Wild Fire

Starred review from July 9, 2018
In CWA Diamond Dagger–winner Cleeves’s excellent eighth Shetland Island mystery (after 2017’s Cold Earth), designer Helena Fleming and her family have settled in a remote community on Shetland, where she has become a local celebrity by using “Shetland wool to create garments that were shown at London Fashion Week.” One day, Helena is dismayed to find a crude drawing tucked inside a copy of the Shetland Times depicting a gallows. Soon afterward, her 11-year-old son discovers the body of their neighbor’s young nanny, Emma Shearer, hanging from a beam in their byre. Det. Insp. Jimmy Perez, who initially takes charge of what could be a murder case, calls in a crime team from Inverness, which includes his occasional lover, Willow Reeves, who brings emotional complications to the investigation. A number of local residents appear to have had some sort of an ax to grind with Emma, and several suspects emerge. Intricately plotted and elegantly written, this installment is billed as Perez’s final case. Series fans will be sorry to see the last of him. Agent: Sarah Menguc, Sarah Menguc Literary Agent (U.K.).