The Killing Stones
Ann Cleeves. Minotaur, $29 (384p) ISBN 978-1-250-35728-1
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.)
Details
Reviewed on: 07/15/2025
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Compact Disc - 978-1-250-40334-6
Hardcover - 978-1-4205-2974-6