I have finished my ninth book for the book challenge. It is another book by Ann Cleaves, a sequel to the first, entitled White Nights. Once again, Jimmy Perez of the Shetland Police is on the hunt for a murderer.
Where the last book took place is the dark winter months, this book takes place in the long summer days and nights of the Shetland Islands, where the Sun never really sets so that the nights are never really dark. Perez has finally asked Fran Hunter, a local artist, out on dates and they have become quite good friends. Fran and famous local artist Bella Sinclair have a joint art exhibition at Bella’s gallery in Biddista, a small community. Unfortunately, not many people are there for the opening of the exhibition, which is disappointing to both Fran and Bella. A guest at the exhibition has some sort of an emotional break-down, crying and claiming he doesn’t know who he is or how he got there. But when Perez tries to help him, he runs away into the night.
The next day, the man’s body, with a clown’s mask covering the face, is found hanging from the rafter’s of a boat shed in Biddista by one of the local men. Perez goes to investigate and the local doctor is called in. The doctor says that he believes the man was strangled and then hanged to make it look like a suicide, but he would like a second opinion. Perez calls for a second doctor but also calls for the investigating team from Inverness again.
Sounds good. A friend of ours just moved to Inverness. The days in the winter and summer are crazy. When we were in Oslo in July I never knew what time of day it was.
I don’t know if I could deal with the White Nights such as they have in the Shetlands. Even the detective from Inverness in the book finds them in Shetland to be too extreme.
I’m assuming Le Clown wasn’t the killer…