In a market dominated by domestic noir and Girl On The Train-alikes, it's so refreshing to have a new Ann Cleeves novel to dive into. The Jimmy Perez series (adapted for the BBC as Shetland) are straightforward police procedurals of a kind that's not currently so popular or heavily marketed, but in Cleeves' hands the police procedural is elevated to something that is capable of both entertainment and emotion. She has a way of making the reader care greatly not just about her core cast of police officers, but also for minor characters, including the suspects. She is particularly strong on flawed families for whom your heart ends up aching, and in Wild Fire this role is played by the Fleming family, newcomers to Shetland who encounter first resistance and gossip from locals, and then a body in their barn. The investigation of the murder is satisfyingly twisty and the solution heartbreakingly tragic. Wild Fire is the last in the Shetland series, and proves to be a superb place to leave Perez.

How refreshing to read and old skool police procedural with natural prose, good characterisation and none of those ubiquitous 'twists'! I haven't read any of this series before (or seen any of the recent TV adaptations) but it's fine to drop in on what turns out to be the last of the series.

Cleeves cleverly updates the tropes of Agatha Christie so that here we have a closed circle of suspects, malicious anonymous letters, and a pair of murders. The ending isn't quite convincing but boy, I enjoyed the journey.

The Shetland backdrop is sketched in well and I loved the characters who, generally, feel realistic. I'd read Cleeves again, for sure, when in the mood for something light but page-turning.