North Devon

by

New Release: The Heron’s Cry – Ann Cleeves

The Heron’s Cry (Two Rivers #2)

Ann Cleeves

Macmillan

ISBN: 9781509889679

RRP $32.99

Description:

Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—returns with the extraordinary follow-up to The Long Call, in the Two Rivers series, soon to be a major TV series too.

North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder – Dr. Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter’s broken vases.

Dr. Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He’s a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though, to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.

Then another body is found – killed in a similar way. Matthew soon finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home.

My View:

Sit back and take an armchair vacation to the seaside towns of Ann Cleeves latest book in the Two River series.  This is another solid read from the critically acclaimed Ann Cleeves and I can visualise this as a TV series – this read is made for tv (in my opinion); with characters you can almost reach out and touch, settings that will take you away from your own loungeroom on a journey to the English countryside/seaside towns that Cleeves writes so well.  If I had to sum up this book in two words I would say “Midsomer Murders”; it has characters whose journey you will be keen to follow, towns, settings you will come to know and satisfying resolutions. This is a series you will be keen to follow.

by

Review: The Long Call – Ann Cleeves

The Long Call

(Two Rivers #1)

Ann Cleeves

Macmillan

ISBN: 9781509889570

RRP $29.99

 

Description:

The Long Call is the captivating first novel in a brand new series from Sunday Times bestseller and creator of Vera and Shetland, Ann Cleeves.

 

In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.

 

Now he’s back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.

 

A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew’s new home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.

 

Finding the killer is Venn’s only focus, and his team’s investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind, and the deadly secrets that lurk there.

 

 

My View:

Ann Cleeves introduces to a new set of characters and protagonists in this the beginning of a new series set in North Devon. Cleeves takes her time to provide backgrounds of her characters and very visual descriptions of the settings, you will be transported to the locations; the various significant workplaces, the beaches, the lonely villages, the Woodyard.

 

This is a very contemporary telling of a murder/mystery; the protagonist (Matthew) is an openly gay man – but this is just a fact not a significance, some of the pivotal characters have disabilities and have an important role in the narrative; modern communities are represented on these pages, this is very refreshing to read.

 

Whilst the pace slowly builds you will soon find yourself immersed in the lives of the main characters; Matthew and Jen (a detective/single mum) – I wonder who will play them in the TV series, the works have just been optioned for TV). Someone gutsy, intelligent, sensitive but fun.

 

All in all a good read, some interesting new charters and a resolution that is poignant – this is one instance where I actually felt incredibly sorry for both the victim and the perpetrator. There is much to consider in the narrative, I hope you enjoy it too.

 

**Stay tuned for a fabulous #Friday Freebie for your chance to win a copy of this title. Read it before it hits the screens.  **Offer open to Australian residents.**