It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I guess the last couple of months have been pretty busy with new work hours, moving flats, prepping for Swanwick, and a holiday in the Isles of Scilly (which I feel I should talk about on here). Anyway, I decided to revisit to look at Marsali Taylor's latest murder mystery, Death at a Shetland Festival. This post is being made as part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour hosted by Lynsey Adams.
Blurb
Crowds are gathered for a concert at Shetland's renowned folk music festival when there's a shocking discovery - international folk legend Fintan Foley has been stabbed backstage.
Sailing sleuth Cass Lynch and her partner DI Gavin Macrae are in the audience and must untangle a complicated case where nothing is quite what it seems. Cass soon discovers that Foley's smiling stage persona concealed links with Shetland. He'd worked here in the 80s, the days when oil brought wealth to the islands.
Has a long-buried secret risen to the surface - and will it make Cass a target for a cold-blooded killer?
Review
Marsali Taylor has done a wonderful job in painting a vivid setting in this murder mystery through extensive use of Shetland dialects. While I initially found this a little difficult to understand at first, I was nonetheless able to follow it after a while. Fortunately, there is a glossary at the back of the book for readers who are confused or curious about certain phrases.
The murder mystery is a good one, with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing to the motive behind the killing. For example, Foley had offered to sign a young performer at the festival up with his talent agency. The performer, Ethan, mentions that he was told not to mention it to his mother, which makes things suspicious. There's also two French Canadian musicians who perform with Gavin's cousin Will, who also seem to have a history with Foley.
The first chapter of the book opens with Cass finding a diary amongst a box of books donated to a church sale. At first it seems innocuous, but then it turns out to have a connection to the case, especially after it's stolen. The story is interspersed with entries from that diary, written by somebody who worked at the Sullom Voe Terminal around the time of its official opening in 1981. As the story progressed, the diary helped in stringing me along.
Death at a Shetland Festival is available from Amazon here, and I recommend it. It's not the first entry in the Shetland Mysteries, but you don't have to read the earlier entries.
About the Author
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