THE KILLING STONES, Jimmy and Willow are back!

THE KILLING STONES (Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves #1; Shetland series #9)
ANN CLEEVES
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: The Killing Stones marks the eagerly awaited return of Ann Cleeves' beloved detectives from the Shetland series, and a gripping new investigation with a stunning new setting, from the New York Times bestselling author and creator of three iconic detectives beloved in TV and DI Jimmy Perez (the Shetland series), DI Vera Stanhope, and DI Matthew Venn (The Long Call).

It's been several years since Detective Jimmy Perez left Shetland. He has settled into his new home in Orkney, the group of islands, off the northern coast of Scotland, with his partner Willow Reeve and their growing family. One stormy winter night, his oldest and closest friend, Archie Stout, goes missing. Ever the detective, Perez catches a boat to the island of Westray, where Archie worked as a farmer and lived with his wife and children.

But when he arrives he finds a shocking scene: Archie's body, on an archaeological dig site and an ancient Westray story stone with precise spirals carved into it beside him, the clear murder weapon. The artifact, taken from a nearby museum, seems to suggest a premediated murder.

But Perez is so close to the case that he struggles to maintain an objective distance from the potential suspects. He finds it difficult to question Archie's wife, whom he's known for years. Rumors swirl about the dead man's relationship with a young woman new to the island, an artist. With each new lead, the case becomes more twisted and Perez wonders if he will ever find out what happened in his friend's final days.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I was totally all-in from the moment I heard we were going to Westray! The Westray Wife has fascinated me since I first saw Alice Roberts slightly lose it when she was allowed to hold it on Digging for Britain. (Now that Time Team's basically quarterly, I get my UK archaeology fix from Professor Roberts.)

So I was primed to love his new branch of the Cleeves mystery dynastic tree...with Jimmy and Willow leading the charge into this gloriously beautiful landscape, how could I go wrong, right?

Oh dear.

Much back-and-forth travel is natural for people on islands; it's there in the earlier Shetland series as well. It felt more foregrounded here, I suspect because Author Cleeves is also establishing the Orcadian landscape in our readerly minds. We're also awash in cups of tea as the sleuths sit down for a cuppa with, seemingly, every single inhabitant of Westray. The sheer amount of talky-talky in this book leads me to recommend against an ear-read, or one would go stark staring mad trying to keep up with the speakers.

What really sealed my not-that-favorable rating was the fact Jimmy officially gets involved in his friend's murder investigation because Christmas is coming and the locals don't much want to do anything. I think that's bloody unlikely to hold up in court. The identity and motive of the killer are pretty predictable...once revealed...but still arrived out of what felt to me like left field.

This story begins a new series with Jimmy and Willow expecting their second child, living in Orkney, and Willow being a full-time carer...a trope I get, but pregnant again, still working enough to help, and Jimmy lunges at a chance to get into a murder he has no sensible reason to be involved in against all ethical boundaries? I really do not think someone who has not read the Shetland series will have an easy time feeling welcome.

I'll keep going in the new stories. For now. But it will be in hopes of a return to prior form.