AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! WINNER OF THE AGATHA AWARD FOR BEST CONTEMPORARY NOVEL From Ann Cleeves–bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows–comes the first in a gripping new series, told with deep compassion and searing insight. “Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers.”–Louise Penny A PEOPLE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK … “Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers.”–Louise Penny
A PEOPLE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF FALL 2019
In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too.
Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.
The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.
more
The Long Call has a strong sense of place with detailed descriptions of the setting, as well as substantial characterization of the main characters. The characters throughout were fallible; although I often did not like them they were realistic and drew me into the story. The author did a good job demonstrating the clash of love and control that can occur when trying to both protect someone you care for and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and enjoy life.
I recommend The Long Call for fans of Louise Penny and anyone who enjoys character-focused mysteries. I look forward to reading another Matthew Venn mystery.
Content Warnings: sexual assault
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions in this review are honest and my own. #TheLongCall #mystery
I’ve heard good things about author Ann Cleeves so I was super excited to read this book. Sadly, I just couldn’t get into out. The characters were ok but the story just seemed to plod along. I may give the author another try, I just haven’t decided yet.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3 since I liked the location and characters.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias.
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves is the first in the new Two Rivers Series. Having never read a book by this author I am not totally impressed. The author has very vivid descriptions you almost feel like you are there with the characters. . This story had many twists and turns. I am not sure about Matthew he is a bit to wimpy and wishy-washy for me. I don’t really feel any connection for the characters. This book I feel was just not for me. I probably will not continue this series.
This was an interesting book and I enjoyed the mystery presented. The main character, Matthew Venn, who is a police detective, is insecure in his abilities to solve a crime. However, his tenacity and determination to determine who is responsible for the murder are encouraging.
While the story is rather slow moving, it does keep giving you peaks into the lives of the various characters and has you guessing how their lives are enmeshed and what you don’t know about them. The way the author deals with the characters who have been diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome was handled delicately. You were cheering on these ladies and ached for the trials they experienced.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Long Call is the first in the new Two Rivers series by Ann Cleeves. This is the first I’ve read by this author but it won’t be the last. This is a wonderful mystery that will keep you on your toes and give you new characters to adore.
Detective Matthew Venn lives in North Devon, close to the evangelical community he left years earlier. Receiving a call about the discovery of a body, Matthew is thrown in close contact with those he left a long time ago.
With colorful characters and some very unlikeable characters, Ann weaves a tale worthy of Agatha Christie. This is a great start to a new series and I can’t wait to read more.
I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this book given to me by Netgalley.
The Long Call is the first entry in the new Two Rivers Series. It introduces Matthew Venn, a British police officer, in a same sex marriage and estranged from his mother due to being raised in a strict and cruel sect. When a woman walking her dog finds a man stabbed to death on a beach in North Devon, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn goes straight from his father’s funeral to begin the investigation. While the police are searching for motives for the murder, a woman with Downs Syndrome, who attended Woodyard’s day center and helped in the kitchen, like the murdered man, goes missing. As the team searches for the woman and for a possible connection with the murder, Matthew struggles with a possible conflict of interest because of his husband’s connection to Woodyard. When a second woman with Downs disappears Matthew is further conflicted, knowing his husband would never kill anyone.
The Long Call is a very character-driven police procedural, and these are not happy people. The term “long call” refers to the cry of the herring gull, a cry that always sounded to Matthew like “an inarticulate howl of pain”. That sound is very appropriate. Matthew himself has been ostracized by his family since he rejected the small fundamentalist faith in which he had been raised. And although he clearly loves his husband and is loved in return, he is equally clearly very insecure about their relationship. The members of his team also have burdens to deal with. Jen is raising her two children alone after leaving her abusive husband. Their boss, DCI Oldham, has problems of his own that may endanger his career and that I expect to hear of more in future books. Matthew and his team successfully solve the case but not before Matthew himself is endangered. These characters and their lives have not been so easily resolved, though, and Cleeves has made us care about them and assured that we will want to hear more about them in future books.
Ms. Cleeves provides a vivid portrayal of her locations. Her wonderful writing and descriptions make you feel the sea, marshes and atmosphere of North Devon. She wrote a wonderful story, with an intriguing plot and a great development of her characters. I definitely recommend The Long Call to other readers. I hope to see more, much more, of Matthew and his team.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
The Long Call was centered around The Woodyard, a combined arts center for the community and day center for learning disabled adults. Being a parent with an adult Down syndrome son, I have to say that the author was incredibly accurate in her portrayal of learning disabled adults who attend the day center and of the parents who loved and looked after them and sometimes feared for their safety. The readers get to know the lives of the detectives as well as the families who work and participate at The Woodyard. The mystery was excellent on many levels with a variety of characters that kept me guessing until the end. I would highly recommend this novel.
A mainstream author enters the world of gay mystery and does a pretty good job of it.
A funeral. A murder. Missing vulnerable adults. Secrets and lies. The Long Call , a new novel, which marks the start of a new series by the UK’s Ann Cleeves, features Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and Detective Sergeant Jen Rafferty, two very different personalities.
It is Matthew whom we see in the opening scenes hovering at the fringes at his father’s funeral. He was raised in a conservative fundamentalist religious sect, the Brethren. Now he is an outcast, not only because he has rejected the religious beliefs he was taught, but also because he is married to a man, Jonathan. Maybe because he’s with the police, and maybe also because of his upbringing, Matthew dresses conservatively in suits and ties. He is socially more reserved. Jonathan, on the other hand, wears shorts and sandals no matter what the weather, and he loves to entertain. The two men seem to be a perfect match!
Jen is the divorced mother of two teenagers and has moved from the city to North Devon following her divorce. She quite motivated prove herself and shows herself quite capable when given the chance. She has a way of communicating with witnesses and has good instincts when pursuing leads.
When the body of a lonely, recovering alcoholic man is discovered on the beach, Matthew and his team have their work cut out for them. Things get complicated when it is discovered that the man had ties to Jonathan’s workplace and that some of the board members there have ties to Matthew’s former church. It all begins to feel very secretive and sinister. Someone knows more than he or she is revealing. Perhaps more than one person is involved?
After a woman with Down syndrome disappears, the intensity ratchets up a few more notches. I couldn’t imagine what THAT was all about. In a story that starts out feeling rather sleepy and frankly, had of a bit old-fashioned feel to it, this was turning out to be quite a mystery indeed! Why would someone take this woman? There were more mysteries, too, especially about the murdered man. He definitely had secrets. So did some of the people who knew him.
I love some of the characters in this story, especially the participants at Woodyard, Lucy and her father Maurice, and also Christine. I also liked that Maurice was honest about his first assessment of Woodyard, that he cringed when he saw lower functioning, more physically handicapped clients there, and I loved how he learned to see the humanity in all of them. It reminded me of the day program where I used to work. I liked Jonathan and Matthew, and I wished we had been given a closer look at the two of them. I hope they are featured again in a subsequent novel. I also liked Jen. Her style is a wonderful complement to Matthew’s and she is a brilliant addition to his team. I would like to see her, too, in a future book and see if she can have a social life, because she deserves one. I found myself liking the victim, Simon Walden. Although he had made a serious mistake at one time in his life, he was desperately trying to redeem himself. He seemed to be a decent, gifted human being.
There are also some very unlikable people in this book. The person I was expecting – and hoping – would be the actual murderer was not, although this individual was not completely blameless in the whole sordid affair. I would have liked there to have been someone in the Brethren to have been more compassionate and courageous than those who were portrayed, although perhaps there is hope for one of them…
This would be 2.5 stars. It took forever to finish this book. It never takes me this long to read a book. I have never read anything by this author before, and based on this book, I am not sure I will read anything else.
I enjoy a good mystery. This moved so slowly and the characters seemed so wooden that I had a hard time connecting with any of them. I think Lucy was the most interesting. She had the most personality.
The other characters didn’t illicit much emotion from me one way or another. They didn’t have much personality, or were kind of creepy. When they mentioned one of the characters later in the book, I had to go back and find out who she was and what her role in the story had been.
I found it off putting that the person in charge of the investigation seemed unsure of his position, his relationship, and his ability to solve the case. I didn’t care about Matthew and Jonathan being a couple, and thought their relationship seemed more like they were needy and desperate to hang on to each other than actually being in love.
There were so many characters in this book that trying to keep up with them and there connection to the other characters became almost unwieldy. I thought the mystery itself was decent.
At times, reading this book was like wading through a mud pit with heavy, wet clothes on. The best part of the book, which also had the best pacing, was toward the end, when the disjoint pieces were being pulled together. Had the rest of the book been paced the same, I’m sure I could give it a higher rating.
The Long Call was not terrible. I would recommend you read it and judge for yourself. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book received from the publisher via NetGalley.
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves will take you down a suspenseful journey that will have you turning the pages. Matthew left all he knew, including his family to be able to live life the way he wants too. When he returns for his father funeral, the last thing he expects is to investigate a local murder. With riveting characters, hot topics and a story that will have you questioning everything, you will be captivated by this story!
Happy reading!
New author and new series for me. I was excited to read this book but was a little disappointed based on the description. It was well written with great characters, just not what I expected. Very detailed but not lots of fast paced action but still gets my recommendation.
“He’d left the window down and now he could hear the surf on the beach and the sound naturalists names the long call, the cry which always sounded to him like an inarticulate howl of pain. These were the noises of home.
~from The Long Call by Anne Cleeves
I was intrigued to read The Long Call when reading the blurb about the main character: when Detective Matthew Venn left the community of the Brethren he lost his family, too. What a fascinating back story for a detective! Plus, I wanted to delve into something by Anne Cleeves since I have heard of the television series–Vera and Shetland–based on her other book series. The first book in a new series seemed the right place to begin.
The Long Call has a vivid sense of place–North Devon. “North Devon seems to attract the weirdos, don’t you think?” one character accuses. Weirdos or not, the Barum Brethren may be dying out but the tight community still holds a lot of local power.
The novel opens with Matthew watching his father’s funeral from afar, knowing he would not be welcome. He carries the bitterness of rejection, a remnant of hope of reconciliation. “Doubt was a cancer that grew unbidden,” he knows.
Matthew went into police work because he sought the order and meaning lost when he left the Brethern. Isolated from the world while growing up, he was an outsider at university and dropped out. He is not a sociable man, he can be short and single-minded and stiff. But he is a good man.
Matthew is married to Jonathan, his opposite in many ways. Jonathan’s dress is informal. He has a marvelous ability to connect to people. And he works for a community center, Woodyard, that includes a day center for special needs and offers classes to the public.
While at his father’s funeral, Matthew was called when a dead body is found on the beach near his home. Simon Walden was new to the community and worked at the kitchen at Woodyard. Walden had a complicated life; he carried the burden of accidental homicide and had a history of alcoholism.
While Matthew and his team piece together the mystery of Walden’s death, one of the day center women goes missing. The incidents may be related.
Matthew must reenter the Brethern community during his inquiry, which brings him face to face with the Brethern’s spiritual leader. Then another day center woman goes missing. What Matthew discovers is a community cover-up of a hideous abuse of power.
I enjoyed Cleeve’s story-telling and felt Matthew was remarkably sympathetic and well-drawn. I was propelled to continue reading the last half of the novel. I would read the next book in the series. And will soon be checking out Cleeve’s television series!
I received access to a free book through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
The Long Call was a very enjoyable police procedural / mystery. I have not read anything by this author before, but I’m definitely looking forward to changing that.
I loved how well rounded the characters were and the ways in which they interacted with each other. The author has a knack for descriptions, making the reader experience the beauty and loneliness that are different settings in this book.
The characters are just as wonderful as the descriptions, especially DI Matthew Venn, the primary character and his husband Jonathan. Matthew’s colleagues Jen and Ross. Each has their own quirks and worries, making them characters I’m looking forward to meeting again in the next books in this new series.
If you like well done mysteries or police procedurals that are strongly character driven, this is the series for you. My only question is when will book 2 in this series come out?
Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publishers for an ARC at my request. All thoughts in this review are my own.
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves is the first of her books I’ve read and the first in a new series. I loved it. I really like her protagonist, Matthew Venn. He is the police inspector who solves the crimes despite his low confidence in himself. He was raised in a home where there was little love shown him from a mother who was a religious zealot and a father who loved her enough to follow. We open as his father has just died but Matthew doesn’t go to the funeral: he is certain he will be unwelcome and refuses to cause a scene. He is a cop in a small community in North Devonshire and lives with his husband in a house near the beach outside town. He loves his life but is firm in his belief that he doesn’t deserve it, or the husband he loves.
A man is discovered stabbed to death on the beach, a short way from Matthew’s home. At first glance he appears to be a homeless drunk but as the investigation moves forward, more and more is learned about him. A Down’s Syndrome woman is snatched from the local centre. The is the daughter of the best friend of Matthew’s mother, who totally breaks her protocol and calls and asks Matthew for his help, which he willingly gives, both in the desire to have her see him differently and because the woman is loosely connected to the murdered man on the beach.
The characters were complex and not entirely likable, even the other police. The mystery was totally relatable in that it centered around daily lives of ordinary people. Matthew, the protagonist, was likable and human. His relationship with his husband, Jonathon, was not idealized but was ideal. This crime affected them both, in different ways, as it did most of the people involved. It was mesmerizing to be a both a part of solving the crime, but in being affected by its gravity. The Long Call is an excellent read and I recommend it. I look forward to the next in the series.
I received a free ARC of the Long Call. All interpretations and opinions are solely my own. #netgalley #thelongcall
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Ruthie –
This is the first in a new series and I am really excited for what will come in the future, as the protagonists are engaging and the location is beautifully described and very atmospheric.
Matthew is an interesting lead detective, having grown up in the town that he now works in, but estranged from his family. His husband runs the local day centre for special needs adults, which also has a café and arts centre. As the story develops, we understand that the centre is significant in the plot, and that it could be unethical for Matthew to carry on, yet his boss would rather not have to take the lead himself. All these elements build together to give a clear picture of the police at the station and the dynamics. I love the scene setting, the details of the place and its people which give so much more richness to the story. As the mystery deepens, the list of suspects and the possible crimes mount up, but this team is up to the challenge.
An excellent start to a new series, and I look forward to more.
Reviewers received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
Ann Cleeve’s new series set in North Devon and a new protagonist, Detective Matthew Venn. A tender treatment of a not quite confident detective. Enjoyed.
The Long Call turned out to be a really long read for me, mostly because I kept setting it aside for something more interesting. The writing is stilted and there are odd phrasings and some out of context sentences here and there that add to that stilted affect. Like one lengthy paragraph about Jen’s kids and child minders that ends with a sentence about Jen still having sexy dreams about one child minder and his ‘tight bum.’ Umm… Ok, maybe that was an attempt at giving the reader some insight about Jen, but it just left me confused about its relevance to anything in the story, including the paragraph it accompanies.
This is a police procedural, so I didn’t expect much in the way of those edge of your seat moments that make a good thriller, but I found most of this book just plain boring. It did have potential but most of that got lost in the slow pacing of the story.
On a positive note, there is a lot of diversity, which is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned. That said, this one got a little over the top with the characterizations of people. The protagonists are all open-minded and completely accepting while everyone else needs an attitude adjustment because their beliefs are just wrong. I’m about as open-minded as it gets, but I realize that it’s rarely so black and white where people are concerned. This book gives voice to the idea that there is no gray area, and it started to feel more like a soap box than a story.
This is my first experience with Ann Cleeves, and I find myself quite underwhelmed. This isn’t a story I would recommend and given my feelings about this one, I don’t see any reason to continue with the series.
DI Matthew Venn is watching–not attending–his father’s funeral when he receives the call. They’ve found a body on the beach of Crow Point, and it appears as if the victim has been stabbed. Crow Point is right where Matthew and his husband, Jonathan, reside. As Matthew begins digging into the case, he’s pulled back into his former life–one he thought he left behind. He also finds himself in a world filled with secrets and lies; a world where some might do anything to kept those secrets buried.
“The day they found the body on the shore, Matthew Venn was already haunted by thoughts of death and dying.”
Well, this was an excellent police procedural; one of those mysteries that you get caught up in from the start. I’ll be honest that I’ve never heard of Ann Cleeves or any of her previous series. That’s clearly my loss, and I’m definitely interested in her other works now.
I won’t go into too many details here and spoil the plot, but I’ll say that this is a great read, filled with all the little details and nuances that you get from a strong writer. I was heartened from the beginning to find our protagonist, DI Venn, to be gay. You don’t get a lot of that in the mystery world. His sexuality is a part of the book, but not the focus, and it was just really nice to read about a gay detective. Matthew is a fascinating character, who is grappling with facing members of the Barum Brethren, a religious sect that he grew up in, but of whom he is no longer a member. He is also a straight-laced policeman, and a strong leader who can admit his faults. It will be nice to follow him in a new series.
His team is interesting as well–quirky Jen and annoying Ross are the main two–and I hope they come along in the second book. Cleeves is quite adept at creating her characters, and all are easy to imagine. There’s a wide cast of characters in this one, and plenty of suspects, but not so many as to get confused or lost. There’s a main plotline (murdered man) and a secondary one–that may be related–and both are intriguing and keep you guessing. We learn things along with the team, as they investigate, which is always a favorite of mine. It’s a small-town setting, and many folks are complicated, many have secrets, and it’s difficult to work out which secret may have led to murder! (Though I’m proud that I had an inkling about some things!)
In the end, this was a really strong mystery. It quietly keeps you guessing and invested in the story. The characters are excellent, and I’m just so heartened to find a gay lead! It’s thoughtful and smart, without any gimmicks. Definitely recommend. 4+ stars.
Solid British Police Procedural. This was an excellent book for fans of any combination of mystery, British fiction, or police procedurals. And generally, I’m a fan of all three. But for some reason this book was a bit slower of a read than most books of its size, and I’m struggling to figure out why. MAYBE because it used *several* more British terms that I’m less familiar with, despite reading more and more British fiction these days? (Full disclosure: I’m an American who has lived nearly all of my days in its southeastern corner.) Regardless, truly a solid book and very much recommended, despite my personal difficulties with reading it.