In The Killing Stones, Ann Cleeves brings Detective Jimmy Perez back to center stage—older, settled in Orkney, and facing the one case he never wanted: the murder of his best friend. It’s Christmas in the windswept isles when Archie Stout vanishes. Perez takes the ferry to Westray, only to find Archie dead beside an archaeological dig, his skull crushed by a stolen Neolithic story stone. When a second body turns up in an ancient burial chamber, the investigation shifts from personal grief to something far more layered and unsettling. The Orkney setting is richly atmospheric—howling wind, churning seas, and long winter nights that feel almost claustrophobic. The ancient stones and island history give […]