Ronald Knox wrote 10 commandments for detective fiction about 100 years ago. I think Ann Cleeves should look at rule #8: The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader. Early in the novel Willow and Perez withheld information from the reader which may not have been critical, but the ending of the novel was a bit much. I may or may not have figured it out, but the author needs to play fair.
I enjoyed reading this novel and am happy to see the return of Jimmy Perez to a new island community. I am looking forward to another Orkney novel, but I did walk away with a couple more issues.
One was the mention of a picked carving in chapter 10. Was this an autocorrect by some software from a Pict carving?
The other was the apparent red herrings of the title and the inscriptions on the stones. When I read the inscriptions, I attempted to resolve the crime from those inscriptions, but apparently they were red herrings. Would have been more fun if the solution were crafted from those stones. However the title itself apparently was also a red herring. Not fair.
However, I am looking forward to more of Jimmy and Willow in Orkney..
Ann Cleeves may not fit the theme of my blog but Ronald Knox does and is worthy of attention. If the author wishes to violate a rule, review how well Agatha Christie deliberately did this in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
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