Cass Lynch lives in her boat in the harbour of Brae, the oil capital of the Shetland Islands. As she begins to dread her upcoming stay on the mainland, necessary to gain the sailing qualifications that she needs, people are coming to the islands that are going to spell more trouble for her.

When one couple goes missing, Cass finds herself drawn to the local trowie mound – a Neolithic tomb – and finds the dead body of a local. At first it seems that the visitors must be responsible, but once their bodies are found as well, it seems that someone local is up to something sinister and will do anything to keep it quiet.

“It’s good to see that there’s another book in the series in the pipeline and I’m already looking forward to it. Highly recommended.”

So, once upon a time I reviewed Death On A (Shetland) Longship, the first in the series. It was one of the first review requests that I received, along with a guest post from Marsali Taylor. And when I say once upon a time, I mean in 2012… So here I am, finally back to this series.

A few thing have changed – Death On A Longship has now been retitled Death On A Shetland Longship and this one used to be called The Trowie Mound Murders. All of the books in the series now have the word “Shetland” in the title – marketing, I guess. The other thing, the thing that prompted me to go back to the series, was that I met Marsali at Death In The Dales. She chaired a good panel on setting books overseas and gave a great performance in Kate Ellis’ murder mystery play. I’d already decided it was time to return to Shetland and Cass, but when she came and said nice things about my contribution to the Golden Age panel, well, that did kind of seal the deal. I’ve a signed copy of Death At A Shetland Festival upstairs, but I think it’s the sort of series where you’ll get a little more working through the series in order.

One of the factors that I’d like to see played out is Cass’ life developments. Will she commit to a year on the mainland? Which (if any) of the love interests will she end up with? Is the analogy of the selkie bride – a mythical sea creature who took human form, married and had a child, but eventually returned to the sea without a second look – something Cass is going to fight or embrace? I don’t know (which isn’t that common in these sort of books) and I think I want to find out as her story progresses.

The setting is important – by the way, a map would have helped – as are the local characters. The mystery isn’t traditionally paced – while there is intrigue a plenty in the first half, it takes a while before the first body turns up. I’m going to be honest here, I did lose track of who was who for a good part of the narrative, but oddly, I didn’t find that much of a problem. Despite Marsali being a fan of John Dickson Carr, this isn’t that sort of mystery, as the villain of the piece is the character who makes the most sense, rather than a stunning surprise.

I did love the ending, as Cass confronts the villain – she is a really strong and resourceful character – and given the fates of some of the characters, I’m intrigued to see where things go next. Marsali, I promise I won’t leave it thirteen years this time…