R.I.P. VIII Wrap Up Post

The R.I.P. event (a non-challenge) is done. Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings reports: 

"R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VIII had nearly 200 participants this year and we read and reviewed nearly 500 books, short stories and films/tv shows. I’m sure there were many more things read and viewed that were not reviewed."

I read a lot of books for the challenge. A few were outside of my comfort zone, but mostly my standard mystery fare:

1. Unholy Ground by John Brady
2. Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie
3. Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas
4. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
5. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
6. The Infernal Detective by Kirsten Weiss
7. The Yard by Alex Grecian
8. Vendetta by Michael Dibdin
9. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
10. Frantic by Katherine Howell
11. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
12. White Nights by Ann Cleeves
13. Dark Star by Alan Furst
14. The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill

Two of my favorite books for this event were by the same author: Raven Black and White Nights by  Ann Cleeves. They were moody and slow, and focused a lot on the location and the time of year.

The Shetland Islands is a very different setting from any I have read about before. Per Wikipedia, the Shetland Islands "is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north-east of mainland Britain." The largest island is known as "Mainland." The action in both these books takes place on that island, although in different parts of it.

Raven Black involves the murder of a teenage girl in an area where a much younger girl disappeared a few years earlier. This first book takes place in the cold winter when winter fire festivals take place. The Up Helly Aa festival plays a part in the plot.

The second book in the series, White Nights, centers around the death of an outsider, a visitor to the islands who no one appears to know. That book is set at the time of year (mid-summer) when it never really gets dark, a phenomena it is hard for me to imagine.