Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Dead Water: A Shetland Mystery
    Dead Water: A Shetland Mystery
    Dead Water: A Shetland Mystery
    Audiobook10 hours

    Dead Water: A Shetland Mystery

    Written by Ann Cleeves

    Narrated by Kenny Blyth

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Ann Cleeves returns to her critically acclaimed Shetland Island series, now a BBC television show available on streaming.

    Dead Water is the next stunning mystery featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, who readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, and Blue Lightning. When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow.

    The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface.

    In Dead Water, a triumphant continuation to her Shetland series, Ann Cleeves cements her place as one of Britain's most successful crime writers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateFeb 18, 2014
    ISBN9781427241344
    Dead Water: A Shetland Mystery
    Author

    Ann Cleeves

    Ann Cleeves is the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV's The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann also spends her time advocating for reading to improve health and wellbeing and supporting access to books. In 2021 her Reading for Wellbeing project launched with local authorities across the North East. She lives in North Tyneside where the Vera books are set.

    More audiobooks from Ann Cleeves

    Related to Dead Water

    Titles in the series (8)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Skeleton Crew

      Nov 6, 2020

      Skeleton Crew
      6 min read

    • Article

      Skeleton Crew

      Nov 6, 2020

      Skeleton Crew
      6 min read

    • Article

      It’s A Small World

      Jul 3, 2023

      It’s A Small World
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Great Pilot Cutters

      May 25, 2023

      The Great Pilot Cutters
      3 min read

    • Article

      Smack In Time

      Jan 14, 2023

      Smack In Time
      8 min read

    • Article

      On The Edge

      May 9, 2019

      On The Edge
      7 min read

    • Article

      The SHIPWRECK COAST

      Apr 15, 2020

      The SHIPWRECK COAST
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sea Solace

      Aug 14, 2020

      Sea Solace
      7 min read

    • Article

      An Everlasting Call

      Sep 9, 2020

      An Everlasting Call
      5 min read

    • Article

      Stormy Lesson

      May 9, 2019

      Stormy Lesson
      8 min read

    • Article

      South Seas navigation

      Oct 10, 2019

      On Sunday morning the sky cleared and a soft west wind filled our sails. The Cap Pilar slipped merrily northward – away from the cold, grey, westwind seas – away from the gales and rain and fog – northward toward the edge of the tropics. The wind gai

      4 min read

    • Article

      Running Man Rock

      Nov 5, 2020

      Running Man Rock
      8 min read

    • Article

      Coastal Heaven In NORTH DEVON

      Dec 12, 2019

      Motorhome Bailey Advance 76-2T Duration 4 days When Autumn Why? Stunning scenery and a great base for exploring some of the more remote parts of the coastline I well remember motoring away from Croyde on a gorgeous August afternoon in my little whit

      8 min read

    • Article

      Solo around Sheppey

      May 16, 2019

      Solo around Sheppey
      10 min read

    • Article

      Daylight Rendezvous

      Aug 13, 2020

      Brook Richards First published 2004 (Frank Cass) This two-volume edition published Pen and Sword 2012 Operation Marie-Louise was the rescue of Resistance leader Gilbert Renault (Rémy)’s family from Occupied France in 1942. It involved disguising a re

      4 min read

    • Article

      Red Sea Delight

      Dec 5, 2019

      Red Sea Delight
      7 min read

    • Article

      Entertainment Afloat

      Jan 2, 2020

      In 1963 Charles Stock converted a 16ft 8in Fairey Falcon hull into a midget sailing cruiser, Shoal Waters. She was engineless and gaff-rigged and sailed 70,000 miles around the Thames Estuary over the next 35 years. ‘Don’t just sit there’, says Stock

      4 min read

    • Article

      East Coast Creek Explorations

      Dec 9, 2021

      Nick Ardley has sailed around the Thames Estuary all his life and now does so with wife Christobel aboard Whimbrel, a Finesse 24. We enjoyed a cracking sail over from our club moorings at the eastern end of Canvey Island and passed Grain Fort before

      3 min read

    • Article

      It’s The Taking Part

      Sep 10, 2021

      You’d think that with the year’s favourite virus stamping on any attempts to have fun, this summer would have been a thin one for regattas and festivals. Certainly, some events have been struck off, but the efforts of a number of committees to delive

      5 min read

    • Article

      Tempting Fate

      May 11, 2023

      Read about sailing all your life and you won’t find another book quite like Bound for Cape Horn, with its interesting subtitle Skills for Expedition Cruising. Any suggestion this might be yet another text book on how to do it is dissipated in the ope

      7 min read

    • Article

      Navigating By Road Map

      Nov 24, 2022

      Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers, edits The Marine Quarterly, and is perpetually patching up a 30ft ketch: samllewellyn.com The rain is hammering on the window behind the curtain. Beyond the hammering is a crunchy sort of ro

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Dead Water

    4/5

    286 ratings24 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Another great Shetland thriller. Ann please write some more!
    • 4/5
      Book Description
      Ann Cleeves returns to her critically acclaimed Shetland Island series with this stunning mystery featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, who readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, and Blue Lightning. When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface. In Dead Water, a triumphant continuation to her Shetland series, Ann Cleeves cements her place as one of Britain's most successful crime writers.

      My Review
      Let me start off by saying that this is a great series. I love the characters and the atmosphere of the Shetland Islands. I was glad to see that Jimmy Perez is starting to get over Fran's death and I hope that he finds a new love interest soon. Although I liked this book very much, it was lacking slightly from some of the first Shetland books as the reason for the murder was a little weak and the solution was not solvable because not to many clues were forthcoming until the very end. I do, however, still look forward to the next book in the series and hope to be reading it soon.
    • 5/5
      love Shetland series. enjoy the adventured of fair isle and Lewicki , and all of the Shetland islands. most interesting is Perez life and how he is so deep and understanding island life.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book. It was given to me by a friend, and as I don't tend to read murder mysteries I haven't read any of the others in the series. I didn't find this mattered too much as the characters were well defined and the main storyline was well contained in the book, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having read the others.

      I find it well written and I liked the straightforward narrative. I loved the descriptions of Shetland, and the way in which every so often sentences were inserted, particularly in reference to birds singing, so you never lost the sense of where the story was set. There was an awful lot of tea and coffee made throughout the novel though - practically in every scene!

      While I probably won't read another novel in the series or by this author as it isn't really my kind of book, I did like it and would recommend to anyone who enjoys this genre.
    • 4/5
      Another solid mystery from this author. Once again, she weaves a tale of the past coming back to haunt residents of Lerwick and the rest of the Shetland Isles. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. As Jimmy deals with his loss, another Shetland Islander returns from the Big City on a mission. But before anyone can figure out why the famous journalist has returned from making his name in London, he is found dead. But he isn’t found where he was killed. Instead, his body was set afloat in a yoal near the Fiscal’s home. Is it a warning for her? Or is it a coincidence? Is the Fiscal involved? The only hints to set the team on its way — with a new SIO from the South to fill in for Jimmy — are links to a local woman with whom the victim had a relationship years ago and the experimental energy development project she is now working on. Yet again, I never saw this one coming. I almost hate to continue the series because eventually it has to end.
    • 5/5
      I found this book to be a much more satisfying one than the previous one, in which Ann Cleeves decided that Fran Hunter must die. In my view, which was unnecessary. Anyway, the book started with Jerry Markham's murder and set off a chain of events that required investigation. Jimmy, still mourning Fran's death, refused to investigate, and so we are introduced to Willow Reeves, his new boss. As always, the human and cultural elements in her books are fascinating, as she weaved a compelling story for us. For me, her stories are more about this element than about the murder.
    • 5/5
      The fifth book in the Shetland series, this novel did not disappoint. Not only is the plot line good, but the descriptions of the setting and the ongoing story of the main characters is especially good. Well worth reading, but read the other 4 first for maximum enjoyment.
    • 4/5
      Dead Water by Ann Cleeves is the fifth book in her Shetland Mystery Series. While Inspector Jimmy Perez is still being affected by events from the last book and has only returned to work on a part time basis, a new character is introduced in Willow Reeves who has arrived to oversee the investigation into the murder of journalist Jerry Markham. Jimmy finds his interest is aroused by this case and with his local knowledge of both people and landscapes, he and Willow are able to eventually bring this case to a successful conclusion.I really liked this book, the murders intrigued me, the Shetland setting captivated me and I was interested in seeing Jimmy Perez start to recover from his depression and begin to show some interest in his life again. This series often highlights how many secrets the close-knit communities on the Shetland Islands hold, and once again as this investigation leads the police around the islands, the reader gets a sense of this remote place and it’s cultures, both old and new. Dead Water was a very satisfying read. Since I watched the BBC drama that was made of the series, I cannot help but picture actor Douglas Henshall as Jimmy Perez. Although he looks nothing like the written description of the character, the portrayal of this down-to-earth, steady detective who balances his work with his love and care of his daughter is spot on. I am looking forward to continuing on with book number six.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, moving story, clearly based on the author's experience as a cook in a Shetland bird reserve and using her local knowledge and that of obsessive birders to create a complex plot. Jimmy Perez has taken his fiancée Fran to Fair Isle to stay with his parents for a few days break when he finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation as the only local policeman when the weather prevents reinforcements arriving.
    • 4/5
      I love the bits of island life and culture in this series!
    • 4/5
      Ann Cleeves has a way with settings. It seems as if you are there, on the tiny islands of the Shetlands, with its traditions and its old ways of life bumping up against the newest of technologies as the islands try to ensure their people thrive and stay happy. Jimmy Perez, local, is recovering from his own personal tragedy and isn't up to his usual level of detection, but when someone he grew up with returns to the islands from the big city and is murdered, his depression can't even stop him from becoming interested in the case.And, as usual, what seems to be a fairly straight forward murder case is far more complex, and intertwined with the intertwined families of his beloved islands.
    • 5/5
      4.5 Stars. Another cracking read in this excellent series.
    • 4/5
      From Book Cover:

      When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface.

      My Thoughts:

      I found that this may my least favorite novel of the Shetland series...which by no means indicates that I didn't like the book. Ann Cleeves' transitioning between characters remains seamless...but I did feel somewhat overwhelmed by the number of players this particular murder investigation involved. I was unaware who the killer was until quiet late in the story and only picked them out after no one else was left.
      Dead Water is a mystery that seemed to lack that moment of surprise and magnitude of the other Shetland novels possessed... but none the less it was an enjoyable and satisfactory reading experience and earned it's 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      Since Fran's death, Jimmy Perez has not been himself. He's not been able to function and is mainly on leave. When a native Shetland journalist now working in London is found dead on the Island, Sandy Wilson secures the scene until the new Inspector Willow Reeves can make it. Fortunately Jimmy gradually eases himself into the investigation, and when a second murder occurs, he's definitely completely involved. The fiscal is the one who found the body, making her a suspect so she leaves that case to her assistant. Suspects abound, and readers (and listeners) can easily picture many of them being the perpetrator. I was pretty sure I knew which chief suspects did not do it, but I really was not certain of the murderer's identity until it was revealed. I'm very happy Cleeves decided to resume the series. I listened to this one via audio book from Overdrive, read by Kenny Blyth.
    • 4/5
      Dead Water picks up six months after the traumatic events of Blue Lightening. Jimmy Perez is on part time medical leave and is completely detached from his work as a Shetland Island detective inspector.

      Rhona Laing, the Procurator Fiscal, is a member of the women's rowing team. Looking out her window one morning she sees the team's boat drifting away from the marina. When she drags it back to shore she discovers the body of Jerry Markham, a London investigative reporter. Jerry grew up on the island and his parents own and run an upscale hotel. Rhona calls the local police and Detective Willow Reeves is sent out from police headquarters in Inverness. Markham had few friends on the island, running off to London years ago after a scandal involving a young employee of his parents hotel. Police wonder if his death has anything to do with a story he was investigating on the local green energy controversy. Jimmy is drawn back into the investigative world after Willow seeks his help interviewing the locals.

      I love the Shetland atmosphere – bleak and remote and surrounded by the sea. There is a lot of local culture that makes this a unique place. I like the way the author switches the narrative between each character and their point of view. This technique makes the characters more dynamic and real for me. Jimmy is very brooding but can't help but be drawn into the investigation. I hope we see more of Willow in the next book if Cleeves continues her Shetland mysteries.

      Dead Water was a welcome return to the Shetlands and it does work as a stand-alone novel. There are characters and events from the prior books that might be ruined for the reader if they don't read the books in order. The four original books of the Shetland Island Quartet are Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones and Blue Lightening.
    • 4/5
      Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Publisher Says: Ann Cleeves returns to her critically acclaimed Shetland Island series with this stunning mystery featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, who readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, and Blue Lightning. When the body of a journalist is found, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted from outside to head up the investigation. Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed in this case, and he decides to help Willow. The dead journalist had left the islands years before to pursue his writing career. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl. When Willow and Jimmy dig deeper, they realize that the journalist was chasing a story that many Shetlanders didn't want to come to the surface. In Dead Water, a triumphant continuation to her Shetland series, Ann Cleeves cements her place as one of Britain's most successful crime writers.My Review: Cleeves' trademark simplicity of language, her amazing gift for limning a character in a sentence and a setting, her painterly use of color and composition to make the story richer: All present, all accounted for. And it's not one single bit of a surprise that British television pounced on these tales. May they have the monster (comparatively) success that Cleeves' other sleuth-series, Vera, has had.Originally the books were to be a quartet, which I think we all know means four of something. Here we are on the *fifth* book in the quartet...and a cynical little part of me (known as "the whole body and soul") thinks this fifth entry was inspired by the TV show's existence. I feel it shows in the too-muchness of everything in the story. Too much angst, and from more than only Jimmy the widower. The secondary cast is all angst-ridden, frustrated, scared of something happening, something not happening, something coming out to embarrass them. This gets wearing. In the extreme. It took three days for me to read a book whose predecessors were devoured in hours.One big surprise is the role of the Fiscal, previously a testy martinet. A new light is shone on her character and a resolution is crafted for her that I myownself felt was too sympathetic. The resolution of the mystery, in fact, seems too sympathetic, and the guilty are, well, sprung on us in a feat-of-detection solution to the logic puzzle that all mysteries are. This isn't my favorite of the series, but I can't deny myself the pleasures of reading even an oversized undermysteried Ann Cleeves novel.
    • 5/5
      DEAD WATER by Ann Cleeves is the 5th title in her excellent SHETLAND series.I was very anxious about Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez - is he able to come to grips with his grief after losing his finance Fran? I am so fond of this strong, quiet, thoughtful character that I didn’t want to see him moody, devastated by grief and self-loathing, turning to drink and wasting his investigative skills by leaving the force. But I needn’t worry. Though Jimmy Perez is on the brink of despair, he is slowly brought back to the force when local boy turned hot-shot London journalist, Jerry Markham, is murdered. A new ‘boss’, Willow Reeves, is brought to Lerwick to take charge of the case and DI Reeves and Sandy Wilson encourage Jimmy to help with the investigation. Once again, the main character of the book is the Shetland Islands, its culture and inhabitants.DI Jimmy Perez, though much gloomier, lethargic and grief-stricken, slowly comes to life again as he helps to peel away, layer by layer, the personalities and secrets of the Islanders.I think that DI Willow Reeves is a great new character (very complex) and I keep rooting for Sandy Wilson to mature and gain self-confidence. The procurator fiscal has always seemed a distant, smug, arrogant, cold fish sort of character and while I am glad to see she has a human side, I won’t be sorry to see her head South to a new job.The mystery is so well-developed and the characters so multi-layered and complex that I didn’t want to put the book down until the very end. The ending surprised me - I had a different scenario worked out in my head.A brilliant mystery; a fantastic ‘sense of place’ and inspired investigative work by all the team. Ms. Reeves’ insights at the very beginning of the case bear remembering.Procurator Fiscal - a public prosecutor in Scotland
    • 5/5
      I was really sad when I got to the end of the Shetland quartet so I was over the moon when I heard that Ann Cleeves was writing more books in the series. In Dead Water, Jimmy Perez is still coming to terms with the terrible tragedy that happened in Blue Lightning. He's still off work, but the death of Shetlander Jerry Markham, a journalist who had moved to London but was back on the islands visiting, fires up his investigative skills once more. Working again with Sandy Wilson and with newcomer Willow Reeves, he takes his brooding personality and dark looks around the island to try and work out what has happened.I do love this series. The backdrop of the Shetlands seems a bit like Jimmy, dark and brooding. The island life is quite fascinatingly portrayed. I never had a clue who the culprit was until it was revealed, which I think is clever plotting and no mean feat. I'm happy to see that book six is already out so there is more of this great series to delight me with.
    • 4/5
      British author Ann Cleeves strikes again with another excellent police procedural in her Shetland Island series. Jimmy Perez is back on part-time duty after the tragic events of the previous novel in the series. This book introduces a new Supervising Officer, and I'm not sure I like her. But this was another good installment in the series. I like how Cleeves gets into her characters minds and shows how they fail to understand each other.
    • 5/5
      I was recommended this book. It is an excellent read. Ann Cleeves is an American author and this book is incredibly enjoyable. I believe there are other books of hers set in the same place. The story is well developed ant the characters very real. If you like crime books , try this.
    • 5/5
      When I first learned that Ann Cleeves' books featuring Jimmy Perez were expanding beyond the original quartet size, I was a bit worried. I should not have been. Cleeves has delivered another tightly woven mystery within its beautifully evocative setting of the Shetland Islands.The mystery centers on a journalist in search of a story-- a journalist whose checkered past on the islands adds to the list of possible suspects. The story he's researching seems to do with alternative forms of energy, and Cleeves does an excellent job of weaving this into the story, along with the energy sources' possible effects upon the islands and their inhabitants.As usual, it's the characters that bring everything to life, and two of them in particular. Perez's portrayal as a man frozen in grief rings painfully true, and readers who have followed these books from the very first (Raven Black) will hurt along with him and long to see him on the road to recovery. The second character to share the spotlight in this marvelous book is Detective Inspector Willow Reeves. She's smart, she's quirky, and she's brought in especially since she was born and raised on the Outer Hebrides-- a bit of a joke, proving that those in charge in places like Aberdeen or Edinburgh don't know as much as they think they do. One group of islands off the coast of Scotland is not exactly like any other. I liked watching how Willow fit herself in with a new group of people, and if this series continues, I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of her.Dead Water continues one of the aspects of this series that I love the most. In this day and age of technology, forensics, Google, and everything else, it's the people who solve the crimes. Police officers like Perez and Reeves solve the case because they get out and do the work; they check records, they talk to everyone who needs to be talked to, and they listen. Forensics is all well and good, but to investigators like Perez-- and writers like Ann Cleeves-- forensics serve to back up the evidence that people have worked hard to uncover. I like it like that.
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining, my first read in the Shetland series. The setting is a big feature, the island history, landscape, culture, economy all add to the interest in this book. The main characters, Willow Reeves, Jimmy Perez and Sandy Wilson have a satisfying mixture of personalities and problems, revealed as they investigate and solve murders .
    • 5/5
      Loved it as ever! particularly her detective and the Shetland setting. Much more connected with the oil industry this time, which is interesting: the deals the Shetlanders cut with the industry were complex but rather impressive.
    • 5/5
      Fans of Ann Cleeves' Shetland series will be pleased to welcome the return of Jimmy Perez. We did wonder if we would ever see him again.Jimmy has not yet officially returned to work when the body of Jerry Markham, local boy made good, is discovered dead in the Procurator Fiscal's youl. Although a new young investigator from the Inverness Serious Crime Squad is sent to take charge of the case and theoretically Jimmy is not connected to the team. But he is drawn in, asking questions of the locals even before he realises that he has returned to work. And he and Willow Reeves, heading up her first murder investigation, make a good team, even though neither trusts the other completely.This novel has everything we love in a murder mystery - a good plot, some local colour, well described settings, some interesting characters. An excellent read that flows like silk and I took note of the words "Ann has launched the first of a new quartet" so we have another 3 titles to look forward to. Hopefully including Willow Reeves.If you haven't read any Anne Cleeves novels, you could start with this one, and then I'm sure you'll look for the earlier quartet that begins with RAVEN BLACK. Ann now has 26 novels to her credit, including the Vera Stanhope series, so you have plenty to look forward to.