair of rubber clogs that stood by the door and went out into the nearest poly-tunnel. She could do with more rosemary for the lamb and mint for the sauce, but really she just needed a few minutes away from the house. Since the landslide it had seemed like a different place. It wasn't just that the view was disfigured and that now looking down towards the coast she could see the dark scar left by the mud. It was as if the shifting land had loosened the foundations of the family. There was nothing firm left. She couldn't believe anything either Kevin or the boys told her."

COLD EARTH is perfectly paced and structured, the plot enhanced by Cleeves' masterful misdirection. It is also a compelling portrait of a people at once simple and straightforward and yet harbouring dark secrets from one another. And it is a superb read.

§ Since 2005 Jim Napier's reviews and interviews have appeared in several Canadian newspapers and on various crime fiction and literary websites, including his own award-winning site, Deadly Diversions. His own crime novel, Legacy, will be published in the Spring of 2017. He can be reached at jnapier@deadlydiversions.com

Reviewed by Jim Napier, April 2017

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