Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . . Ann Cleeves is on top form in this atmospheric mystery that gradually expands to include more shifty characters on the mainland, and, on her tenth outing, you feel the pain beneath Vera’s blowsy bravado. The Rising Tide is exactly the sort of novel she likes — it provides escape and 'the joy of loose ends tied up'. She learns that the newly deceased was recently fired from his job for misconduct and Vera knows that the friends are hiding something. Could the events of the past be related and could they have led to murder? CWA Diamond Dagger Award winner Cleeves’s superb ninth novel featuring astute, irascible Det. Insp. Vera Stanhope (after 2017’s The Seagull) finds Vera driving home late one night through Continue reading » In Agatha Award winner Cleeves’s well-crafted sequel to 2019’s The Long Call, Det. Matthew Venn investigates the murder of retired physician Nigel Yeo, who was found by his glassblower Continue reading »

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup

Returning with her tenth novel in the number one bestselling series Ann Cleeves' brings us yet another gripping thriller in the Vera Stanhope saga - The Rising Tide. Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island, forging a bond that has lasted a lifetime. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship, and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway at the first reunion. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Mail on Sunday Who doesn’t love ‘large and shabby’ Vera Stanhope, the blunt detective in Ann Cleeves’s Northumberland police procedurals? She is already one of the genre immortals. Cleeves delivers some choice Vera moments in The Darkest Evening Second in the military crime series featuring Special Agents Scott Brodie and Magnolia "Maggie" Taylor, after The Deserter (2019).