Raven Black


Raven Black is a 2006 novel by Ann Cleeves that won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime novel of the year. The novel is the first in a series known as the 'Shetland Island' series.

Synopsis

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter notices a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance...The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man—loner and simpleton Magnus Tait, who was the prime suspect a number of years earlier when a young girl named Catriona disappeared. But when police insist on enlarging their investigation, a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst.
Detective Jimmy Perez, who grew up on the nearby Fair Isle, is called in to investigate.

Adaptations

The BBC adapted Raven Black for television in 2014, as the first and second episodes in the second series of Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall as Jimmy Perez and Brian Cox as Magnus Tait.