The killing stones

Detective Jimmy Perez returns (after Wildfire) in bestseller Cleeves's crafty latest whodunit. It's the Christmas season, and Jimmy, who has settled in Scotland's Orkney islands, learns that his best friend Archie Stout has disappeared. Jimmy catches a ferry to the island of Westray and finds Archie dead, his head battered by a sacred Neolithic story stone stolen from the local heritage center. While visiting Archie's widow, Jimmy learns that his friend never returned from the nearby Pierowall Hotel bar the night before. Suspects include popular teacher George Riley; Archie's friend, Rosalie Greeman, with whom he might have been having an affair; and a pair of secretive archaeologists doing work on Orkney. When Jimmy finds George murdered in an ancient burial chamber beside another story stone, he broadens his inquiry, adding George's brusque lover to the list of suspects. Tension builds until someone else turns up dead, and Jimmy discovers a pattern underpinning the killings. The intensely personal nature of the case infuses it with welcome emotional depth, and Cleeves keeps readers guessing until she delivers a gutting climactic reveal that few will see coming. This proves Detective Perez still has the goods. (Sept.)

When a detective's best friend is murdered, the investigation turns up some painful secrets. Jimmy Perez and his life partner, Willow Reeves, met in Shetland but currently live in Orkney--both Scottish archipelagoes--with their son, James, as they await the arrival of a baby soon to be born. Both are passionate about their police work, so Willow's not surprised to come home to a note saying that Jimmy's best friend, Archie Stout, is missing and Jimmy's gone to Westray to help in the search. Next morning, he calls to tell her that Archie's dead, found in the remnants of an archeological dig, hit in the head with one of a pair of ancient stones usually kept in a museum. Archie was a fearless risk taker, a hot-tempered Viking with a passion for the isles of his birth. Jimmy goes to Archie's family farm to question his widow, Vaila, in hope of finding a clue from a long list of enemies he's made in the past and his actions the day he died. Despite the two sons he shared with Vaila, Archie was always a flirt, and Jimmy learns that he had several extramarital affairs, most recently with Englishwoman Rosalie Greeman, an artist who denies any sexual relationship. The detective duo turns up another suspect in a supercilious college professor whose famous published paper was apparently based on the unacknowledged research of Archie's father. More motives turn up as the islanders prepare for Christmas celebrations, and the wild weather leaves Jimmy and Willow shorthanded as they pursue leads. Did love or money lead to Archie's death? A first-rate mystery full of historical detail and descriptions of a beautiful place. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.