Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves

Minotaur Books, 416 pages, $26.99 (2018)

“Wild Fire” is DI Jimmy Perez’s last stand as seen by Ann Cleeves’ pen. (Who knows wither the television series goeth.) Cleeves told the BBC News that she’s “told all the stories she wants to tell and doesn't want to kill off any more Shetlanders because she likes them too much.” So this is the eighth Perez book and the fourth in what she calls the “Four Elements” series. (The first four are the “Four Seasons” books. I personally would have labeled them the Four Colors, but nobody asked me.) In a video done by “Promote Shetland,” Cleeves says that she wanted to end the series “before everyone got tired of me.” (Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_qzPwX2eF8 if you’d like to see more.)

Jimmy’s last mystery isn’t so much his as that of the group of interesting crime fighters Cleeves has amassed over the years, especially Sandy Wilson and Willow Reeves. Cleeves provides endings for all.

We were talking at our “The Other Book Group” meeting last month about how series books provide a serial or soap opera aspect to the main characters’ lives nowadays. In times past, we didn’t need to know a lot about our hero or heroine. For instance, we got along swimmingly with Poirot by just learning he was Belgian (repeatedly) and fussy; just give us some eccentricities to wake us up and we’re happy. Yes, we learned about Sherlock and Watson, but one work’s personal story didn’t necessarily bleed into the next work, with the exception of Reichenbach Falls. There was no true continuing storyline.

Sometimes now that’s mostly what we get: the personal storyline. I’m thinking of when Joe Pike was brought out of the shadows in Robert Crais’ series, or when Spencer goes haring off after Susan, or when Kinsey discovered she had a family. (Sorry if these were spoilers, but these are ancient plot lines. So getcher bad self down widdit!)

In Jimmy Perez’ case, he doesn’t have eccentricities, he has woes. His woes continue on an up and down trajectory over the course of the eight books.

//  We now interrupt our review to remind you that there are spoilers involved in this review because it is the eighth book in the series. //

As the book begins, Jimmy is still grieving and working on sharing custody of Cassie with Duncan Hunter, her biological father. Jimmy has a possible romantic partner, but he comes with a lot of baggage. Not to mention the Shetland Islands are fairly isolated, Jimmy has to fly hither and yon at times for his job or to visit his family on Fair Isle, and the weather can be treacherous. It would take a certain kind of woman to deal with that. Jimmy’s rather psychologically labile as a result of all the demands of the heart and the uncertainty of his future.

All gets pushed aside to discover who has strung up a young woman from the rafters of the barn belonging to a family just recently moved to Shetland. Sadly, it is the young autistic son in the family who discovers the body. Fortunately, he is a fan of CSI and, although he is only eleven, his interest is piqued. The young woman worked as a nanny for the children in the local doctor’s family. Two are in high school, but Emma Shearer, although she is only a few years older than they, was still responsible for chauffeuring them, along with watching the two younger kids, tidying, and being a dogsbody.

As Jimmy and the others delve into Emma’s life, it turns out that all was not rosy. She was pretty, although odd in demeanor, and that might have some relevancy in figuring out prospective killers. She landed on Shetland at a young age because her father abused her mother and wound up in jail. Although she was quite young, she helped raise her brothers and tended her dying mother. Leaving her home life was a way out for her, or so everyone thought. Who would want to kill this poor soul?

There might be a connection with a suicide that took place in the same barn. The young couple, Daniel and Helena, who bought the old farm have found acceptance hard to come by and gossip about themselves easy to find. Jimmy, et al., have to sort through the gossip and local misery to find out what the suicide, Emma’s murder, and yet another murder have to do with each other.

Ann Cleeves never lets her readers down in providing dense narrative handholds, i.e., there’s a lot of substance. And, at least for me, there was a satisfying conclusion.

I can only hope that Cleeves has other ideas up her literary sleeves.