Reticence: White Nights by Ann Cleeves

Interactions between an extroverted detective and an introverted one caught my eye in a crime novel set in Scotland’s Shetland Islands.

Sometimes a relationship between an extrovert and an introvert consists of companionable complementarity: The two personalities fit together smoothly, as in the famous Eastern yin/yang symbol.  But in White Nights, a 2008 crime novel by Ann Cleeves, an introverted detective drives his extroverted colleague up a wall with frustration.  For a reader interested in psychology, the contrast between these two male characters clicks on many light bulbs.

White Nights takes place on the largest of the Shetland Islands, about 130 miles north of the UK mainland.  The novel is part of an eight-volume “Shetland” book series that was also adapted for BBC television.  I’ve only read the books, however, and although detective Jimmy Perez stars in all the volumes, it’s in White Nights that his introvert personality most comes to the fore.