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mystery
Series · mystery
Shetland
The Shetland series by Ann Cleeves has 10 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Raven Black (2006).
- Books
- 9 novels + 1 novella
- First published
- 2006
- Status
- ongoing
- Last checked
Start here: Raven Black (2006) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Raven Black
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Raven Black - Book 2:
White Nights
Alternative text for cover: Cover of White Nights - Book 3:
Red Bones
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Red Bones - Book 4:
Blue Lightning
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Blue Lightning - Book 5:
Dead Water
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Dead Water - Book 6:
Thin Air
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Thin Air - Book 7:
Too Good to Be True
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Too Good to Be True - Book 8:
Cold Earth
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Cold Earth - Book 9:
Wild Fire
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Wild Fire - Book 10:
The Killing Stones
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Killing Stones
About the Shetland series
Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez works Scotland's remotest posting: the Shetland Islands, a windswept archipelago closer to Norway than to Edinburgh, where everyone knows everyone and a murder tears at the fabric of a community too small to absorb one. Ann Cleeves, who also writes the Vera Stanhope novels, builds the series as much around landscape and light as around plot — the eternal simmer dim of midsummer, the total darkness of winter, the birdwatchers and knitters and fishermen who make up island life — and around Perez himself, a quiet, watchful widower (his wife Fran is killed partway through the series) who investigates by patiently understanding people rather than chasing evidence.
The eight core novels split into two thematic quartets: the Four Seasons quartet (Raven Black through Blue Lightning) and the Four Elements quartet (Dead Water through Wild Fire), with Perez's Fair Isle-born colleague-turned-partner Willow Reeves increasingly sharing the investigative load as the series progresses. The Killing Stones (2025) extends the world to Orkney after the main sequence's end. Adapted into the long-running BBC series Shetland (which eventually moved beyond the novels' plots and characters), this is atmospheric, character-driven British procedural mystery at its most immersive — a series where the setting is never just scenery.
How to read this series
Read in publication order, starting with Raven Black (2006). The series is structured as two loose quartets — Four Seasons (Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning) and Four Elements (Dead Water, Thin Air, Cold Earth, Wild Fire) — and Perez's personal life, especially his relationship with Fran Hunter and her death, develops across books in a way that rewards reading in order rather than skipping around.
Too Good to Be True (2016) is a short standalone "Quick Read" featuring Perez away from Shetland, on the Scottish mainland; it's optional and slots in around Thin Air/Cold Earth by publication date. The Killing Stones (2025), set in Orkney after the main sequence, works as a standalone continuation for readers who've finished Wild Fire, though familiarity with Perez's history adds weight. Don't confuse this series with Cleeves's separate, unrelated Vera Stanhope novels (different detective, different setting, no shared characters).
Frequently asked questions
How many Shetland books are there?
Eight core novels, from Raven Black (2006) to Wild Fire (2018), plus the short standalone Too Good to Be True (2016) and the 2025 continuation The Killing Stones, set in Orkney.
What order should I read the Shetland books in?
Publication order, starting with Raven Black. The series forms two loose quartets (Four Seasons, then Four Elements), and Jimmy Perez's personal life develops continuously across both.
Is The Killing Stones part of the main Shetland series?
It's a continuation published in 2025, several years after Wild Fire concluded the Four Elements quartet, set in Orkney rather than Shetland but still featuring Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves.
Is Shetland connected to Ann Cleeves's Vera Stanhope series?
No — they are separate series with different detectives (Jimmy Perez in Shetland, Vera Stanhope in Northumberland) and no shared characters or continuity.
Is the Shetland TV series faithful to the books?
The earlier BBC seasons closely adapt the novels, but the show has continued well past the point where the books stopped, with original storylines and, eventually, a new lead detective.
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Reading order last verified .