Three very different women come together to complete an environmental survey. Three women who, in some way or another, know the meaning of betrayal….For team leader Rachael Lambert the project is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her confidence after a double-betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Botanist Anne Preece, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to indulge in a little … deception of her own. And then there is Grace Fulwell, a strange, uncommunicative young woman with plenty of her own secrets to hide…
When Rachael arrives at the cottage, however, she is horrified to discover the body of her friend Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide–a verdict Rachael finds impossible to accept.
Only when the next death occurs does a fourth woman enter the picture–the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who must piece together the truth from these women’s tangled lives…
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At an isolated cottage, three women meet to carry out an environmental survey. On her arrival, the first of the three makes a gruesome discovery. Amid the initial investigation of what looks like suicide, the women begin their work, but all three are hiding secrets and when another death occurs, Inspector Vera Stanhope turns up to dig into the lives and backgrounds of everyone concerned.
This is the first book in the Vera Stanhope series and unusually for Ann Cleeves, it’s a bit of a long haul. As the stories of each character are revealed we gradually see a picture of secrets and deception that widens to include the whole community. Though the inspector doesn’t show her face until a good way through the book, once she’s there, she makes her presence felt.
Set in the North Pennines, the author’s talent for description really comes into its own, and her portrayal of the landscape is a delight – vibrant and colourful, conjuring the area around Black Law into a character in itself, as much a part of the story as the human element. Although this is a fairly hefty book, it’s a thoroughly absorbing and thrilling read that kept me on edge all the way through.
Read 11.14.2019
Things about this book:
*The main character, Vera Stanhope, doesn’t come into the picture until chapter 29!! It was very odd. But once she is there, she is very much there and doesn’t leave.
*The narrator is absolutely fantastic and made this rather long book go really quickly.
*I love books set in England
*Vera Stanhope is a force to be reckoned with and I am glad that I don’t ever have to deal with her IRL.
*I never, ever, saw the killer coming. WOW.
*The book ends rather abruptly, but once you get to know Vera, you will kinda understand that it makes total sense to end it like that. She IS rather abrupt herself.
*I most certainly didn’t need a new series, but I am not unhappy that this one plopped into my life.
This is the first of Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope mysteries, and it took half the book to introduce the protagonist. But she’s a wonderful, three-dimensional personage, just full enough of warts. For a police procedural, it resembles a cozy mystery a lot, with tangled motives and too many suspects. The cast of characters is full of life. This series has been made into a TV series in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. More Vera, please!
I have been rereading all of Ann Cleeves’s Vera novels — beginning with this one.
This is not your usual crime fiction. That’s why it appealed to me and why I enjoyed the story. I would also add that I’ve never watched the TV series.
The story starts with three women, brought together by an environmental impact assessment, prompted by an application to build a quarry. Naturally, feelings run high on both sides of the fence. Rachel, Anne and Grace are tasked with carrying out the assessment and each tells their own story about the events leading up to the apparent suicide of Bella, who owned the cottage where the women are staying.
At first, it reads like a psychological suspense novel with secrets and misdemeanours being revealed by each of the women. Then there’s a murder and DI Vera Stanhope enters the story like a tsunami. Unconventional, eccentric, with a dry sense of humour, but always mesmerising, she’s a tour de force, taking over the story with her no nonsense approach to detection. From this point on, the story is largely hers as she sifts through the evidence to identify the killer.
The novel’s well-written, the Northumberland setting atmospheric, and the characters given a chance to breathe and develop through the course of the story, leading to a sizeable list of suspects, all with motives to kill. The environmental issues give the story a contemporary feel, even though the story isn’t your usual police procedural.
However, allowing the characters so much space and time meant Vera Stanhope’s entry into the story was delayed until almost halfway through. While the characters were interesting and well-written, my interest began to waver several times up to this point.
The solution and arrest of the killer was also over in the blink of an eye after the usual meandering and struggles to sift the clues from the red herrings.
But these are niggles in what was an enjoyable and entertaining read with a detective who will remain long in my memory in these days of traumatised cops, constantly battling their past and spending cuts.
If you like atmospheric writing and don’t mind a story that takes it time to develop, which makes it a long read, I would recommend this book.
This first “Vera” mystery will have you hooked!
My first Ann Cleeve’s book. I’ll be reading more.
Vera Stanhope fleshes her characters inside and out, psychologically and physically. She gives each a distinct character despite having a large cast of suspects.
The plot follows several characters, and keeps one guessing who is the victim and who is the murderer. It is a thrilling story.
Stays true to the TV series on BBC. Vera Stanhope is someone I would like to meet and know. I don’t always like British police procedurals but I’m addicted to this one both the books and the TV series.