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 appears to be 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 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 they first thought.
Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill - many years later - to protect?
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(@panmacmillan, 11 September 2014, ebook, 398 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I've read a few of the books in the Shetland series and really enjoy them. There's something oddly appealing about the setting, an unlikely place for murder to be committed, more the sort of place you'd expect a cosy mystery to take place than a thriller, lulling you into a false sense of security before the terrible things start to happen. One of the strengths of these book is how vividly the setting comes to life, how you can see, taste and feel everything. Thin Air is no exception, I was pulled right into the story. I've grown to love the characters, especially Jimmy. As ever, Cleeves drops hint at what's going on but there are twists and turns and you never quite know what's what until the end.