Shetland

Are there any houses on Shetland that haven’t been used for a Shetland location shoot yet?

So this one is about an old lady murdered and posed in her garden, apparently living in poverty but with an untouched fortune in the bank. She lost one son in a storm years ago and the other is an estranged poet running a pub in Kirkwall. Billy the desk sergeant gets a lot more to do here (nice to see) as he was mentored by the old lady’s husband back in the day and had promised to keep an eye out for her.

There is quite a lot of confusion and misdirection as the investigation proceeds, and what is quite nicely done is the way that these dead ends are resolved and discarded rather than all being dragged out to the final episode. I didn’t see the final twist coming so any signposting was probably quite subtle and the story does hang together well.

As usual, the character, remoteness and challenges of living in the Shetland Islands come across well here there are certainly aspects of the story that would not work in the big city so we do believe that the island is a character in its own right.

There are lots of mixed emotions at the end and you get the impression that all of the cops genuinely care for each other, but we are probably relieved that Billy did the right thing in the end.

Under the satisfying meaty investigation for the team and our two female leads have comfortably made this show their own. I for one would be perfectly happy if there is also a season 11 and more.