The latest instalment follows on closely from the previous book, The Rising Tide. Vera is still grieving for the loss of a team member, when she is called to investigate the murder of a young man who works in a private care home for troubled teens. When one of the home’s residents, Chloe, goes missing, Vera, Joe and the new member of the team, Rosie, are in a race to find her, before the murderer does.

We are privy to Vera’s internal dialogue, which I loved: comments about the case, about her ‘bonny lad’ Joe, about her self-doubt and her need to work more collaboratively with her team, about the ghost of her father Hector who still haunts her. We also see a softer side to her, as she makes a new friend and invites her team home for a celebratory supper.

We learn more about Joe in this book: his Methodist upbringing, his conservative views and his obvious affection for Vera even as he chafes against her bossiness. At one point, he tells Rosie he thinks searching the hills for Chloe is a complete waste of time, but ‘our Vera’s always up for a jolly to the hills’!

Ann Cleeves has created a memorable character who is not static, and who develops with each new book. Vera’s love of the landscape is very present - something she shared with her father: ‘Vera was enjoying herself. Being outside, and breathing in this sharp, clean air with its scent of pine needles and ice…’

Our Vera, of course, can’t help but put herself at risk, and be present when the murderer is finally captured. She may be learning to share more with her team, but some things can never change!

I am really enjoying this series from Ann Cleeves. It has a different feel to Vera and Shetland. Although, like those two fabulous series, the location is an integral part of the books. In this case, it’s set around Greystone, a small fishing village on the Devon Coast, where storms abound and superstitions run rife.

Jem Rosco, a celebrity adventurer and local legend suddenly appears in the pub one stormy night, mysteriously announcing he’s staying in town while waiting ‘for a friend’. No one thinks much of him disappearing again, until his body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove.

DI Matthew Venn is an interesting character. His upbringing within a religious sect know as the Barum Brethren has left its emotional scars. His relationship with his mother is strained since he left the Brethren and chose a male partner. When he is called in to investigate Rosco’s murder, he is distracted by memories of visiting Greystone as a child where many members of the Brethren live.

The Raging Storm is very atmospheric. The violent storms create a sense of isolation, both metaphoric and in reality, as fallen trees block access to and from the village and cut off communication. Venn and his team start to uncover a labyrinth of secrets and lies, and find their own lives in danger. As always, Cleeves has her plot well in hand, and the resolution is unexpected, but believable. This is a great book to read on a rainy day, snuggled up with a hot cup of tea!

I was lucky enough to attend a literary lunch with Ann Cleeves last week and had my copy of this book signed by her. She is a delightful and generous speaker.

This is the tenth Vera Stanhope book and does not disappoint. The discovery of a man’s hanged body on Holy Island takes Vera and her team back fifty years and another death on Holy Island.

The Rising Tide may well be a murder mystery, but Cleeves elevates it well above a mere investigation into an untimely death. The suspects are all ‘of an age’ just as Vera is, and ‘she supposed that older people made fewer plans. They had less time to fill, no endless possibilities stretching into the future.’ She is also painfully aware that the past can still influence the present as she is haunted by her dead father Hector who ‘was always there, bullying her from the grave’.

Vera’s relationships with her team are complex: Joe, ‘her boy. Her favourite.’; and Holly, whose job is her life and who craves Vera’s attention and can see that Joe is her favourite. However, that doesn’t stop Vera from always getting her own way, even if it makes Joe grumpy because ‘she was the boss, and, really, she didn’t care’.

The Rising Tide is a classic murder mystery taking place in an isolated location, in this case Holy Island where the rising waters of the causeway make it inaccessible at certain times of the day. Northumberland locations are an integral part of the Vera series, and this particular setting is suitably atmospheric. This is yet another cracking great book from the delightful Ann Cleeves. Highly recommended.

This is the first book in a new series from [a:Ann Cleeves|56067|Ann Cleeves|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1262915904p2/56067.jpg], introducing Detective Matthew Venn and his team. As they investigate a murder, Cleeves reveals the backgrounds of the main characters. Venn, ‘a man who never opened his mouth unless he had something useful to say’; DS Jen Rafferty, who struggles to juggle her work with single-parenting two teenage children; and Constable Ross May who is keen on self-promotion but not so keen on hard graft.
I love a book with a strong sense of place. Like [a:Elly Griffiths|2541526|Elly Griffiths|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1263313152p2/2541526.jpg]’ Norfolk in her Ruth Galloway series, Cleeves describes the Devon landscape and its sounds and smells so vividly you feel immersed.
It is refreshing that The Long Call’s cast of characters is diverse, truly reflecting contemporary English life, without any skerrick of tokenism.
I read this book after reading the second instalment,[b:The Heron’s Cry|56269063|The Heron’s Cry (Two Rivers, #2)|Ann Cleeves|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1623116403l/56269063.SY75.jpg|87659623], but it made no difference at all. I’m looking forward to further investigations with Venn and his team, in the beautiful Devon countryside.

Ann Cleeves knows what she is doing. Famous for her Vera and Shetland series, The Heron Cry is the second book featuring Detective Matthew Venn, set in North Devon. What makes Cleeves’ books so enjoyable is how she equally balances character development with a well thought out plot. We spend enough time with Venn and his colleagues DS Jen Rafferty and DC Ross May to get to know what drives them, and what is holding them back. Everyone is dealing with their own personal demons and messy lives, while at the same time trying to find a murderer who has a penchant for using shards of broken glass vases for their murder weapon.

Venn is estranged from his elderly mother, after leaving the claustrophobic confines of The Brethren, a strict religious community, and is very buttoned-up. Jen is a frazzled single mum, feeling guilty about not spending enough time with her kids and drinking too much, and Ross is impatient and ambitious, wanting to secure a comfortable future for himself and his wife. And they are just the police officers! The suspects are many, and most have secrets that cast their innocence in doubt.

There is a strong theme revolving around guilt in this book; all the characters, including the police officers, are carrying a heavy load of it and for some, it’s become very toxic.

The plot is complex, with an abundance of false leads and red herrings and we see how much hard (and sometimes tedious) leg work is involved in trying to solve a crime. I haven’t read the first book in the series, [b:The Long Call|43263552|The Long Call (Two Rivers, #1)|Ann Cleeves|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551047656l/43263552.SY75.jpg|67142367], but I don’t think it’s effected my enjoyment of this book at all. I am looking forward to catching up with it, not to mention reading further investigations with Venn and his team.

‘On the doorstop was a woman. This woman was large and shabby. She wore wellingtons and a knitted hat. She reminded Juliet of the homeless people she encountered occasionally outside Newcastle Central Station, wrapped in threadbare blankets, begging’. Oh, how looks can be deceiving! Anyone who has read Cleeves’ previous Vera books (or watched the exceptional TV show starring Brenda Blethyn) knows that Vera is as sharp as, and is nobody’s fool!
This is a cracker of a murder mystery, incorporating some traditional crime tropes: inclement British weather and an isolated crumbling country house to name a couple. The house in question has special significance for Vera, as it is the Stanhope ancestral home.
The relationship between Vera and her ever-reliable and put-upon offsider Joe Ashworth is given depth as he realises that ‘he would never [leave] while Vera Stanhope was in charge of his team. Because she did appreciate him…and anyway, she needed him; she’d go ape without him to talk sense to her.’ And Vera’s sense of being alone is deeply felt as this case raises issues about her family and her choices regarding relationships. As she thinks when discussing never marrying, ‘…it might have been nice to be asked, just once.’
Cleeves has written a real page-turner, with the added bonus of characters with depth and nuance. Highly recommended.

I thought this was the first in the series! No wonder it seemed to start in the middle! I have watched the BBC series, so I knew the characters, and this book explains a lot about Jimmy Perez’s personality. I can now also see why the purists are unhappy about the casting of Douglas Henshall as Perez - physically you couldn’t find an actor more unlike the Perez that Ann Cleeves describes.
Anyway, even though I have come into this series at book 4, it was a fantastic read. The descriptions of the weather on Faire Isle are so evocative, I felt constantly cold while I was reading! Great plot - huge surprise at the end (enough said). I will now go back to the first book. Ann Cleeves know what she is about.

Competent enough who-dunnit set in the world of bird watchers, or twitchers, on the Norfolk coast. There were a number of very unappealing characters in this story, and it was not a great advertisement for the hobby of bird watching in general! I felt the ending was a bit of an easy way out.
I’m a huge fan of the TV series Vera, but I felt this wasn’t up to the same standard. But then again, this is an early Ann Cleeves book.
I listened to this as an audio book, and it was good company on my daily commute….just not a life-changer!