As we head into Iceland Noir weekend, Ann Cleeves has gifted her fans with a new Shetland short story. And the best part is that it is FREE.
“Missing in the Snow” is told from Tosh’s point of view and was inspired by an incident that happened to Ann Cleeves last year while visiting Shetland. Readers may recall that Ann dropped her laptop into the snow on the way home from the library. A laptop that contained the manuscript for one of her upcoming books. Rather than freaking out–or maybe in addition to freaking out–Ann went to social media and posted about the situation and eventually her laptop was found buried under the snow. It was returned to her for an all around happy ending.
However, as a consummate storyteller, Ann Cleeves also found a short story idea within the crisis. In “Missing in Snow,” Tosh interrupts Jimmy Perez’s holiday break to bring to him a case of a missing author–a soothmoother visiting Shetland for research purposes. After spending the day at the local library, this man simply vansihed. It turns out that the woman who notified the authorities about this man’s disappearance is known to Perez thanks to an earlier incident. That woman is Jennifer Tait–a surname that will resonate with fans of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland Quartets. The question is are these two “crimes” connected?
This lovely short story does a wonderful job of once again transporting readers to the Shetland Islands. It’s also nice to get a brief glimpse into Tosh’s mind. Meanwhile, leave it Ann Cleeves to use the story as a way to further expand the world she has crafted with her Shetland novels. It’s a true gift to fans.
Readers can obtain their free copy of “Missing in the Snow” by signing up for the Pan Macmillian newsletter at this link. Enjoy!
And be sure to watch all the coverage of Shetland Noir on the various social medias over the weekend!
