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The Long Call
- Now a major ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as Detective Matthew Venn
- Narrated by: Ben Aldridge
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
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The Heron's Cry
- Now a major ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as Detective Matthew Venn
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Jack Holden
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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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. His daughter, Eve, is a glassblower, and the murder weapon is a shard of one of her broken vases. Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim.
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FINALLY, characters who just happen to be gay, or intellectually disabled :-) :-) :-)
- By pigletbunny on 2022-10-09
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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A Lesson in Dying
- Inspector Ramsay, Book 1
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Who hung the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Halloween Party? Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster’s enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence. With the help of his restless daughter Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Cold Earth
- Shetland, Book 7
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the black days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of peaty water and mud smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez becomes obsessed with finding out her identity and what she was doing there.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Wild Fire
- Shetland, Book 8
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Drawn in by the reputation of the islands, a new English family move to the area, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny’s body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wildfire. With suspicion raining down on the family, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate, knowing that it will mean the return to the islands of his on-off lover and boss Willow Reeves, who will run the case.
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perez
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-07-10
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Burial of Ghosts
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twenty-five-year-old Lizzie Bartholomew has had more than her fair share of struggles. Abandoned as a baby, she spent her childhood moving between foster homes. Now she is running away from her past.... A holiday in Morocco seems to be the perfect escape. Especially when she meets Philip, a fellow tourist who distracts her from her troubles. After a brief affair, Lizzie returns to England, to a solicitor's letter. Philip Samson has died. In his will, he has left Lizzie a gift of £15,000. But there are conditions attached to this unexpected legacy....
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Meh
- By khiker63 on 2023-01-02
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Trick of the Night
- Detective Matt Ballard, Book 5
- Written by: Joy Ellis
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Photography student Toby Unsworth has found the location for the perfect night-time shoot. A cobbled street in the old part of Fenfleet. Later, when he looks at the images on his laptop, he thinks he sees a woman's face in the window of an old, disused building. He asks his housemate Alex to come and take a look . . . Two days later, Toby and Alex are dead. Carbon monoxide poisoning. An unfortunate accident. But Alex's mother doesn't believe it. She hires Matt and Liz to find out the truth.
Written by: Joy Ellis
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The Heron's Cry
- Now a major ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as Detective Matthew Venn
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Jack Holden
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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. His daughter, Eve, is a glassblower, and the murder weapon is a shard of one of her broken vases. Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim.
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FINALLY, characters who just happen to be gay, or intellectually disabled :-) :-) :-)
- By pigletbunny on 2022-10-09
Written by: Ann Cleeves
-
A Lesson in Dying
- Inspector Ramsay, Book 1
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who hung the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Halloween Party? Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster’s enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence. With the help of his restless daughter Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
-
Cold Earth
- Shetland, Book 7
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the black days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of peaty water and mud smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Perez becomes obsessed with finding out her identity and what she was doing there.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Wild Fire
- Shetland, Book 8
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawn in by the reputation of the islands, a new English family move to the area, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny’s body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wildfire. With suspicion raining down on the family, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate, knowing that it will mean the return to the islands of his on-off lover and boss Willow Reeves, who will run the case.
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perez
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-07-10
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Burial of Ghosts
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five-year-old Lizzie Bartholomew has had more than her fair share of struggles. Abandoned as a baby, she spent her childhood moving between foster homes. Now she is running away from her past.... A holiday in Morocco seems to be the perfect escape. Especially when she meets Philip, a fellow tourist who distracts her from her troubles. After a brief affair, Lizzie returns to England, to a solicitor's letter. Philip Samson has died. In his will, he has left Lizzie a gift of £15,000. But there are conditions attached to this unexpected legacy....
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Meh
- By khiker63 on 2023-01-02
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Trick of the Night
- Detective Matt Ballard, Book 5
- Written by: Joy Ellis
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Photography student Toby Unsworth has found the location for the perfect night-time shoot. A cobbled street in the old part of Fenfleet. Later, when he looks at the images on his laptop, he thinks he sees a woman's face in the window of an old, disused building. He asks his housemate Alex to come and take a look . . . Two days later, Toby and Alex are dead. Carbon monoxide poisoning. An unfortunate accident. But Alex's mother doesn't believe it. She hires Matt and Liz to find out the truth.
Written by: Joy Ellis
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The Darkest Evening
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Janine Birkett
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope's only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy that she becomes disorientated and loses her way. Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver's door open, Vera assumes the driver has sought shelter, but when she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat. Afraid they will freeze, Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she immediately recognises as the house her father, Hector, grew up in.
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Could be half as long, too much useless detail.
- By Nawsh_T on 2022-05-01
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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The Rising Tide
- Vera Stanhope
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Janine Birkett
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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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. 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.
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Couldn’t stop listening
- By Amazon Customer on 2022-09-15
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Murder in My Backyard
- Inspector Ramsay, Book 2
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry...but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve. When detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Thin Air
- Shetland, Book 6
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a local. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears—apparently into thin air. Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor’s disappearance than they first thought.
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Loved it!
- By Donna O'Brien on 2022-11-16
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Secrets on the Fens
- DI Nikki Galena Series, Book 12
- Written by: Joy Ellis
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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One moonlit night, the bodies of two young people are discovered lying entwined on a blanket in the woods. The young man is clutching a red rose. It appears to be a lovers' suicide pact.... Until Detective Nikki Galena and DS Joseph Easter look more closely. Romeo and Juliet, as they decide to call them, were murdered somewhere else and brought to the woods. But why? Then another young couple are found dead, again beautifully posed as lovers.
Written by: Joy Ellis
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White Nights
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When Shetland detective Jimmy Perez finds a body in a hut used by fishermen, it seems to be a straightforward case of suicide. He recognises the victim - a stranger with amnesia who had disrupted a local party the night before his death. Yet this is no desperate act of anguish but the work of a cold and calculating killer. As Perez investigates, he finds himself mired in the hidden secrets of the small Biddista community. Then another body is found. Perez knows he must break the cycle before another death occurs. But this is a crazy time of year, when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems....
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Land of the midnight sun
- By Moyra on 2020-03-14
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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A Bird in the Hand
- Palmer-Jones, Book 1
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Tom French was found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom had put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they? George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher who decided quietly to look into the brutal crime, discovered mixed feelings aplenty. Still, he remained baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Marshlight
- Detective Matt Ballard, Book 4
- Written by: Joy Ellis
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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An old friend's sister disappears without a trace. There's no sign of foul play, but she'd been acting very peculiarly. Meanwhile, Liz's cousin, Christie, comes to stay. She takes an immediate - and uncharacteristic - dislike to the local bookshop owner, Gina. Why does everyone put up with her awful behavior? Christie is convinced that Gina is manipulating everyone around her. Is she onto something dangerous or just pushing her new friends away? No one believes her suspicions until another friend goes missing late at night on the misty Fen marshes.
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Always a good listen
- By Wonkytonkwoman on 2022-08-07
Written by: Joy Ellis
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Come Death and High Water
- Palmer-Jones, Book 2
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A routine weekend visit by the Gillibry Bird Observatory Trust is made memorable by the owner’s announcement that he is going to sell the island. A sale would mean the end of the Observatory, which for some of the birders made life worth living. A fire in Charlie Todd’s cottage added to their distress. And when, next morning, after a fierce storm, they found Charlie dead in a bird hide, their pleasant September weekend assumed a dangerous new face.
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Too Good to Be True
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
- Length: 1 hr and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When young teacher Anna Blackwell is found dead in her home, the police think her death was suicide or a tragic accident. After all, Stonebridge is a quiet country village in the Scottish Borders, where murders just don't happen. But Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez soon arrives from faraway Shetland when his ex-wife, Sarah, asks him to look into the case. The local gossips are saying that her new husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna. Could Tom have been involved with her death?
Written by: Ann Cleeves
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Arcadia
- A Case for Willows and Lane, Book 3
- Written by: Peter Grainger
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Sir Roger Parkes is a man of some influence in the West Country. When he loses touch with his youngest daughter, he has a word with the Assistant Chief Constable of the local force. It's not a police matter, he is told, but if Sir Roger wants to pursue it privately, there is a lady who might be able to help-two of them, actually.
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Loved it
- By L. RENAUD on 2023-01-16
Written by: Peter Grainger
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Telling Tales
- Written by: Ann Cleeves
- Narrated by: Janine Birkett
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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It has been 10 years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of 15-year-old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie’s innocence. Abigail’s killer is still at large. For one young woman, Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend - and of that fearful winter's day when she had discovered her body lying cold in a ditch.
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Excellent audio book!!
- By Steve Klein on 2021-01-17
Written by: Ann Cleeves
Publisher's Summary
Now a major ITV series, The Long Call, adapted for television by screenwriter Kelly Jones and starring Ben Aldridge.
The Long Call is the number one best-selling first novel in the Two Rivers series from Sunday Times best-selling author 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.
The next book in the series is The Heron's Cry.
This audiobook is an updated recording by Ben Aldridge.
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What listeners say about The Long Call
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- D. Prasad
- 2022-04-12
Very good in all aspects
The reading by Ben Aldridge was excellent, took me a couple of chapters to appreciate the pauses and tempo changes, however once I ‘tuned in’ to his style I loved it.
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- Margot Kyle
- 2021-11-03
A little long
Convoluted and I got a bit confused with all the characters, but it is a good introduction to Ann Cleeves writing. I will read more.
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- cherrylynn
- 2021-05-21
Two Rivers is shaping up to be TEDIOUS.......
I guess I have been spoiled by the best of British crime novels, by masters of the craft, like Ruth Rendell, PD James, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin and others. I thought I would give this Two Rivers opener a try, as I have enjoyed Cleeves’ Shetland series, and was lured by the beautiful location of the story - Devon! Alas, the charm of the south coast of England was drowned out by large doses of self-conscious political correctness (ugh!) mixed with a painfully pedantic writing style.The ‘excitement’ ends early, followed by two slow-moving kidnappings of two separate Down Syndrome women, one of whom gets rewarded at every turn with candy, chocolate cake and Twix bars. [This in spite of being described as being “large” and “not fit” by her enablers] Go figure!
That was the real crime, apart from being relentlessly schooled on same sex marriage and how to caretake the mentally/intellectually challenged. I was looking for a challenging crime drama with a modicum of tension and excitement ....there is NONE here.
I had the feeling the author thought up the next bit as she wrote. It seemed amateurish.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2022-01-31
Disappointing
I have enjoyed a number of Ann Cleeves' novels, sadly this is not one of them.
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- melanie
- 2021-10-04
Not too shabby
I picked up Ann Cleeves after watching the brilliant TV series “Shetland”. There are many crime books these days, and many are rudimentary in character development or plot or procedure. This novel seemed pretty tight in plot and procedure with a web of believable answers. Nice to see the main characters start to unfold, as they will no doubt continue to do in subsequent novels in the series. I’ll try another by this author.