Blue Lightning is the fourth book in Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series. If you’ve seen the television series, it’s quite good, but it picks up really after events in this book. I did know a huge spoiler was coming in this book because of that.

Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez is traveling to his hometown on Fair Isles to introduce his fiancée, Fran, to his parents. It’s supposed to be a non-working vacation. However, soon after they arrive on Fair Isles, there’s a murder at the island’s renowned bird observatory, located in the old lighthouse. The victim is found with bird feather threaded through her hair. Since they are cut off from the rest of the world due to the weather, and Jimmy is instructed to investigate. Fran wants to help him, and despite his misgivings, he allows her to at times.

As Jimmy digs into the victim’s history, he learns things about the people on the island that he never knew growing up there, including his parents. Many times, Jimmy questions whether or not he should be leading the investigation since he’s too close to many of the people involved. His investigation is without any technology or crime scene investigators. Most of what he’s doing is talking – and listening.

Blue Lightning is, in many ways, a typical “locked room” mystery. Being on an island, there’s only so many people to investigate. What’s more, it’s nearing the end of the season and there are few people staying at the bird observatory. This narrows down the list of suspects. With the weather raging making it difficult (near impossible) for planes to get in and out or the ferry to run, they aren’t able to leave. I kept changing my mind about who I thought the murderer was, until there’s a second victim and then everything changed. Towards the end, I guessed it before it was revealed, but the mystery was a good one.

Cleeves has really made readers invested with the characters. I think to really feel the impact of this book, you’d have to have read the three previous. I felt an emotional investment in Jimmy and Fran’s relationship. They weren’t strangers who were dropped into my world. They seem more like friends I am following along with. Jimmy has always been the quiet type and Cleeves tells us what he’s thinking which helped mefeel like I was growing closer to him. It’s also what aids him in his investigation. His reservedness allows people to talk more than they would have were he firing away with questions.

The biggest problem most people have with this book is the ending. It is a sad one in many ways. Jimmy will probably never return to Fair Isles to see his parents. It’s going to be a final cutoff for him in many ways from who he was before these events. He feels a sense of guilt of things not done and said and what could have been prevented had he just done one or a few things differently. It’s futile to beat yourself up over things like this in life (I know that very well), but it’s just how we react when there’s a drastic change to our world.

The pace is very slow. The book has the rhythm of the island, which is far away from the hurry up and wait society most cities have. I felt that when we moved to a rural area; it’s a hard adjustment to make. Yet even with Jimmy’s quietness and the slow pace, Blue Lightning really gripped me. The audiobook is narrated by Gordon Griffin, who does a terrific job and kept me immersed in the story. He’s engaging without overacting the roles of the various characters.

I recommend the series highly and Blue Lighning is a good entry into it. Nothing will be the same after the events in this book, and it might take me a while to recover from the emotional impact, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Jimmy handles the future.

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