What does this all mean? I guess what I am trying to say is this.

I am on the edge of a muddle, in which two very differing experiences, each finely drawn for their medium, allow us to synthesise and create our own understanding. Cleeves helps us to invest time into understanding Perez, which is great in itself, but for me the highlight has to be the exploration of Magnus Tait, a man who is both sharper and blunter than society allows.īut I wonder whether my interest in Tait as a character arises from his portrayal (as Magnus Bain) by Brian Cox in the TV adaptation? Cox’s performance intrigues but I want to know why Bain/Tait ticks as he does. This is a feature that has divided readers but I think some have mistaken rich for slow. It is less cinematic but gives a level of detail which is both claustrophobic and exhilarating. Cleeves’ creation is more raw and direct. A different cast list is one thing but we find that the mystery is quite different: partly this is a necessity provided by the different cast list but it also helps that you can do more ambitious and complicated things in a novel. As a result, Raven Black the book is not what a TV fan might expect. Its producers recognised that what was important was Perez and the islands in which he moves, although they have given him additional characters to work with that might translate better on screen than those that work so well on the page. The TV series Shetland picks up the overall theme but decides to go its own way. This mix of something that is both very familiar and very other is a particularly attractive draw for us on the mainland. We get a real feel for the lives of the islands’ residents, both for the romance of the wildness of the landscape but also the fish-bowl nature of the remote society. What makes the novel stand out is the sense of place that seeps through its pages and the amazing level of detail through which Cleeves defines her characters, in particular Jimmy Perez and the recluse Magnus Tait. It is on the surface a fairly straightforward police procedural. Raven Black is the story of two murders separated in time.

I decided to celebrate by reading the first of the Ann Cleeves novels on which the TV drama is loosely based. Shetland series 4 is on its way, and I’m excited.

Raven black novel