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Shetland #6.1
Offshore: a short story collection
Offshore is a striking collection of short stories, all set on islands off the coast of the UK, and features cases for both DI Jimmy Perez on Shetland, and DI Willow Reeves on Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
In 'Stranded', set on Hilbre near Liverpool, a young man's first love vanishes. In 'Hector's Other Woman', on Holy Island, we meet a young Vera before she becomes DI Vera Stanhope, and discover how she decides to enter the police force. One of the stories, 'Postcard from Skokholm', is written by Lynne Chitty, winner of Pan Macmillan's Bello imprint's short story competition, who introduces Ann Cleeves' beloved characters George and Molly Palmer-Jones to new readers.
Ann Cleeves deftly captures the spirit of each island setting, and offers us a compelling new collection of mysteries.
In 'Stranded', set on Hilbre near Liverpool, a young man's first love vanishes. In 'Hector's Other Woman', on Holy Island, we meet a young Vera before she becomes DI Vera Stanhope, and discover how she decides to enter the police force. One of the stories, 'Postcard from Skokholm', is written by Lynne Chitty, winner of Pan Macmillan's Bello imprint's short story competition, who introduces Ann Cleeves' beloved characters George and Molly Palmer-Jones to new readers.
Ann Cleeves deftly captures the spirit of each island setting, and offers us a compelling new collection of mysteries.
84 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 4, 2014
234 people are currently reading
3233 people want to read
About the author
Ann Cleeves
132 books8,891 followersAnn is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands...
Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.
While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.
In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.
For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.
Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony
Ann's short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award - once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award.
In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA's Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world's largest award for crime fiction.
Ann's success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London's Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: "I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock - but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I'd lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn't have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!"
The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O'Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine).
Ann's books have been translated into sixteen languages. She's a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200
Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.
While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.
In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.
For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.
Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony
Ann's short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award - once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award.
In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA's Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world's largest award for crime fiction.
Ann's success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London's Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: "I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock - but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I'd lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn't have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!"
The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O'Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine).
Ann's books have been translated into sixteen languages. She's a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
March 20, 2021
3.5 Stars rounded up for glimpses of my faves!
A must read for fans of Ann Cleeves - various short stories set on Islands off the UK and some feature my favourite Cleeves's characters.
Side note: I have always struggled with short stories but the more I read them, the more I can forgive their abrupt and sometimes unfinished nature. If you struggle with them too I would advise sticking with them as I have discovered some gems... even if I am left wanting more!
A must read for fans of Ann Cleeves - various short stories set on Islands off the UK and some feature my favourite Cleeves's characters.
Side note: I have always struggled with short stories but the more I read them, the more I can forgive their abrupt and sometimes unfinished nature. If you struggle with them too I would advise sticking with them as I have discovered some gems... even if I am left wanting more!
June 23, 2017
A great little collection of short stories, all set on islands off the shore of the UK. Some of them involve characters from her novels - Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves - others not
March 22, 2021
An enjoyable short story collection, but I think this author writrs much better full length novels
September 24, 2023
A fun collection of short stories. I liked some more than others, but in most of them I loved how the author could create an entire murder mystery in only a few pages. Gotta give props for that.
June 12, 2022
These stories pack such a punch. Each one has a powerful idea based on an unerring grasp of a human drive and the opportunities presented by remote locations and familiarity with the lives of their inhabitants. Cleeves is also a great wordsmith - but the economy of these stories expose the skeleton - her grasp of the points in individual lives when personal need, fuelled perhaps by hurt, resentment, bullying or neglect, is triggered sufficiently to overcome all taboos or considerations - in settings that minimise discovery.
It is a treat to be able to see this concept so clearly and succinctly exposed.
It is a treat to be able to see this concept so clearly and succinctly exposed.
July 2, 2022
I am a great fan of this author and have read most of the titles in each of her later series.
The stories presented here make quick reading and included a couple that I hadn't read before. I found the inclusion of the first chapter of THIN AIR ( Shetland #6) a little odd. It seems to be there as a promo for the novel which was published later in 2014.
The stories presented here make quick reading and included a couple that I hadn't read before. I found the inclusion of the first chapter of THIN AIR ( Shetland #6) a little odd. It seems to be there as a promo for the novel which was published later in 2014.
May 31, 2017
As a confirmed fan of the Shetland series, it was unlikely that I wasn't going to love this collection of short stories. Nice to see Willow Reeves in her 'native' if not natural environment on a trip to her parents home in the Outer Hebrides.
Overall it's a good collection of short stories and my only complaint would have been just that, they were too short, but since I knew what I was getting into I can't really complain.
Might have been nice to have a few more stories with Willow and Vera, or maybe even some featuring Sandy Wilson from Shetland, but it's a great read as it stands.
Overall it's a good collection of short stories and my only complaint would have been just that, they were too short, but since I knew what I was getting into I can't really complain.
Might have been nice to have a few more stories with Willow and Vera, or maybe even some featuring Sandy Wilson from Shetland, but it's a great read as it stands.
June 14, 2017
Why did I read it? I enjoy Anne Cleeves' Shetland series, and I also like the tv serialisation of her Vera novels, so a collection of short stories to dip into during short breaks sounded good.
What's it about? A collection of short, crime fiction tales featuring some of the characters from Anne Cleeves' books, Willow Reeves, Jimmy Perez, and Vera Stanhope.
What did I like? The stories were short, complete and were well written, holding my attention the whole way through; some even managing a twist in the tale.
What didn't I like? There were too few stories? Sorry, but that's about all I could find to dislike.
Would I recommend it? If you are a fan of Anne Cleeves, then yes I would recommend them, though they are only available in ebook form. If you enjoy crime fiction, but don't have the time to read an entire novel, then this may be for you, too.
What's it about? A collection of short, crime fiction tales featuring some of the characters from Anne Cleeves' books, Willow Reeves, Jimmy Perez, and Vera Stanhope.
What did I like? The stories were short, complete and were well written, holding my attention the whole way through; some even managing a twist in the tale.
What didn't I like? There were too few stories? Sorry, but that's about all I could find to dislike.
Would I recommend it? If you are a fan of Anne Cleeves, then yes I would recommend them, though they are only available in ebook form. If you enjoy crime fiction, but don't have the time to read an entire novel, then this may be for you, too.
November 26, 2015
A collection of short stories, all set on islands off the coast of the UK. This set of mysteries features new cases for DI Jimmy Perez on Shetland and DI Willow Reeves on Uist in the Outer Hebrides. In 'Hector's Other Woman' set on Holy Island, we meet a young Vera, before she became DI Vera Stanhope, and the story of how she decided to enter the police force. One of the stories, 'Postcard from Skokholm', is written by Lynne Chitty, winner of Pan Macmillan's Bello imprint's short story competition. But overall this new collection of mysteries left me rather disappointed. Maybe they are too short, too few words to develop convincing plots and characters. Anyway, at just 73 pages it won't take you long to read and make up your own mind...
June 19, 2015
I much prefer her novels. I don't really like short stories, I only read it because I am doing the pop sugar challenge one of which a book of short stories!!
January 2, 2025
Collection of short powerful stories with strong characters, that make you see – or at least to me – that you never really know anyone. Some people are really good at keeping silent or keeping secrets. Sometimes though the silence becomes loud and ends up screaming and secrets become too heavy to maintain.
Ann Cleeves is always an excellent choice to read.
And I’m not saying no to reading other stories of Lynne Chitty.
Ann Cleeves is always an excellent choice to read.
And I’m not saying no to reading other stories of Lynne Chitty.
June 13, 2017
What an amazing set of short stories! Ann Cleeves evokes an atmosphere and creates a tale in such a short space of time. They are quite wonderful. It is possible that this is partly because some of the characters are known to me. However, I haven't yet read a Vera Stanhope mystery and even so the short story about her spontaneous visit to Holy Island had the same impact. A good read, indeed!
December 23, 2018
A really nice little collection of short stories. I love both the Shetland series and Vera so was always going to love stories that featured familiar characters. The only small thing was that as I read this in one sitting it did seem like one murder after another in these small communities was perhaps not the most realistic.
October 3, 2017
I don't know why I bother with short stories. There's never enough in them for me. This brief collection contains a couple of reasonable stories but for the most part, they just weren't interesting enough.
September 25, 2018
It’s listed as Shetland 6.1 so I had expected a little sidetrack novella following on from Thin Air. Instead they were very short stories indeed from a variety of locations. Some seemed like outlines for something bigger.
November 3, 2018
Read these as I love the Shetland books. Was not impressed but in the books defence I am not a lover of short stories. Also disappointed that there was a taster chapter of Thin Air at end of book instead of a another short story
September 12, 2020
Good Read
Interesting reading short stories, just getting into what is happening when it stops and another story begins. It was good reading about Shetland a place I have never visited and feel something, as a Scot is missing in my life.
Interesting reading short stories, just getting into what is happening when it stops and another story begins. It was good reading about Shetland a place I have never visited and feel something, as a Scot is missing in my life.
September 24, 2021
Not for me
I'm not a fan of short stories and although these are mostly by Ann Cleeves I was enamoured with them.
I read anything by this author because she is an amazing writer so I have it a go.
I'm not a fan of short stories and although these are mostly by Ann Cleeves I was enamoured with them.
I read anything by this author because she is an amazing writer so I have it a go.
January 12, 2022
would love more
This book was good…but I wish either it was bigger or that Ann Cleeves would write more. These stories were so good at keeping you glued…’just one more story’ Loved it!
This book was good…but I wish either it was bigger or that Ann Cleeves would write more. These stories were so good at keeping you glued…’just one more story’ Loved it!
February 5, 2022
Typical Ann Cleeves style but in neat takes to tempt you
Liked the shortness of each story : describe characters, kill one of them, discover why. Short, simple, easy read mysteries..solved. Ann Cleeves never fails to supply.
Liked the shortness of each story : describe characters, kill one of them, discover why. Short, simple, easy read mysteries..solved. Ann Cleeves never fails to supply.
September 10, 2022
Brilliant reads, as always!
You know if it's an Ann Cleeves book it will be good, but these short stories are wonderful. Full of all the words you need to round it off perfectly! A brilliant writer.
You know if it's an Ann Cleeves book it will be good, but these short stories are wonderful. Full of all the words you need to round it off perfectly! A brilliant writer.
June 8, 2025
lovely memories
I don’t normally enjoy short stories as they leave me wanting more but this was a lovely collection. I have read most of the full stories and these short versions reminded me how much I love all of Ann Cleeves books.
I don’t normally enjoy short stories as they leave me wanting more but this was a lovely collection. I have read most of the full stories and these short versions reminded me how much I love all of Ann Cleeves books.
July 20, 2025
Short stories from established Ann Cleeves series are pretty much the only short stories I want to read, it frustrates me too much normally when I get into a story and they don’t just keep going. Nice to see Perez, Willow and Vera again but it was just too short!
September 28, 2017
Nice, sweet snap shots of characters lives. Writing was great, not all of the stories by Ann Cleeves but all very enjoyable.
July 30, 2019
I love Ann Cleeves, but I just hate short stories...I just feel like there's so much more left unsaid. ..
September 16, 2020
Another great collection if short stories from Ann Cleeves
Read
April 28, 2021Short bursts of intrigue
Captivating short stories to keep your mind stimulated. Not at all predictable characters or plots and beautifully descriptive and nuanced at times.
Captivating short stories to keep your mind stimulated. Not at all predictable characters or plots and beautifully descriptive and nuanced at times.
April 2, 2022
Several short stories, some with Perez, or Vera.
April 14, 2022
Great collection of short stories including some in the both the Shetland and Vera series. All pretty dark.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews