Raven Black – Ann Cleeves

Ravenswick, on the Shetlands, is a small community of just four dwellings, a little way out of Lerwick, but far enough to be isolated. And those that live there are about to have their lives hit by tragedy and heartache.

There is Magnus Tait, a strange old man living alone on the hillside, long viewed with suspicion since the disappearance of a young girl some eight years previous. In the school house is teacher Margaret Henry, her husband Alex and teenage daughter Sally. Another teenager, Catherine Ross, lives next door with her widowed father. In the other cottage is single mum Fran Hunter with her little girl, Cassie.

When a strangled body is found in the snow at Ravenswick the local Detective Inspector James Perez tries to keep an open mind on the new crime, while everyone else is pointing the finger at Magnus Tait.

The unfolding story is told from multiple viewpoints, effective in developing the characters and done cleverly enough to unravel the mystery slowly and teasingly. Atmosphere is added in the shape of the icy Shetland winter and the build up to the fiery Viking festival of Up Helly Aa.

The balance of plot, location and character is a real strength of the book, so that even after the culprit is revealed in a tense and twisted climax the reader is left with a desire to find out how the other players’ lives continue.

So the sequel, ‘White Nights’ becomes a must-read.

Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett

There are changes afoot in the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. Captain Vimes is getting married and retiring and the troop has been swollen by new recruits. However due to the implementation of an ethnic diversity / equal opportunities policy they are a bit of a mixed bunch - Cuddy is a dwarf, Detritus is a troll and, most outlandish of all, Angua is a woman (albeit with an unconventional problem once a month).

Death is not uncommon in Ankh-Morpork; the Assassins’ Guild sees to that. But a rash of unexplained demises offends Corporal Carrot’s moral compass and he is determined to get to the bottom of things.

Carrot’s innocence and decency has novelty value in the city, eliciting cooperation from unlikely sources, and despite his lowly rank he emerges as the natural leader in Captain Vimes’ preoccupied, pre-nuptial, absence. He turns out to be a capable detective too, working out the complexities of the whodunit where most of the citizens have ‘dun’ something untoward.

But it is not all plain sailing. Clowns, civil unrest, a weapon of mass destruction, and a small but talkative dog all intervene, giving Pratchett plenty of opportunity for his trademark satirical comments (Discworld being only slightly distorted version of our own) before climactic events give the new Watch a chance to prove its worth.

This second book in the Night Watch trilogy pleasingly develops the characters from book one, and has a stronger plot while retaining the same level of wit and humour. Which all bodes well for volume three.

Go Set a Watchman – Harper Lee

Jean Louise Finch, the child narrator of the author’s iconic “To Kill a Mockingbird” returns in this companion piece, recently published but written and set in the 1950s.

Here Jean Louise is in her mid-twenties, working in New York, but back to visit her family in Maycomb, Alabama.

Much has changed in the sixteen years since the trial and acquittal of Tom Robinson. A world war abroad and, at home a civil rights movement that threatens the southern whites’ way of life, while promising more than it can really deliver to the negro population.

Jean Louise is discomforted by the resistance she sees to what she considers progress; more shocking is the discovery that her father, Atticus, and her on-off local boyfriend, Henry, are both attending meetings of the Citizens Council. This self-appointed group discuss tactics to frustrate the diktats of the Federal Government and the pressure of the NAACP (never expanded in the book to its full - National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People).

The book develops into two strands. Jean Louise’s reminiscences fill in gaps from her childhood and adolescence (when she went by the nickname of Scout), and these work well evoking the voice familiar from Mockingbird.

Meanwhile in real time she rails against her father and family; her politics and their pragmatics have no common ground and she is bewildered and disorientated by Atticus’ failure to live up to her expectations. This strand is less appealing, the adult voice lacking both the charm and clarity of youth (such is growing up).

The political arguments are of historic interest now, but the timeless issue is the changing relationship between a daughter and her father, as her childhood hero appears to have clay feet. But appearances can be deceptive.

Watchman (the conscience is the watchman of the soul) was never going to rival Mockingbird, but it still makes for an interesting read.

DJ Tees – John Nicholson

Nick Guymer is a freelance Teesside journalist with a passion for football (the Boro) and music (specifically retro vinyl) and when a local Tees Radio DJ is murdered during the opening of a pal’s record shop, he inevitably gets involved.

Unusually for a crime thriller, he’s not having a mid-life crisis - he’s off the beer, his depression is under control, and he’s in a great relationship with girlfriend Jules.

As the case of DJ Tees develops, most of those involved turn out to be lads he knew at school – the Detective Inspector, a couple of suspects, and a few witnesses (small world, Stockton on Tees). One new face is the charismatic Davey James, local entrepreneur and flavour of the month guy with the media.

Nick and Jules attract his attention for different reasons: Nick is a cool operator with attitude that he could use in his business; Jules just gives him the hots. The attraction is not mutual and their unease with him is strengthened when Mrs James turns up at the women’s refuge where Jules helps out.

The idea of male violence worries Nick, not least as he often resorts to it in a way that later sickens him.

The plot twists and turns, stretching credibility in parts as multiple and mixed up motives provoke characters to unlikely actions. But it moves at a fast pace, and its attraction for Teessiders (I just about qualify) is the geographic and cultural detail that anchors the book firmly in its distinctive location – Stockton, the ‘Boro’, and ‘Darlo’.

This is book four in the Nick Guymer series; the jury is out on seeking out numbers 1 to 3.

They Were Counted – Miklos Banffy

Set in Hungary in the first years of the 20^th century, this is an epic of love, honour and duty that captures the mood of the junior partner in Austria-Hungarian dual monarchy under the Hapsburgs.

The narrative is driven through the lives of two aristocratic cousins, Balint Abady and Laszlo Gyeroffy. As the book opens they are on their way (separately) to a sumptuous ball at the stately home of a relative. It will not be the last ball described and there will be no shortage of relatives either.

Both men are young and ambitious. Abady is interested in politics and is returning from a spell in the diplomatic service in Vienna to help run the family estate, and to stand for the national parliament in Budapest. Gyeroffy is a talented musician, a popular performer at parties, and keen to compose great works.

But they are subject to distractions of their social whirl – mainly in the form of attractive young princesses, countesses and heiresses.

Thus Abady is drawn, dangerously, to a childhood friend, now an attractive woman, for whom his feelings have deepened; but Adrienne Miloth is now married to the coldly unstable Pal Uzdy. Her perceived unavailability drives him back towards an old flame, the lovely, and also married, Dinora Abanyi.

Meanwhile Gyeroffy is smitten with Klara Kollanich, who is young, pretty, rich and single. Three thing stand in his way of a successful courtship: her Mama has her earmarked for a better match; he is targeted as a lover by the older but alluring Countess Beredy; and he is falling under the spell of the gaming tables.

Banffy unfolds events in unhurried fashion, interspersing the action with lyric descriptions of the Transylvanian landscape and architecture, but all the time building anticipation for the final climactic episodes. Except that they are not the end of the story, for this is just volume one of the Transylvanian trilogy.

Although likened to Trollope’s political novels, this, though equally readable, has more gravitas and passion (some tastefully explicit).

Very enjoyable and those loose ends dangle tantalisingly, pointing the way to volume two.