An English family move to Shetland to give their autistic son a better life. But a young nanny is found hanged in their barn rumours circulate and DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate.
A well conceived and delivered tale. The nanny isn't as nice as she is portrayed, treating the children badly. All because her father mentally and physically abused his family. ( )

Murder

The final story in the Shetland series. An interesting murder mystery tied into a history of child abuse. Perez learns he is to be a father to Chief Inspector Willow Reaves child. At the end he decides he will leave Shetland and move to Orkney to be with Willow and the coming child. A very good series. Kirkus: Along look into the dynamics of a troubled family is needed to solve several murders.Inspector Jimmy Perez is intrigued when he gets a visit from Helena Fleming, a newcomer to the Shetland Isles who?s well-known as a designer of garments featuring Shetland wool. The local man from whom Helena and her husband had purchased their house hanged himself in the barn after he landed in dire financial straits, causing not only consternation but a certain resentment among the locals. Now Helena has received little images of gallows and hanged men written on bits of graph paper and is concerned about the effect they might have on her autistic son, Christopher, who?s already being taunted by some other children. Because his dead lover, Fran, was an artist and he helps care for her daughter, Jimmy is sympathetic to Helena?s plight. But it takes the discovery of Emma Shearer, a friend?s nanny who?s found dead in the Flemings? barn, to kick the investigation into high gear. When Jimmy?s boss, Willow Reeves, arrives from the mainland and reveals that she?s pregnant by Jimmy, their fragile, complex relationship is shattered by his inability to come to terms with her news. Instead, he and his team focus on unearthing motives for Emma?s strangling. Emma had to deal with a boyfriend whose protective mother hated her, the not-totally-unwelcome attentions of Helena?s infatuated husband, and her problems with at least the two older Moncrieff children, whose welfare had been left almost entirely in her hands while their parents pursued their own interests. The deeper the detectives dig into Emma?s unfortunate past and those of their suspects, the more convoluted and difficult the case becomes.Fans disappointed to see the last of Cleeves? hero will be happy to know that the final case in this complex, character-driven series (Cold Earth, 2017, etc.) is a tour de force.

(2018) Final book of the series. A young woman is found dead hanging in a barn where another person was found hanging a few years earlier. She was a nanny for a well-to-do Shetland family with 4 children, two of them teen age boy and girl. It turns out that she had been abusing the teens and the girl Martha decided to kill her with the help of her brother. Willow Reeves helps Perez figure this one out in the end and then they come together to raise their unborn child in Scotland. Kirkus: Along look into the dynamics of a troubled family is needed to solve several murders.Inspector Jimmy Perez is intrigued when he gets a visit from Helena Fleming, a newcomer to the Shetland Isles who's well-known as a designer of garments featuring Shetland wool. The local man from whom Helena and her husband had purchased their house hanged himself in the barn after he landed in dire financial straits, causing not only consternation but a certain resentment among the locals. Now Helena has received little images of gallows and hanged men written on bits of graph paper and is concerned about the effect they might have on her autistic son, Christopher, who's already being taunted by some other children. Because his dead lover, Fran, was an artist and he helps care for her daughter, Jimmy is sympathetic to Helena's plight. But it takes the discovery of Emma Shearer, a friend's nanny who's found dead in the Flemings' barn, to kick the investigation into high gear. When Jimmy's boss, Willow Reeves, arrives from the mainland and reveals that she's pregnant by Jimmy, their fragile, complex relationship is shattered by his inability to come to terms with her news. Instead, he and his team focus on unearthing motives for Emma's strangling. Emma had to deal with a boyfriend whose protective mother hated her, the not-totally-unwelcome attentions of Helena's infatuated husband, and her problems with at least the two older Moncrieff children, whose welfare had been left almost entirely in her hands while their parents pursued their own interests. The deeper the detectives dig into Emma's unfortunate past and those of their suspects, the more convoluted and difficult the case becomes.Fans disappointed to see the last of Cleeves' hero will be happy to know that the final case in this complex, character-driven series (Cold Earth, 2017, etc.) is a tour de force.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018ISBN: 978-1-250-12484-5Page Count: 416Publisher: MinotaurReview Posted Online: June 18, 2018Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

This series is a great audiobook go-to while I'm doing housework or otherwise not able to focus my full attention, but it kind of stumbled to the finish line in this final installment. Once again an accident/suicide is discovered to be a murder, and once again it sets off additional murders. The relationship between the murderer and their victim is more complicated this time around than in previous installments, but new twist in the mystery part of the book wasn't enough to make up for the exasperating romantic relationship side, which is tedious and repetitive. ( )