Wild Fire (Shetland, 8)

Product Information

Nominated for three Scottish BAFTA Awards: one for best scripted television show, one for scriptwriter David Kane, and one for actor Douglas Henshall (DI Jimmy Perez). Series 5

How did you find the experience of seeing your series adapted for television? Was there a particular story that you loved seeing come to life on screen? I have read some, but not all, of the books in the Shetland series. There are strands carried forward from books I hadn’t read, but it was easy to get up to speed. This book works fine as a stand alone.DI Jimmy Perez is approached by a Helena, a woman whose family are new residents on the island. She has been receiving anonymous notes with images from the game "hangman," and asks for Jimmy's help. When Emma, the nanny to the children of the Island's Doctor Moncrieff, is found hanged in Helena's barn, where the previous owner hanged himself, by her autistic son Christopher, Jimmy calls together his team, including Willow Reeves, the Chief Inspector of the Serious Crime Squad and Jimmy's occasional lover. Complex relationships hide dark secrets.

The team struggles to get a coherent picture of the dead woman, who had worked for the Moncrieffs for a number of years but seems to have made barely an impression on the couple and their children. She liked to dress in 1950s style and cut quite a dash in her home-tailored garments – attracting the attention of more than one male admirer. Could the killer be on-off boyfriend Magnie Riddell? Or even Daniel Fleming, who admits to having been obsessed with Emma? Just as the evidence begins to fit together, the case is thrown into disarray by another murder. Shetland, it appears, is still a dangerous place to live. There’s also the question of what Magnie, Emma's boyfriend and his busybody mother, have to do with it all. We see how bitterness and an unsatisfactory life can affect a person and the trouble this person can cause to himself and to others!

The Shetland books in order

All seven series of the award-winning television drama, inspired by - but very different to - Ann Cleeves's Shetland mysteries, and starring Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez, are now available on DVD. US viewers can also watch it on BritBox or with Prime Video.

A story of dysfunctional families and fractured relationships, Inspector Jimmy Perez’s eighth case will intrigue series fans and Shetland Island newcomers alike. As for the case before that though. An interesting one. A woman comes to see Perez at home as she knew his wife, knows Cassie and has a problem. She moved to the village recently and now lives in a house where a man was previously murdered. Now that barn, the scene of the crime is the scene of something more and a case involving regret, despair and...well to tell you anything else is to give the game away and you have to say farewell to Jimmy yourself. In regards to the characters, Jimmy Perez develops because there are tragedies in his life. His former wife says that he's 'emotionally incontinent'. Perhaps he gives too much sympathy and compassion to his colleagues, to the victims and even to the offenders. He doesn't have much kindness left for the people close to him. By the end of the series I hope his priorities have slightly changed. The idyllic surroundings of the island take a sudden turn when the body of a young nanny is found dead in one of the family's out-buildings. All eyes turn toward Helena and Daniel. Is there a connection here with Emma? If not, then why was her body found on their property? Families falling apart because of every day problems they don't know how to handle and how easy it is for a person to sneak in and mess with them and also how self centred people may force others to take actions to lead up even to murder! But also how people can overcome problems and stand up to the challenges thrown at them!

Publication Order of Two Rivers Books

I am extremely sad that we will no longer be able to read about DI Jimmy Perez's adventures, and although I thoroughly enjoyed the journey towards the conclusion, I found myself deflated by the resolution. I feel it is very important to produce a spectacular climax to a novel, but especally when it is the last book in a fantastic series. I know I will miss Perez as will many other readers. I felt there was much more to come from him, and his story didn't feel like it had come to an end. All in all, exactly what we have to come to expect from Cleeves: a wonderful setting, a thrilling story, exceptionally drawn characters and atmosphere. No one evokes the landscape better! Goodbye Jimmy, you'll be a miss! I still feel that since it was the last book of the series I would more things about the main characters but it was nice enough! For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.