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Shetland

Raven Black Part 1 of 2

17-year-old Catherine Ross is found murdered on a secluded beach. DI Jimmy Perez rapidly preserves the forensic evidence before questioning local recluse Magnus Bain, whose cottage overlooks the crime scene. He is intrigued to discover that Magnus had recently forged an unlikely friendship with the victim. Perez and his team -- Detective Sergeant Alison 'Tosh' McIntosh and Trainee Detective Constable Sandy Wilson -- begin piecing together the hours leading up to Catherine's death.

Frustratingly, these events prove difficult to pin down as Catherine lived mostly alone while her father worked on the oil-rigs. Perez questions Sally Henry, Catherine's timid best friend whose mother -- local schoolteacher Margaret Henry -- makes no secret of her dislike for Catherine. He follows up with Hugo Scott, Catherine's evidently obsessed teacher, and Alan Isbister, a local playboy philanderer, who admits to seeing Catherine at his open house party on Midsummer Night. When Fiscal Procurator Rhona Kelly draws Perez's attention to the unsolved case of Catriona Bruce, a seven-year-old girl who disappeared from the same village 19 years ago, Perez realises that the two "victims" even shared an address. When revisiting Magnus Bain (who also knew Catriona) he sees an ageing photograph on the mantelpiece of a young girl holding a doll. Magnus reveals that this was a sister who died in childhood.

Although Magnus's name continues to crop up regularly throughout the investigation, Perez refuses to commit entirely to a link between the death of Catherine and the disappearance of Catriona - fearing a 'witch hunt' around Magnus. But when the perfectly preserved body of a young girl is discovered in the peat bogs, clutching the same doll as in the photograph at Magnus's home, Perez is reluctantly forced to turn his attention to Magnus Bain.

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