The setting took me into another place, a small English village in winter, as Vera Stanhope investigates the murder of a young mother whose body was found on Vera's father's Northampton family estate.
The tale is filled with endless cups of tea served with digestive biscuits, houses without central heating, freezing winter nights, and even a bacon stottie. I felt like an armchair traveler.
I love a mystery that is more than plot driven, where characters are more than types. And Cleeves delivers.
My first time reading Cleeves was The Long Call, which introduced a new detective character. The Darkest Evening (the title from a Robert Frost poem) is the ninth Vera Stanhope novel. And as I had not read them, or even seen the television series Vera, I can attest that it is superbly how this novel stands on its own. I want to read the other books in the series, but did not feel the lack of having read them.
The characters professional and personal lives are revealed. Vera's confliction about her family history and relationship to the manor Stanhopes, Joe's family obligations, Holly's desire for recognition bring the reader's attachment.
The village suspects are as well drawn. The deceased Lorna, who struggled with anorexia, has never revealed the name of her baby's father. It may bring a clue to her murderer. The Stanhope family, the imperious matriarch and her daughter who married a man with big plans to turn the estate into a self-supporting money making venture. Newbies lawyer Dorothy and wannabe teacher Karam, city transplants who appear to be happily married and content with their menial jobs. The local farm families, the Helsops with their artist son, and the elderly inhabitants of the county homes fill out the community.
A second murder, a retired teacher who a special friend to Lorna, is found murdered as well. What did she know?
It winds up to a cabin in the woods and Vera fleeing for her life.
I found the novel oddly calming and cozy, a respite from the world.
I won a book on Goodreads. My review is fair and unbiased.
by Ann Cleeves
Minotaur Books
Publication September 8, 2020
ISBN: 125020450X (ISBN13: 9781250204509)
On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in the back seat.
Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s also where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.
As the blizzard traps the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past.
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