Cleeves’ novel shortlisted

SIX books are in the running to be crowned the Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year, including Ann Cleeves’ novel Thin Air.

The winning book will be announced during a gala dinner on 12 September as part of the crime writing festival Bloody Scotland, held in Stirling.

The shortlist of six was chosen by a panel of readers from a long list of 55 books. They are:

• Paths of the Dead, Lin Anderson
• DM For Murder, Matt Bendoris
• Dead Girl Walking, Chris Brookmyre
• Thin Air, Ann Cleeves
• The Ghosts of Altona, Craig Russell
• Death Is A Welcome Guest, Louise Welsh.

In Cleeves’ latest Shetland crime novel detective Jimmy Perez and his team are dispatched to the UK’s most northerly island community to investigate a murder that brought a wedding party to a gruesome end.