New Releases by Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy is the third novel in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. For Dorothea Cassidy Thursdays were special. Every week she would look forward to the one day she could call her own, a welcome respite from the routine duties that being a vicar''s wife entailed. But one Thursday in June was to be more special than any other. It was the day that Dorothea Cassidy was strangled. As the small town of Otterbridge prepares for its summer carnival, Inspector Stephen Ramsay begins a painstaking reconstruction of Dorothea''s last hours. He soon discovers that she had taken on a number of deserving cases – a sick and lonely old woman, a disturbed adolescent, a compulsive gambler, a single mother with a violent boyfriend and a child in care – and even her close family have their secrets to hide. All these people are haunted, in one way or another, by Dorothea''s goodness. But which of them could have possibly wanted her dead? It is not until a second body is discovered that Ramsay starts to understand how Dorothea lived – and why she died. With the carnival festivities in full swing and dusk falling in Otterbridge, Ramsay''s murder investigation reaches its chilling climax . . . ''Nobody does unsettling undercurrents better than Ann Cleeves'' – Val McDermid, author of The Mermaids Singing

WINNER OF THE CRIME WRITERS'' ASSOCIATION DIAMOND DAGGER AWARD 2017 The Mill on the Shore is the seventh novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. Meg Morrissey will not believe that her husband James committed suicide. A famous naturalist and founder of Green Scenes, a pioneering magazine about environmental issues, James was in high spirits because he''d finally completed his long awaited autobiography. He didn''t leave a suicide note. But even more suspiciously the record of his life''s achievement, his magnum opus, has gone missing. Troubled, Meg calls in amateur sleuths George and Molly Palmer-Jones to investigate. George and Molly''s interviews soon reveal that the life of the Morrissey family in their beautiful converted mill is not as idyllic as people are led to believe. Nor are relations with James''s ex-wife Cathy as friendly as Meg would like to make out. And, it emerges, James had fallen for another woman. Despite this, however, he appears to have had no enemies. Who could have wanted him dead? The disappearance of the autobiography is highly suspicious and George and Molly wonder whether the motive for the killing is to be found within its pages. Could the famous environmentalist have uncovered a secret so damaging someone was prepared to kill for it? Or was it something in James Morrissey''s private life that led to his death? George and Molly must try to fit together the missing pieces of information to reveal the cleverly suppressed motives which have driven someone to murder.

In the aftermath of a young archaeologist''s discovery of human remains that may be modern, Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate a case that is further complicated by the subsequent murder of an elderly woman.

A stunning second installment in the acclaimed Shetland Island Quartet, White Nights is sure to garner American raves for international sensation Ann Cleeves. This series is the basis for the hit BBC show Shetland,starring Douglas Henshall, which attracted over 12 million viewers in its first two nights on the air. Raven Black received crime fiction''s highest monetary honor, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. Now Detective Jimmy Perez is back in an electrifying sequel. It''s midsummer in the Shetland Islands, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws an elaborate party to launch an exhibition of her work at The Herring House, a gallery on the beach. The party ends in farce when one the guests, a mysterious Englishman, bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he''s come from. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter, and Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that the man has been murdered. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella''s musician nephew, is murdered, too. But the detective''s relationship with Fran Hunter may have clouded his judgment, for this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.

When she finds her beloved cats and some protected wildfowl dead of illegal poison, elderly Ursula Ottway threatens to expose her landlord, politician Marcus Grenville, as an anti-preservationist. Within hours, Ursula is dead . . . by the same illegal poison. Now, as George and Molly Palmer-Jones reconstruct Ursula''s last days, it becomes clear that her sharp eyes and long memory had posed a deadly threat not only to Marcus, but to his chilly wife, his alienated offspring, and others. To bring a killer to justice, Molly and George must uproot a lifetime''s worth of secrets and expose a nest of vicious human vultures.

No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry . . . . . . But here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David''s Eve. And when detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn''t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. Even among her neighbours, Alice Parry''s helpfulness had sometimes misfired; and after her death, tension tight as a clenched fist grips the uneasy village. Meanwhile, the suspects keep rolling in, and Heppleburn''s friendly neighbourhood killer continues his nasty piece of work .