Thin Air

Shetland #6

by Ann Cleeves

A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a Shetlander. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. The following day, Eleanor's friend Polly receives an email. It reads like a suicide note, saying she'll never be found alive. And then Eleanor's body is discovered, lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.

Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to Unst to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the legend of the ghost had seemed unhealthy - obsessive, even - to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than there first appears.

Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill - many years later - to protect?

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Scotland, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Detective

330 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands...


Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.

While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.

In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.

For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.
Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony

Ann's short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award - once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award.

In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA's Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world's largest award for crime fiction.

Ann's success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London's Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: "I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock - but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I'd lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn't have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!"

The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O'Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine).

Ann's books have been translated into sixteen languages. She's a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200

Reviews

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shetland series has long been one of my favorites mysteries, and this book did not disappoint. Characterization: brilliant. Setting: lovely. Mystery: kept me compelled. Red herrings like wut.

I really could do without Detective Willow, though. She's rather annoying.

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can always be sure when I pick up a book by Ann Cleeves that I am going to enjoy it and I was proved to be right again!

The Shetland Islands breed some very unusual folks, not surprising really when the daylight lasts well into the night and every time you want go somewhere you have to catch a ferry. It's a very different kind of life style. Interestingly, when a body is found in a field it is left there for hours (with a police guard of course) while the necessary officials travel by plane or ferry from the nearest hub to investigate.

There are a couple of bodies in Thin Air and a whole lot of mystery surrounding them. There are ghostly sightings and people keeping secrets and not much chance, for me anyway, of guessing the murderer. There were lots of possibles and I was convinced by one of the author's red herrings into suspecting the wrong person entirely.

As usual the book was a pleasure to read, due largely to the really likeable character of Perez and to the way the author creates the atmosphere of the Islands. I am already looking forward to the next book.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

90% great, 10%.....wha? This is book #6 of the Shetland series featuring Detective Jimmy Perez. He's back on the job, still mourning the death of his girlfriend while caring for her daughter Cassie. After a young British woman goes missing following a wedding on Unst, he & colleague Sandy travel to the island. DI Willow Reeves soon joins them & they set up shop at Springfield House, a B&B converted from a manor with a haunting past. 
The missing woman was part of 2 couples who travelled from London to see one of their friends marry an island man. The women have known each other since uni so you'd think they had no secrets between them. You'd be wrong. 
Running parallel to the murder mystery is a subplot involving the ghost of Peerie Lizzie, a young girl who died in 1930. Her family lived in Springfield House & according to local folklore, she can still be seen dancing on the beach nearby. As the book progresses, both story lines are developed until it becomes clear there are ties between the present & the past.
 
I loved the previous books. Jimmy is a compelling character who is just starting to emerge from a dark depression following the death of his beloved Fran. He's a smart, intuitive cop, the guy his colleagues depend on & they're relieved to see signs of the old Jimmy returning. The author continues to use the customs, people & geography of the Shetlands as a backdrop to great effect. Descriptions of the fog, desolate landscapes & island croft houses lend the story a feeling of claustrophobic isolation, perfect for a mystery.
Characters are divided into locals & those from away and I appreciated the clash of cultures & dialogue. The only character I didn't enjoy was Willow. She's Jimmy's boss, a DI in charge of Serious Crimes but comes across as a lovesick, petulant child instead of a mature professional. The author repeatedly refers to her unkempt appearance, complete with a wardrobe of hand-me-downs from charity shops. I'm thinking someone in her position could afford basic clothing & a comb. 
This is not about car chases & shootouts. It's a quiet, thinking person's mystery, more about the characters than acts of violence. The communities are close knit & memories are long among the multi-generational families. There are occasional disputes but they band together to keep secrets from strangers. As some of these are gradually uncovered, the murder investigation changes direction several times & I enjoyed trying to figure out whodunit....right up 'til the end. This is where the story fell apart with an ending that seemed rushed & unbelievable. After being engrossed by the story, it felt like being jerked awake. When the killer was revealed in previous books, you could look back & see where you missed the dropped clues, admiring how the author cleverly concealed them. Here, I was left thinking "Huh...?", a bit disappointed that I never had a chance. Instead of being rooted in any of the story lines being followed, the killer's identity (& especially their motive) came out of the blue & I just couldn't buy it. It was like staring at a beautifully wrapped gift for days before Xmas & finally opening it to discover socks.
 
So...how to rate this. If I disregard Willow (irritating to me but that's not the author's fault), 90% of the book is a 4 star read. I'd give the last couple of chapters a 2.5. It was a case of a great book deserving a smarter end. Having said that I will read #7, hoping this is a blip in the series. The setting & main character are compelling enough that I want to see where his life goes next in this beautiful part of the world. 

[La Tonya Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eleanor Longstaff was found murdered on Unst in Shetland which is the furtherst north a person can go in the United Kingdom. She was in Unst to celebrate the hamefarin (wedding reception) of Caroline Lawson and Lowrie Malcomson, friends from college. Upon her death, people start to talk about the ghost of Peerie Lizzie, a ten year old girl, who drowned in 1930 on the island. Polly Gilmour, a college and long-time friend of Eleanor's, starts to actually see the little girl.

The investigation starts to take the investigators Jimmy Perez, Sandy Wilson, and Willow Reeves into ghost stories, abandoned crofts, and family histories better left forgotten. This is a fast pace read that will leave you confuse until the end. Another plus about this book you, the reader, get a sense of what the island looks and feels like with the descriptions of cliffs, voes, planticurbs, and wildlife.

Quotes:
'He raped a young girl to give his wife a baby?' Even after all these years Sandy was shocked.

Sometimes he thought it was the life of an islander that had attracted her, rather than him as a man, but maybe after all these years that didn't matter.

And that was when something had broken inside Polly. Because Cilla was old and snooty, and always treated Polly as if Eleanor was doing her the hugest favour in the world by befriending her. How could Marcus have anything in common with a woman like that?

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series I have read from the beginning, drawn at first to the unusual setting of the Shetland Islands. Kept reading because I loved the characters, the intriguing culture of a place I will probably never see, and the right combination of characters lives and plots. This outing finds Perez back on the job after a horrific circumstance in his personal life and a group of college friends, attending a Shetland custom after the marriage of two friends, one who was raised on the island. A folklore, possibly come to life, a song sung by school children and a few murders kept me reading. Do you believe in ghosts?

Another one I didn't guess who done it?

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a Shetlander. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. The following day, Eleanor's friend Polly receives an email. It reads like a suicide note, saying she'll never be found alive. And then Eleanor's body is discovered, lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.

Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to Unst to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the legend of the ghost had seemed unhealthy - obsessive, even - to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than there first appears.

Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill - many years later - to protect?

My Review: Series mysteries are a pleasure to me. I have a (well-concealed) orderly side, one that needs to see Right done even if it's not strictly speaking legal. The Right that's done here is a bit twisty, no doubt about that, but it satisfied me. Eleanor, the murder victim, is the sort of character that just needs killing. I've known Eleanors in my life and feel that way about each of them, though I hasten to say loudly and publicly that I don't condone murder as a means to make things Right.

Really. Honest.

But Jimmy Perez is a cop, a good cop, and even though it seemed to me that he secretly felt that Right was done in Eleanor's death, he set out to solve the crime that was committed in the course of setting things straight. Willow, the new Chief Inspector we met in the previous book, is a great character. She's just awkward enough to make Jimmy feel off-balance yet protective. He's still reeling from his love's death; he's still growing accustomed to being a single dad; he's got Sandy the PC Plod character making him crazy yet advancing in his own detecting capabilities under Jimmy's tutelage. Jimmy's a man with a lot on his plate. Eleanor wouldn't be someone he'd care much for in life and I suspect he'd simply do the minimum were it not for the cast of Shetland originals wrapped deep in the case's toils.

The series brings a delightful place on Earth's surface to light. (Pun optional.) As we follow Jimmy, Willow, and Sandy around in their investigations, the Shetlands feel like so much more than the land that holds the characters up as they walk around. The islands are palpable to me, as though looking out the window while I'm reading about Unst will show me Unst instead of Long Beach. That's a great feeling to have when reading a book about a place I've never been.

The BBC has a series based on the characters in the novels. It's had three seasons to date and a fourth will be produced. It's recently become available on Netflix so I suppose I'll binge it one day soon. I was completely enthralled by Ann Cleeves' other series, Vera Stanhope, in its ITV incarnation, and Brenda Blethyn is my idea of Vera. The seventh season is due next year, 2017, and I will be there for it with bells on. I've been more cautious in approaching the adaptation of this series because Jimmy is portrayed by actor Douglas Henshall, very much not the man I see in my mental movie of the series. A bit like Peter Capaldi as the Doctor...just about exactly wrong from my viewpoint.

Still and all, it pays to remain open. While Cleeves' first four Shetland novels were made into the first two seasons of Shetland, the third season has branched out on its own. That should make the cognitive disconnect of Henshall as Jimmy Perez a good deal easier for me to absorb. The books are a pleasure, there is a seventh full novel (after several novellas) appearing next year; the TV series bids fair to be worthy of attention; it's a good investment of your eyeblinks and dollars to pick up this habit. Start anywhere, the series aspect is a boon to your pleasure but not crucial to it.

[Margitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to throw the blurb in here. It's much more descriptive than I can make it. And please, humor me, and fall in love with the beautiful cover too, like I did.

A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a Shetlander. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. The following day, Eleanor's friend Polly receives an email. It reads like a suicide note, saying she'll never be found alive. And then Eleanor's body is discovered, lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.

Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to Unst to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the legend of the ghost had seemed unhealthy - obsessive, even - to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than there first appears.

Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill - many years later - to protect?

I am obviously in the mood for light, relaxing reads, and this one, a murder mystery with a touch of suspense and a pinch of ghostliness was a great experience.

It is one of those whodunits for the sleuthing detectives in us :-))

Of course the ending was a surprise. At least this time around. Common sense could have pinched me on the nose and I would have gotten the culprit, but I was just not in the mood for it. Okay that's my excuse.

So if you're in the mood for a highly atmospheric, picturesque detective drama in the British Shetland Isles, try this one.

I was just not emotionally invested enough to swoon. But overall quite worth the read. I will read this author again.

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book I really looked forward to reading since I love the Shetland series. What I like with the Shetland series is a.) the characters b.) the setting and c.) the crimes. I like Detective Jimmy Perez, he is such a steady character. He is still recovering from the loss of Fran, but now he seems to be more himself again. Detective Willow Reeves was introduced in the last book and I liked her from the beginning. This hippie cop together working with the steady Jimmy Perez. It's just a terrific pairing.

I liked the story very much in this book, I like that it didn't feel rushed that slowly, the pieces came together in the end. A tragic end, so much misunderstanding. The myth of the drowned child was an interesting part of the story.

Now I'm just waiting for the next book to be released...whenever that will be!

[Julie Durnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent mystery, tightly wrapped on a northernmost Scotland island. I loved the setting there and the time of year, being simmerdim, described as silvery dusk for the small amount of nighttime darkness. Jimmy Perez and Sandy Wilson just get better with each book, Willow I'm still on the fence with.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an enjoyable series, love the characters, really love the setting. Makes me want to live on a Shetland Island but I probably would not like the reality. Just let me live there in these books.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listening with Simon as we build a kitchen together. It was a bit convoluted and we found that we had to truly concentrate to follow all the threads. However, at some point, we predicted who the murderer was and we were right.

Standout quotes:

This first passage deals with how tragedy changes the lives of three people who travel to Shetland on vacation and encounter a tragedy that changes their lives irreparably:

"They'd come to Shetland expecting a great cultural experience, to meet the locals and experience the traditions, then they'd expected they'd all go home. They'd be full of stories to share with their friends in smart cafes and wine bars, but like visitors to a zoo, they'd be untouched by their stay. Instead, when they returned to London, their lives would never be the same again."

The second quote is as a result of a conversation Sandy has with Grusche about Caroline's motives and character: "He thought Caroline might turn into one of those bunny-boilers, very jealous and possessive." It took me a beat to realize that this is a reference to the emotionally unstable and vengeful character that Glenn Close plays in the movie, Fatal Attraction!

[Cristina Lazăr]

https://carti.blog/2023/10/16/aer-rar...

[Leslie Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this installment of the Shetland series, Jimmy Perez is still recovering from the death of Fran and struggles to bring up her daughter, Cassie. However, we start to see the stirrings of some feelings for Willow Reeves, the senior investigator. There is a murder on one of the smaller islands where the suspects are from Britain including the victim. They have rented a cottage to celebrate the marriage of one of their group to a local. The complexity of the relationships unravels as Jimmy, Willow and Sandy dig into the legend of Peerie Lizzie, a young girl who drowned many years ago, but allegedly appears as a ghost. This legend becomes the cornerstone of this murder and another later in the book. Also enjoyable is Sandy, who has slowly been coming into his own, is meeting a potential love interest, which is something that anyone who roots for Sandy, in these books, would be pleased about.



Jimmy also has the opportunity to visit the family of the dead woman in London. It is fascinating to see how he interacts with the urban community and the sophisticated people with whom he feels such an outsider. He takes his adopted daughter with him and there is some exploration of the strained relationships between him and her family. I liked these interludes and the contrast between the urban life and the island life.

Where, as usual, the author distinguishes herself and makes this book outstanding is in the description of the island, its people and the island life. The author has no illusions and doesn’t assume that everyone living on the island is simple or innocent in any way. She does, however, maker us understand that it is a slower and different way of life from that outside the islands. The lifestyle of the islanders is very much wrapped up in the landscape and environment in which they live. I really got a feeling of the isolation of the islands and also of the traditions which are so important to the people who live there. There is a slight element of a ghost story here connected with the legend of a dead child – this is nicely interwoven with the story and adds an interesting, eerie note from time to time. In fact, the tension and atmosphere is extremely well done in this book and there is a developing feeling of menace all the way through the story.

It is a delight to spend time again with Jimmy Perez and his colleagues. It is also interesting that the author is beginning to develop a relationship between him and Willow. I am really looking forward to see how that develops in future novels. This novel, however, is complete in itself and can be read by anyone who is new to the series. It is an excellent read – I enjoyed every minute of it and immersed myself completely in the world which the author describes and creates for us. This is a great series and it seems to be going from strength to strength.

[Suzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thin Air is the 6th entry into this favorite series. The series has in common many elements of other favorites. The place holds as much fascination as the mysteries, the cast of characters are fully realized and develop over the course of the series and the main protagonist is thoughtful and mostly careful in going about solving the crimes. I've said in other reviews that I really like Cleeves' writing feeling that it reflects the culture and pace of The Shetlands. This is not grit lit!

With that said, I thought this book didn't live up to the quality of the other five books, hence the 3 stars. While I liked the story, I thought the book dragged in parts and could have been 50-60 fewer pages. Many story elements felt familiar and the dilemmas of Jimmy Perez and his sidekick Sandy were all too common and sometimes feeling a little old. The ending felt rushed and one of the peripheral characters (Monica) didn't have a purpose to me. I liked it well enough to keep going to the end and will definitely read book 7 which looks to be coming out later this year.

I'm excited to be getting the DVDs for the tv show this week from the library. I love the Vera Stanhope tv show, Cleeves' other mystery series so I have high hopes for this one.

[tinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm being generous by handing out three stars. Two and a half would be more accurate.
Yes, all the elements of an entertaining and inspiring Shetland novel were there, but for the Monica character. She was not at all credible, her re-introduction into the story was left unexplained and she just seemed to be a hoax. The plot did not need more diversions and smoke screens. On the contrary, the book would have gained from some critical editing.

But I do still love Perez and the islands and I will read the seventh book in the series, no matter what.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Sentence: The music started.

The gathering of university friends for a wedding hamefarin’ on Unst in the Shetlands Islands comes to an end with the discovery of one of the friend’s body the next morning. Was it suicide, as indicated by an email received from the dead woman the next day? Was her death foretold by Perrie Lizzie, the ghost of a young girl who’d died there years before? Inspector Jimmy Perez and his team travel to the outermost island to find out.

Cleeves excels at creating a sense of place and painting visual pictures which employ all the senses. Even though few will be able to visit these rather remote islands, you have a true sense of being there, with the long days and weather contributing to the plot. To this, she adds just a touch of the supernatural still leaving you to question whether it truly is.

All of her characters are fully dimensional. You know their appearance, enough of their back story to give true sense of them, and even insights into their personalities and insecurities. The relationships are realistic, understandable and important. The interplay between the investigating team and that those associated to the victim are equally important and well balanced in the story. Yet it is Perez, his slowly maturing Sergeant Sandy Wilson, and Detective Willow Reeves brought in to oversee the case, who most hold our interest.

“Thin Air” is very well done, with a plot that takes us around and amongst the islands, leading us down one path to another, with very good twists along the way. Cleeves is a wonderful writer and one who should be on any mystery-reader’s list.

THIN AIR (Pol Proc-Insp. Jimmy Perez-Shetlands, UK-Contemp) – VG+
Cleeves, Ann – 6th in series
Minotaur Books – May 2015

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 6th book in the Shetland Island series by Ann Cleeves. I read the first one in this series and gave it 4 stars. This one was only 3 stars for me.

There wasn't as much of a sense of place in this book. I loved that part in book one. Maybe the author didn't want to sound repetitive....I don't know, but I felt this could have happened anywhere. There wasn't anything that stood out as unique.

I felt the story was well thought out, but it moved a little slow. I did page math a couple of times. But I liked the intricate nature of the hunt. So 3 stars.

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not you Ann, it's me, and it's time to part ways. I've truly enjoyed only two Jimmy Perez books out of six, and just the thought of reading the last two is sucking the life out of me.

They're too slow, the resolutions are unnecessarily convoluted, and the entire plot is comprised of interviewing the same witnesses over and over. *yawn*

[Rachel (not currently receiving notifications) Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether it be DCI Vera Stanhope in Northumberland or Inspector Jimmy Perez in Shetland, every novel of either series seems to seamlessly work as a standalone and much of that is testament to Ann Cleeves gift for characterisation and exposing the hidden motivations in a tight knit community. This sixth instalment is a brilliantly atmospheric encounter that makes use of the barren Shetland landscape and the history of folklore that is so entrenched in the upbringing of the islanders. In the wake of his partner's, Fran Hunter's murder, Inspector Jimmy Perez is slowly coming to terms with the changes to his life and the responsibility of caring for Fran's daughter, Cassie. With his colleagues still concerned about his mindset and his passion for the job the disappearance and subsequent murder of a woman visitor close in age to Fran heightens sensitivities in those around him. Although it seemed a fairly laboured and slow introduction to the events of the night which see a murder uncovered the next morning, Ann Cleeves takes time to present multidimensional characters and furnish the story with an impressive level of depth. Within sixty-pages of Thin Air the reader quickly finds themselves fixated by the characters and with a fervent desire to know which of the events in the life of a young woman has motivated a murder.

Lowrie Malcolmson returns to his family home in Unst, the most northerly island of the Shetland's, for his hameferin' and the tradition of taking his bride, Caroline, home. Their female friends from university have accompanied them for the celebration along with their menfolk, librarian Polly Gilmour and her recently acquired boyfriend, Marcus Wentworth and Eleanor and Ian Longstaff, themselves married for three-years. After spending thirteen hours on an overnight boat from Aberdeen to Lerwick the visitors are greeted by Shetland in midsummer and the discovery that it never really gets dark in June this far north. With the two couples staying at Sletts holiday cottage the evening of the hamefarin' celebration ends with Eleanor telling his friends of her earlier sighting on a child in oddly old-fashioned clothing, dancing and then suddenly disappearing into thin air. Polly believes her friend, having experienced something similar herself that evening, but husband Ian's scepticism irks his wife. When Eleanor, age thirty-six, is reported missing the next morning it becomes apparent that she has had a rather traumatic time of late and two miscarriages and a spell in a private psychiatric hospital at the insistence of husband, Ian, has left a tension amongst the group. In the wake of their university days some distance has come between the three women but Polly remains convinced her friend would not have committed suicide, citing her passion for her career in TV production and a recent uptick in her mood. When Eleanor's body is discovered in a shallow loch, seemingly murdered but left in an angelic pose, a cloud of suspicion descends in the closed community of Unst. As Perez travels down to London to learn more about the deceased, her family and her work he discovers her fascination with Shetland legend, Peerie Lizzie, the ghost of a young girl that is said to have drowned and haunts the land, most recently proposing plans to explore the origin of the myth in a forthcoming documentary, but given the supposed link between conceiving and a sighting of Peerie Lizzie was this simply wishful thinking on Eleanor's part?

Responsibility for untangling the case falls to Inspector Jimmy Perez and his rather green assistant, Detective Sandy Wilson. With Chief Inspector Willow Reeves based at Inverness in overall charge, and effectively Jimmy's boss, her appearance in Unst and the frisson of chemistry that exists between the duo brings a real charm to proceedings. Although about three-quarters of the way through the novel the investigation seemed to stall, a rousing finish sees Perez regaining some of his former decisiveness and leadership skills and Sandy showing his potential. With the team finding some real tenacity this a spirited novel that sees Eleanor's life stripped back and explored in brutal depth. The insightful observations of Polly as she starts to discover different sides to the friends she has cherished is well conveyed. As different aspects of the character of murdered Eleanor are reassessed, Ann Cleeves shows that appearances can so often be deceptive. When a second murder occurs and the locals conclude that the Londoners have brought trouble to the islands it seems that the answers to this mystery are surely to be found in the remote community of Unst. The awkward interaction between Perez, his team and the southerners exposes just how different the lives of the city dwellers and the native locals really are.

Given that the synopsis made mention to Eleanor disappearing "apparently into thin air"' and her claim about having seen a ghost child I was fully prepared for disappointment, assuming that the denouement would be marred by recourse to imagined sightings and a rather flaky and unsatisfying explanation, but Cleeves manages to pull a plausible motive out of the bag and did not disappoint! For an exploration of isolation on island communities under stress very few can hold a candle to Ann Cleeves and in Inspector Jimmy Perez she has fashioned a compelling protagonist who frustrates and delights in equal measure. Thin Air is steeped in the shadowy territory of ghosts and folklore and this delicately handled mystery is rich in otherworldly tension and unspoken emotions and is another very solid endeavour.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Cleeves is an author noted for her special talent when it comes to mysteries. I believe that this is the sixth book in her Shetland series. I read Raven Black some time back and intend to pick up the others in this series as well.

The story deals with a group of friends who are attending a wedding of mutual friends on the island. All are involved in the celebration until one of them lies at the bottom of a craggy cliff the next morning. It's the usual cat and mouse, back and forth, but this one is different because it deals with the island's folklore and ghostly images. Jimmy Perez is brought in to investigate and you know that Ann Cleeves has put you in good hands.

It appears that each novel can be read as a stand-alone as Ms. Cleeves gives you enough backstory on the main characters to see you through without confusion. While I sincerely enjoyed this one, I'd rank Raven Black a bit higher. Ann Cleeves deserves all the accolades for her spot-on writing talents.

[Stela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cam rarefiată și intriga. Dar tot nu mă las pînă nu termin seria😊

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Cleeves is back with her sixth book featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez in her Shetland's series which includes Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning, and(running out of colors)Dead Water. The novel opens with a group of old university friends from London arriving in Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, in mid summer to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends. Late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. The following day, Eleanor's friend Polly receives an email. It reads like a suicide note, saying she'll never be found alive. And then Eleanor's body is discovered, lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.

Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to Unst to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the legend of the ghost had seemed unhealthy - obsessive, even - to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than there first appears.

The setting is ominous with dense fogs obscuring the horizon until it is difficult to see where reality begins and ends. The legend of the child who had drowned when she slipped away from the girl who was watching her infests the lives of the local residents and creates a sense of impending doom.
Can Jimmy and Willow, who is more attracted to Jimmy than ever, find the killer of Eleanor and expose the real culprit of the legend of the lost child?

[Kitty Myers · Rating 2 out of 5]

It pains me to say this, because I've loved all her other books in the Shetland series, but "Thin Air" is horrible. Not the story. The basic story idea was good, but AC’s writing DROVE ME INSANE! She’d write one sentence of dialogue and then blather on about feelings and/or description and/or back story, so by dialogue sentence #2 I had completely forgotten what DS#1 had said and had to go back and re-read. “Thin Air” was as angsty as a pubescent girl’s diary. It was larded with all sorts of angsty characters and their angsty mates. I’ve never cared for a lot of description to begin with, since picturing it requires time and energy to form a mental image, and I lose the story thread in the process. And sometimes I can’t see the image as intended. Give me, the reader, some credit for imagination and get on with the story. Reading “Thin Air” gave me the distinct feeling Ann Cleeves was merely filling a word count quota. I'm being very generous giving it two stars.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sixth book in the Shetland Island series starts with a hamefarin on the island of Unst, the northern most island in Shetland. A local boy returns home with his new wife and her English friends. A hamefarin is a homecoming that brings almost everybody on the island to the party.

Unfortunately after the party, one of the English girls is found murdered. Who could have murdered the outsider is the question of the novel. The local myth of Perrie Lizzie, a young girl found drowned many years ago plays a part in the mystery. Has the young girl appeared as a ghost and a participant in the murder?

Jimmy Perez and his side kick, Sandy, are called to investigate. Accompanying them is Perez's boss from Inverness, Willow Reeve. Jimmy is slowly making a recovery from the death of his fiancée, Fran.

Although this is an above average mystery, it is not my favorite of the Shetland series. The book doesn't provide the same punch as her earlier ones. Still the sense of place in the book is superb. I love the description of the endless days where the sun seems to never set. I love the description of the dimming when it almost becomes night. I am fascinated by the life on the Islands and Cleeves provides a realistic portrayal.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a relief to see Inspector Jimmy Perez get some of his mojo back after the death of his fiancee six months earlier.

Perez is still feeling his way about gingerly through this murder investigation, but with less second-guessing of himself. He's become more comfortable as the guardian of Cassie, his fiancee's daughter. Of course, Perez is still feeling the pangs of grief but doesn't seem totally overwhelmed with them.

Four friends -- two couples -- have come to Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands, to help a friend celebrate her wedding to a native of the island. The same night as the celebration, one of the four vanishes, leaving behind a text message that reads like a suicide note. The body is found the next day, with Inspector Perez and Chief Inspector Willow Reeves called to handle the investigation.

I could honestly do without the ongoing innuendoes that the author has put in this story of Reeves' romantic interest in Perez. I think it detracts from the professionalism of the Reeves character and as a reader, I am not ready for Perez to become romantically involved with anyone so near the tragic death of his fiancee. Otherwise, this is a good story with plenty of red herrings and suspense.

[Mark Robison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t care for this one. I get the impression the first four books were supposed to comprise the full series, and maybe Cleeves had to extend it because of the TV series? The plot is overly tortured and convoluted, and the ending goes on and on trying to explain how the murderer could be the person it was, given the motive was flimsy and the killings out of character. Even the interesting new detective, Willow Reeves, was given nothing to do but stare longingly and kick herself for not being a stronger woman. Blech. Bechdel test: Pass. Grade: B-

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid novel in this series.

A difficult mystery to work out, as usual with the series. That’s enjoyable of course,as mystery readers enjoy being mentally engaged in the puzzle throughout the book and needing to work for it.

It also means, in this series, that the resolution at the end is lengthy and complex, and sometimes stretches credibility a little more than more direct mystery solutions.

That can be both interesting and a little less satisfying in an ending that you’d like to finally relax into, saying, ah, of course, I get it. Instead you work at processing the complex revelations all the way to the end.

That’s not the kind of negative that would cause me to knock down a rating unless it’s particularly hard to believe in how the resolutions hang together and explain things.

The resolutions here were fine—not powerful or delightful but reasonable enough.

I gave this 4 stars because it lacked the zing of deeply engaging characters and primary character development that I found in the previous novel. Similarly, the plot line was interesting enough but didn’t intrigue me as much as the last one.

Still, the deft hand of a skilled author is as clear and enjoyable as ever, and the evokes atmosphere of Shetland is remarkable. This remains a reliable and grab-the-next one series.

[Ilze Paegle-Mkrtčjana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sērija tuvojas noslēgumam, tāpēc daži novērojumi: a) ja detektīvstāsta darbība notiek arhipelāgā, tad iespējams izsprukt no Midsammeras slepkavību slazda, proti, līķu kopskaits tomēr nav tik liels, lai sāktu prātot par attiecīgās apdzīvotās vietas populācijas sevišķi amorālo dabu; b) shēma 1+1(+1) tomēr ir mazliet apnicīga, ja 1=slepkavnieka upuris un minētā shēma atkārtojas vairāk nekā 2 vienas sērijas grāmatās. Bet visā visumā forši un izklaidējoši, ja gribas "novērst domas".

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.4* out of 5. Maybe this is the book in the Shetland series that I actually liked best. I still think this book suffered from the same trouble as all the others - lack of enough motivation in the perpetrators to perform the grisly crimes. It was pretty good overall though.

Six friends - three couples - come to Shetland. One set, Lowrie and Calorine, to celebrate their marriage (or the like). Then Caroline's two best friends, Polly and Eleanor, and their partners. Eleanor has her own production company is intending to make a documentary about a local ghost story - sightings of a child that drowned many years ago. Polly and Eleanor both claim to have seen the ghost after a walk on the beach. Then one night, Eleanor gets murdered. Jimmy Perez and Willow investigate. It's the usual claustrophobic island life investigation into dirty family secrets.

The one thing this book had was a plethora of potential murderers. There were plenty of red herrings and I never for a minute guessed at the actual perpetrator. So overall this was okay, but I wouldn't read any more in this series now even if there was more.

[Obsidian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. I think it was because the mystery in this one at least made better sense than the last one. It wasn't great either, but there were clues there that you could follow in retrospect after you got to the end. 

"Thin Air" takes place 6 months after the events in the last book, "Dead Water". We follow Inspector Jimmy Perez as he is called away to help find a missing woman who was in Shetland for a wedding party. Many people think that the English woman is just missing, but when she is found murdered, Jimmy, Sandy, and Willow have to find out who wanted the woman dead and why. 

So Jimmy is doing much better in this book, it's been a year since he lost Fran and he is working cases. The fact that he is able to leave Cassie with her father for some over nights says a lot about how much he has loosened up. He still has pain over Fran, but is trying to be better and make sure Cassie sees her grandparents. 

Sandy kind of came into his own in this one I thought. We get to see an old love of his, but he is also wondering about the death of a young girl from about 70 years ago and how it can tie into this case now. 

Willow finds herself thinking of Jimmy in a different way in this one, and I can see where the wind is blowing there. But I like that it didn't take precedence over the actual mystery.

I did like the writing in this one a lot and the clues that Cleeves leaves for us to find. This one felt more intricated and at times reminded me of a Vera Stanhope novel. Just with a lot less loathing of colleagues that Vera has going on most of the time. 

The flow of the book works from beginning to end and I honestly didn't put this one down until the murderer was revealed.

And unlike with the last book, I have to say that I really enjoyed this one and it made sense about the murders unlike with the last book. And honestly the reason why the last one was a bit of a mess was because of the second murder that occurred and the ties that victim had to the murderer.