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    Cold Earth
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    Cold Earth
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    Cold Earth
    Ebook395 pages6 hours

    Cold Earth

    By Ann Cleeves

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A body is found in the wreckage of a destroyed home. Consumed by the investigation, Inspector Jimmy Perez struggles for the truth in Cold Earth, the seventh Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves.

    Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall.

    In the black days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea.

    At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Inspector Jimmy Perez watches the flood of peaty water and mud smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez becomes obsessed with finding out her identity and what she was doing there.

    Then it emerges that she was already dead when the landslide hit the house and, suddenly, Perez finds himself with a murder to solve . . .

    Continue the atmospheric crime series with Wild Fire, the final Shetland novel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPan Macmillan
    Release dateOct 6, 2016
    ISBN9781447278238
    Author

    Ann Cleeves

    Ann Cleeves is the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV's The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann also spends her time advocating for reading to improve health and wellbeing and supporting access to books. In 2021 her Reading for Wellbeing project launched with local authorities across the North East. She lives in North Tyneside where the Vera books are set.

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    Reviews for Cold Earth

    4/5

    206 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Sandy continues to grow up. Jimmy and Willow finally acknowledge the emotional elephant in the room. And there’s a dead former television actress impersonating an American publisher living in an abandoned croft. Of course, none of this comes to light until a mudslide crashes through the croft and deposits her battered corpse practically at Jimmy’s feet. When the coroner determines she was murdered before the mudslide, the investigators must figure out why she was impersonating the croft’s absentee owner and who would want her dead. Not my favorite mystery in the series, but still well executed. I am much more entranced by Sandy’s growing role in helping Jimmy.
    • 4/5
      This is the 7th book of the "Shetland" series starring Jimmy Perez, and things start to become a bit murky. Jimmy Perez is attending the funeral of his old friend, Magnus Tait when a landslide washes the graveyard away. Jimmy found a dead woman in a cottage, and the evidence soon points to murder. Enter Willow Reeves again, and the two of them along with Sandy Wilson begin their investigations. Once again, Ann Cleeves weaved a fine tale of intrigue and family conflict. Hidden secrets. This seems to be her specialty. We also see Jimmy and Willow becoming closer, and towards the end of the book, they become lovers. The part that I don't like about the book, is that she shows Jimmy too distracted by his personal issues to give his full attention to the case.
    • 5/5
      The only disappointing thing about this book is that there is only one more book in the series. I found this one to be the most intriguing one of the Shetland books. I did not see the ending at all.
    • 3/5
      Very good until the reveal which I thought too rush and illogical.I will read more of her books, though.
    • 4/5
      Rating: 3.75* of fourAch, Jimmy, you need to pull up your socks and get with the program or Willow's gonna get something better equipped to provide babies and boom-boom in Inverness! What a pity that'll be!I'm invested in this novel series. I liked this entry just fine. I had a problem with the resolution: When Simon Shrinky-dink is the ONE AND ONLY voice even implying the the first victim was in any way unhappy, well...five alarms and red red flags, Author Cleeves! It wasn't enough to ruin my pleasure in spending time with Jimmy and Sandy and Willow, mind you. Something else almost was, though: When Andy Hay's gone off to Have A Think, it's about the least deft thing I've read Author Cleeves do! And Janeymum does not twig to her boyo's hidey-hole? No. He's got quite a lot of probletunities, does Andy. He's no mastermind to be successfully invisible to his doting mama when he's a hundred meters away.So I twigged to the murdered right quick. I was sure the Hay family was in it, particularly once the nature of the business relationships around the community were limned in acid on the backs of my eyelids. EW! What I had built in my head wasn't the connection that came to light, though: I was sure Michael's girlfriend was employed by Rogerson and the motive was outraged revenge on Simon Shrinky-dink's part.I'm also curious about a throwaway line that Author Cleeves gives to Mavis Rogerson about her Kathryn: "She's her father's daughter all right." Nothing at all is done with it. Nothing really led up to it, although the mother/daughter relationship appeared to me to be quite businesslike; I put it down to adult-child-back-in-nest syndrome. Might be I was only partway right....There it is, laddies and gentlewomen. There's the reason I keep going with this series in a nutshell. Author Cleeves gives the reader so much more than she writes on the page. She puts in details that don't exactly redherringize you, but do command a fraction more of your attention than ordinary backgrounding. She doesn't fill them out. She says, in effect, "and what do you imagine will be behind this little nug of goodness?" then leaves us to it.I get the feeling that she likes her readers and enjoys making things that fun bit extra.So why, I hear the Parity-for-All Perfectioneers grumble, do you give this a "bad" 3-star plus rating? All those nosegays of praise and then *splat*? That's just wrong! The hell it is, Gold Star Granting Gremlins. You just take yourself off and read [Red Bones] or better still [Raven Black]! Author Cleeves is capable of nigh-unto-perfection. This book just isn't that. There's the rating explained.
    • 5/5
      I've known for a while that this series is coming to an end, and I've been torn between reading this book or saving it for when I need a read that I know is going to be good. That's how I've come to think of Ann Cleeves' writing-- as guaranteed excellence. Her books are so quiet and unassuming that readers may not realize just how tightly woven the plots are, how carefully delineated each character is, and how beautifully the landscape is described.The mystery of the dark-haired woman takes time to tease out all the clues and make sense of them. Her identity alone drives the quiet and observant Jimmy Perez to distraction, and then there's the matter of what she was doing on Shetland to begin with as well as why someone would want her dead.The personal lives of both Jimmy and Sandy are becoming interesting, and neither man is accustomed to thinking of a woman in his life when he's in the middle of a murder investigation. I love the omniscient point of view. By the time readers come to the end of a Cleeves novel, they've really come to know the characters because they've spent time in their heads. That points out one of the special things about this author's writing. How can readers spend so much time in the characters' heads without (1) becoming bored or (2) figuring out the identity of the killer? Besides being on Shetland again and watching Perez solve a murder, one of the highlights of Cold Earth for me was the growth of Sandy's character. In this book, he's beginning to come into his own, and that says a lot, not only about him but of Jimmy Perez, the man who could see that this young man appeared to be slow but wasn't and took time to work with him and turn him into a first-rate police officer. It's something you don't see that often, in fiction or in real life.If you're in the mood for tight plotting, excellent characterization, and a vivid landscape, you really need to pick up one of Ann Cleeves' Shetland Island mysteries. They are superb.
    • 4/5
      Gathered at the cemetery for the interment of Magnus Tait, the mourners, including Jimmy Perez, barely have time to move out of the way before a landslide topples tombstones and destroys Minnie Laurenson's former home. Perez discovers a body in the home which was believed to be vacant. Who is the woman? Is it the distant American relative who inherited the home or someone else? The autopsy reveals the woman was already dead when the mudslide occurred. Jimmy calls Willow Reeves in Edinburgh, asking for her assistance on the case. This installment shows Sandy developing better investigative skills. Suspects abound. A second murder near the same location leads investigators to look at those residing nearby more closely. I pinpointed the murderer rather early but it still was an engaging plot. I think there are some rather unrealistic elements to the plot. The wrap-up was perhaps a bit rushed and disappointing, leaving readers with additional questions left unanswered. Still, I'll read the next installment because I love this series.
    • 4/5
      Like most of Ann Cleeves books it doesn't take long for a body to show up and the investigative team of this small Scottish Island to spring into action. This dark tale introduced the reader to a variety of characters that all could have been suspects and all had secrets to keep. What actually makes this series engrossing are the characters. Jimmy, Sandy and Willow are completely different personalities, but feed naturally off of one another in ways that are unique to each personality. Although I had trouble grasping the entire reason for the murder I found the book engaging enough that it complimented the series and I am looking forward to the next one...which rumor says could be the last installment of this series.
    • 5/5
      You can't go wrong with a trip to Shetland Islands and the intrigue of following a Jimmy Perezadventure.The story begins in the dark days of a Shetland winter with a funeral and "torrential rains triggeringa landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea" (book jacket)In the wreckage of a home in its path, Jimmy find the body of a mysterious dark haired woman dressed in silk.Ann Cleeves allows Shetland to be a compelling backdrop and I'm never disappointed in the characters or learning more of the idiosyncrasies of the land and settlement.They are always interesting tales.I would recommend the entire Shetland series.A special thanks to Goodreads and Ann Cleeves for the signed hardback and bookmark I received.
    • 4/5
      I’ve not read the first 6 Shetland Mysteries. More background into the characters would have been helpful, but it also makes me want to read the others in the series. Character development is excellent and the mystery was intriguing. If nothing else was accomplished while reading this mystery, I noew want to visit the Shetland Islands
    • 4/5
      Why did I read it? I have enjoyed the Shetland series by Anne Cleeves thus far, and, as it is summer and I have time spare until next semester, I thought I'd pick up where I'd left off.What's it about? While attending a funeral, a landslide occurs ripping through the cemetery and destroying "Tain", a nearby croft house, thought to be uninhabited. While checking on the damage, Jimmy Perez finds the body of a woman. Initially thought to be a victim of the landslide, upon discovering the woman was dead beforehand, Jimmy asks Willow Reeves to head up the murder investigation.What did I like? The narration was clear, and without fault. The narrator, Kenny Blyth was decent, and good with accents.I loved re-visiting Jimmy, Willow and Sandy, and mainland Shetland. As always, the descriptions of people and places were illuminating, and I felt right there with the characters. Anne Cleeves is very good at evoking an atmosphere.What didn't I like? As the narrator, Kenny Blyth was a little disengaging; I found myself drifting away from the audio book, and had to rewind and re-listen a few times.I'm not sure what it was - the narration, the plot - but the whole story seemed to just drag on, and on, though, oddly, the murder is solved in a few days. I generally like this series, but I wasn't gripped at all. I'm afraid, too, I guessed the culprit almost from the first meeting. This has not always been the case with the Shetland series, so I was disappointed.Would I recommend it? Oh yes, to fans of the Shetland series, and those who like crime fiction, but start at the beginning of the series as this is not a stand-alone book, given prior knowledge of some of the characters is required in order to understand certain situations.
    • 4/5
      I eagerly awaited the US release of the latest Shetland Mystery by Ann Cleeves, COLD EARTH. This is the 7th Shetland Mystery featuring the Shetland Islands and Jimmy Perez. I was not disappointed.Ms. Cleeves writes her mysteries with complex characters, twisting-turning plots and a brilliant sense of place and cultural intensity. One wants to book the next ferry to the islands! She should receive a stipend from the Shetland Islands Tourist Board!In COLD EARTH, a sudden landslide smashes through a house and leaves a dead body in its aftermath. Our Jimmy Perez becomes a bit obsessed with tracing the beautiful dead woman’s identity and the reason she was living in this ‘thought to be uninhabited’ home.I like the way that Sandy has matured and is recognized for his good police work and detecting skills. Jimmy and Willow tiptoe around each other - Jimmy is still mourning Fran and very caring of Cassie. He is melancholy and not sure if any personal involvement is a good idea. Jimmy and Willow make a great detective team, however, and work very well together in solving this case. (with Sandy’s help)I would recommend any of Ann Cleeves’ titles, but this series really speaks to me. The BBC series is wonderful, also.