Thin Air

 Thin Air by Ann Cleeves (2014) 389 pages

I've noticed Ann Cleeves's books constantly circulating out of the library, so it was well past time for me to try one out. In Thin Air, set mostly on Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands, a woman named Eleanor disappears and is later found dead after celebrating the hamefarin' (a post-wedding event) of one of her college friends. With her on this trip from London were her husband, Ian, a large man of few words, Polly, another friend from college, and Polly's boyfriend, Marcus. The newly married couple, Caroline and Lowrie, were staying with Lowrie's parents, who lived on the island, while the others had rented a cottage nearby. 

Eleanor, a television producer, had been very interested in an old local case of a young girl who drowned in the sea in 1930, her ghost said to appear to people from time to time. Eleanor was gathering information to make a television program, and spoke of having seen the child prior to her disappearance. She was also recovering emotionally from a late-pregnancy miscarriage.

The police who come to handle the case are at least as compelling as the case itself. Detective Jimmy Perez is still mourning the death of his fianceé Fran while sharing care of Fran's daughter with Fran's ex-husband. Willow, the chief inspector, is apparently smitten with Jimmy, and their colleague, Sandy, is a quiet guy who takes it all in.