Shetland's bookshelf: Eight ‘Shetland Noir’ classics

Sharon Bolton is now a bestselling author but it all began with Sacrifice, her gothic thriller set in Shetland.

Consultant surgeon Tora Hamilton makes a gruesome discovery deep in the peat soil – "the perfectly preserved body of a young woman, a gaping hole in her chest where her heart has been brutally removed".

Tora’s subsequent ordeal is perhaps not the best advert for attracting NHS staff to Shetland, as she unearths a murderous and uncanny male conspiracy. Fair to say the novel attracted some local derision, mainly for a few ornithological errors. But it is not meant to be entirely realistic, and we think it is highly entertaining. A real page turner.

Third in the DI Jack Dawes detective series, a brutal murder takes place at Doomdochry castle as young Astrid is tossed to her death under the cold light of the Muckle Flugga lighthouse.

Scotland Yard’s best arrives to assist the Northern Constabulary but when DI Dawes’ wife Corrie unearths a new clue at a Christmas party, she also flies north to help him out.

A great tale with very likeable characters, but don’t expect authentic Shetland locations. We were a little nervous about the private helicopter charter from Inverness to Unst, but apparently it’s just within the max range of the Robinson R44. (Librarians like to check these things.)

The original title was ‘The Colour of Death’, but canny publishers are adding ‘Shetland’ to titles, now that we are the crime capital of the UK!

Now that the TV series has confused us a little, it is good to return to the original stories by Ann Cleeves.

We love TV ‘Shetland’, especially because the library has starred in several episodes, but the eight books are enjoyable in a different way and the whole series makes a satisfying slow burn read.

Raven Black was launched in the Shetland Library in 2006. That arresting first image of blood on snow with black ravens changed Ann’s life and put us on the crime map.

Loner Magnus Tait becomes a target when young Catherine Ross is found murdered, but thoughtful detective Jimmy Perez delves deeper into local tensions and secrets. Meantime he meets Fran, a single mother with her daughter Cassie. The rest is history.

“The bright yellow colour was a jacket. It was a body by the side of the road. A slight young man, a stranger…”

Shetland Black is one of the many natural colours of Shetland wool, but it is also a fitting title for this thoughtful 2002 short novel by Laureen Johnson, who is also one of Shetland’s best poets.

Laureen realistically depicts the tension and fear caused by an unexplained death in the tiny community of Whalvoe, and how it touches the lives of all nine inhabitants.

Christian Tait had already written about how deeply the First World War affected Shetland and her own family (Stones in the Millpond, 2001), and her ongoing research inspired this novel, published by the Library in 2018 for the 100^th anniversary of the War.

In 1917 a young soldier returns from the front to convalesce with his Lerwick family. But far from being traumatised by the War, Jamie has relished the chance it gave him to indulge the darkness in his character.

Psychopathic and manipulative, soon he has a devastating impact on the family, particularly young servant Kirsty.

"So traumatic was his rule, particularly in Shetland, that his baleful legend lives on".

Much of Shetland’s history is a bit ‘Noir’ and Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney and Lord of Zetland, is one of our most notorious characters – dark yet fairly colourful, you could say.

Famous for his extravagant lifestyle, he built Scalloway castle and apparently never went anywhere without "a convoy of fifty musketeers". This in depth history describes his background and "the constant, vicious, occasionally murderous strife that marked his sway".

Few authors, shy of Ann Cleeves, herself, have done more for the profile of Shetland than Marsali Taylor, with her prolific writing and a love of sailing and Shetland shining through in all her novels.

Death on a Shetland Longship is where it all began. The series centres around young Cass Lynch, a reformed’ islander, returning home (grudgingly) in order to work on a Hollywood film, which serves to introduce movie stars, murders, and the titular longship upon which Cass is to crew.

This is a well plotted murder mystery, which baffles many an armchair detective with the author’s now trademark intricacy.

Young Cass Lynch has her own history, of which we learn as the story progresses, and makes for an engaging, likeable heroine, who develops over the course of the series.

In 2015, the Wastside Writers group decided that year’s Shetland Noir festival was as good an excuse as any to publish their second collection of short writings.

Visiting authors such as Stuart McBride and Kevin MacNeil supported them with tutorials and advice, and the ensuing anthology, Wastside Noir, is a testament to the talent in the Shetland writing scene.

There are darkly pensive poems from the likes of Beth Fullerton and Nat Hall, mysterious offerings of prose from Marsali Taylor and a dialect tale of rodent invasion by Barbara Fraser.

A final flourish of humour from Fred the Praying Mantis, courtesy of Doug Forrest, is the perfect denouement to the collection.