Now Emma Shearer, nanny to a neighbor family, is found hanging in the same place. But there are many questions. Was this actually murder? Who was Emma really and who knew her? And then there is a sub-plot, an interpersonal story involving Perez and his superior from the mainland, Willow. 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! There’s also the question of what Magnie, Emma's boyfriend and his busybody mother, have to do with it all. I did wonder if I would find the characters difficult to connect with coming into the story at the end of the series but this book can easily be read as a standalone. There were occasional references of past events however nothing that prevented me from grasping the storyline. In this final installment of the Shetland series, which began as a quartet and became a series of eight, there is a suicide, a murder, and then a second murder in a tiny community in the northern part of the main island. Inspector Willow Reeves comes from the mainland to assist in the investigation after the first murder. She and Jimmy have connected before so we wonder through the novel what will become of their "relationship". Sandy Wilson is ever stalwart and has a girlfriend.

Ann Cleeves sets the stage, once again, in the atmospheric wonderland of Shetland Island. Wedging your way into the confines of this close knit community is a steep challenge for newcomers. Helena and her husband, Daniel, have brought their family to a start-over home in this rugged terrain. Both young Ellie and Christopher are scrutinized by the Mom Squad as they wait each morning to enter the doors of the local school. Ann Cleeves said: "What better way to celebrate the last of the Perez books than by raising a glass of Wild Fire gin produced in the islands by the wonderful Shetland Reel?" The Flemings have moved to the Shetlands where the wife, Helena, has opened a very successful knitting business (think Beyonce wearing the pieces) and her husband is an architect who redesigns the house they bought. They have two children with the oldest son autistic who likes to se What an interesting observation regarding the popularity and gentrification of what had been small communities—"Willow wondered if it caused resentment: these confident, educated incoming, buying up the nice houses, subtly changing the character of the place. …Wouldn't it feel like an invasion?" How also true is it that one never really knows what goes on within a family—"…the whole happy-family image seems to have been a bit of a sham." Cleeves brings one into a community so small that everyone new is subject to speculation. There is a good reminder of how interconnected are people in such communities—"There are only twenty-three thousand people in the islands, and most have some connection with each other."Read an interview with Douglas Henshall, conducted during the filming of series five in Shetland in summer 2018: he talks about why he wanted to sign on for Shetland, how much the series has evolved since the pilot, why he likes that the crime drama is character-based, the relationship between Perez and his daughter (Erin Armstrong), what he enjoys about the Perez-Tosh dynamic - not to mention the challenge of the weather in Shetland! For a different perspective, read an interview in which Shetlander Steven Robertson talks to the Herald about the show, and about growing up in Shetland. Series 1 & 2 The rough, oddly beautiful landscapes take centre stage in this book. They’re lovingly described by an author who has come to know them intimately over the years, and I hope Cleeves will return to the Scottish Isles for a book at some time in the future. These stunning settings play a huge part in a book that is as intricately drawn together as a Fair Isle sweater. Wild Fire is the much-anticipated final book in Ann Cleeves’s beloved Shetland Island series, now a major television triumph starring Douglas Henshall.

The hit TV crime drama takes as its point of departure the characters and settings of Ann Cleeves's award-winning series of novels, but has developed its own stories, and over time the two have diverged. As series 7 began, Douglas Henshall dropped a bombshell, announcing that this would be his last season as Jimmy Perez. He said "It's been one of the privileges of my career to play Jimmy Perez for almost 10 years and to work with so many wonderful people both in front of and behind the camera, and also to spend so much time in Shetland." The good news is that the show will carry on - but without Perez, series 8 will be even more different from the books. In among it all, there’s a vital plotline featuring Reeves and Perez, but it plays second fiddle as the body count rises and tension ratchets up a notch or two. For me, it unbalances a story which should by rights have Perez front and centre. It is his farewell, after all. It’s my only real quibble in a book that is vintage Cleeves, complete with red herrings and neatly negotiated twists and turns. As to the ending? I’m giving nothing away – best read it for yourself… 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? The saying goes, “you write what you know” and at this point in her life, Ann knew the area very well. However, it was always Ann and her husbands dream to eventually settle in the Northeast and in 2006, they finally did. Both her daughters are now happily married to men from Newcastle, England. Books by Ann CleevesThe plot line follows quite a familiar pace and rhythm, once it warms up but there are minor incidental stories that beggar belief, such as the love letters from Dennis Gear. I watch the TV show like any other viewer. Sometimes I'm shown the scripts or the DVDs in advance and I love going along to the read-throughs to meet the stars and the guest actors, but really I like coming fresh to the finished drama. The books and the shows are very different formats. I've been very fortunate though. The writers and directors and the actors have captured the essence of the books and the characters, even though they change the details of plot. The story that I loved most was one of the original stories, not an adaptation of the novels. It was series three, the first six-parter. It explores the sexual assault of one of the main characters, and is very sensitively written by Gaby Chiappe and beautifully acted by Dougie Henshall and Alison O'Donnell. Daniel Fleming, the architect, and his designer wife Helena, have two children: wee Ellie and young autistic Christopher. The local people view the family from London with suspicion after Christopher set fire to a bin at school.

Since I did not enjoy it quite as much as the other seven Perez novels and it seemed to be in a bit of a rut, I can understand the author’s decision to make it the last Shetland book. There is an interesting shift in Jimmy and Willow's relationship. Willow is wonderfully done. She is very much an example of who many women have become; self-supporting, self-reliant, strong, not opposed to having a partner, but willing and able to get on alone if needs must while still feeling the hurt and uncertainty. Christopher and his autism is well handled. It feels just right, without being overdone. Wild Fire' is the eighth and final book in the international bestselling Shetland series featuring DI Jimmy Perez. Although it's preferable to have read the previous seven novels to understand the evolution of the characters and their lives, it does actually work as a standalone too. I am a huge Cleeves fan and love both her books and the TV series' that are adapted from said novels.Emma, the dead nanny, worked for the Moncrieffs – Robert, a local GP, and his PR wife Belle. Their four children are now without a nanny, but the Moncrieffs seem more troubled by how they will cope than by the death of Emma who had lived with them for years. A TUNE FOR JIMMY PEREZ by Cathy Geldard: Video produced by Ian Stephenson at Simpson Street Studios. 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. Too Good To Be True is a complete novella-length story, originally selected as one of 15 books to be given away, free, on World Book Night, April 23rd 2016. It has been issued in Canada in an exclusive edition, available only from independent bookstores, for Canadian Independent Bookstore Day (April 29th, 2023). Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.