4th in series. Great story.KIRKUS REVIEWNobody, not even the murderer, can leave the island until the storm clears.Jimmy Perez, a thoughtful, taciturn inspector in the Highland and Islands Police, takes his fianc?e Fran, an artist steeped in London gossip, mores and sociability, home to isolated Fair Isle (think patterned, hand-knit sweaters, fishing, birding and not much else) to meet his parents. Work, however, delays their wedding plans when Angela, the naturalist in charge of the Field Centre, is left with a knife in her back and a wreath of feathers entwined in her hair. Whodunit? The suspect list is limited to the residents of the fogged-in island: Centre administrator Maurice, the older husband Angela was cuckolding; his rebellious teenage daughter Poppy; the assistant island warden; the Centre?s lesbian domestic do-it-all; and the couple and two single men, birders all, who came to add to their life-lists. Bored with learning to knit and consume tea, Fran helps Jimmy with his investigation. But there?ll be another gruesome death and a sighting of a rare trumpeter swan that makes birders and the media clamor to get to the island before justice, if not peace, prevails.The fourth and final installment in the Shetland series (Red Bones, 2009, etc.) is bound to create an appetite for its predecessors. Cleeves?s updating of the Golden Age setup�a small cadre locked in with a murderer and unable to leave¥includes deeply conceived characters, sorrowful familial relationships and a plot just serviceable enough to hold them.

(2010) Another very good Perez who dunnit with Fair Isle being over-run with bird watchers and scientists as a rare swan has been discovered. Soon a naturalist Angela is murdered in a very ritualisitic way. Another murder follows shortly as another woman is killed. Climax comes as Jimmy has figured out that a nature journalist is the killer but too late to save Fran, his fiance who is also slain. Motive is that Angela had stolen the man's research in self promoting her ?discovery? of another rare bird in Russia years ago. The other two victims are collateral damage as the murderer tries to cover his tracks. Jimmy, blaming himself for Fran's death wants to leave the island and quit being a cop, but Fran let's him know in her sketchbooks that she wants him to take care of her 6 year old daughter. Jimmy decides to stay on and do as she wishes.KIRKUS REVIEWNobody, not even the murderer, can leave the island until the storm clears.Jimmy Perez, a thoughtful, taciturn inspector in the Highland and Islands Police, takes his fianc?e Fran, an artist steeped in London gossip, mores and sociability, home to isolated Fair Isle (think patterned, hand-knit sweaters, fishing, birding and not much else) to meet his parents. Work, however, delays their wedding plans when Angela, the naturalist in charge of the Field Centre, is left with a knife in her back and a wreath of feathers entwined in her hair. Whodunit? The suspect list is limited to the residents of the fogged-in island: Centre administrator Maurice, the older husband Angela was cuckolding; his rebellious teenage daughter Poppy; the assistant island warden; the Centre's lesbian domestic do-it-all; and the couple and two single men, birders all, who came to add to their life-lists. Bored with learning to knit and consume tea, Fran helps Jimmy with his investigation. But there'll be another gruesome death and a sighting of a rare trumpeter swan that makes birders and the media clamor to get to the island before justice, if not peace, prevails.The fourth and final installment in the Shetland series (Red Bones, 2009, etc.) is bound to create an appetite for its predecessors. Cleeves's updating of the Golden Age setup�a small cadre locked in with a murderer and unable to leave¥includes deeply conceived characters, sorrowful familial relationships and a plot just serviceable enough to hold them.Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 2010ISBN: 978-0-312-38435-7Page count: 368ppPublisher: MinotaurReview Posted Online: Aug. 6th, 2010Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1st, 2010

Another satisfying installment in an always reliable series. Tight prose, fully realized characters. Key scenes and explications are elided, but it makes for economical storytelling without feeling obscure. ( )

Another enjoyable crime novel based on Shetland. Didn't expect the end! ( )

3.5 stars

On the “Fair Isle”, a part of the Shetland Islands, there is an observatory with a group of bird watchers in attendance. Police detective Jimmy Perez is visiting home with his fiancee, Fran. Jane is the cook at the observatory, which is also the place where most people stay when they come to the Fair Isle. Angela and Marshall run the observatory, and Marshall’s teenage daughter is also visiting. Unfortunately with bad weather, everyone is stuck with no way on or off the island. Then, someone is found with a knife in her back.

This was good. It is quite atmospheric, but in all honesty, I tend to tune much of that out. I did have a bit of trouble figuring out all the characters at the start of the book; it didn’t help that at least one of the characters (though I did eventually figure it out) was sometimes called by his first name and sometimes by his last (Jimmy Perez). Overall, though, the story ended up being good, and I liked it as much as the first in the series and better than the other two. ( )