Cold And Wet

I need to get back into a better reading pattern. So I have challenged myself to review two books a month on the blog. I read three in January [first review here] and the third needs a proper review carefully written. 

I think it is fair to say my second book was the wrong choice for me! The mobile library was on its monthly visit, and I'd chosen two non fiction books, and was just about to check out when I spotted this one. 
I like crime, I am quite keen on medical dramas, it was set at the winter solstice, and when I saw the author's name and read the blurb [here] I thought it would suit.

• It is set on a remote Scottish Island [and I love 'Shetland']
• The male lead, Calder, falls into the icy seas and 'drowns' but in fact they revive him from his extreme hypothermia [As with Meredith Grey, Greys's Anatomy, Season 3 Ep 16 when she falls into the water off Seattle. I love GA]
• In my haste I mistook Liz Webb for Liz Carr, who for 8 years played the skilled forensic pathologist in Silent Witness [I love SW]

O dear... I was so wrong. 

I just did not get on with the writing - the story is told in the first person by Nancy, Calder's girlfriend. spoiler alert - important plot detail revealed below

The people on the island are all interconnected. C&N have moved back there because C's Mum has died and left him her cottage. So everybody knows Calder's past. And how his ex girlfriend went missing just before C left the island for London [a girl he had never mentioned to Nancy before] Arran, the Pastor of the little church, is also a key figure in the story. After C's near death experience, best friend Hamish and wife arrive from London to help out. Hamish also grew up on the island.

My problem is that I like accuracy. I believe that Liz [Webb not Carr] did loads of research into this "hypothermia/survival through drowning" event, she cites various well documented cases [real ones, not Meredith Grey] and that she also researched life on Scottish Islands. That part was good.

But she clearly did no research into 'how to get married in Britain'. Or she would know that you cannot get married at three weeks notice - you need at least 29 days [ok, there are a few rare exceptions when a waiver might be possible but not in this story] and furthermore, both parties must make the application. You cannot say "we'll get married tomorrow, I arranged it with the vicar three weeks ago, but never got round to telling you" At this point the story seemed just stupid to me.

Mind you I was already concerned about Arran who conducts everything at church in a very traditional 1950s way, yet quotes from The Message translation of the Bible. LW doesn't appear to know many pastors. 

There was a lot of cold weather, and icy water, and I am afraid  I did not warm to any of the characters. 

Maybe if I watched 'The Traitors' I'd have coped better with the fact that everybody [including the Pastor] is lying to everybody else. Am I the only person [other than Bob] who has not watched Traitors? Even Rosie watched the finale last week with her Mum [having first donned the hooded cloak I made for her worst witch costume - she takes accuracy seriously too]

I give it just ***