Ann Cleeves has saved the best for last. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is as persistent, devious, and laser-focused as always but her involvement this time is visceral. Vera’s still reeling from Detective Constable Holly Lawson’s death by drowning in The Rising Tide. One doesn’t envy newbie Rosie Bell, the newest member of Vera’s team. No…
I trained as a social worker when I was in my twenties and occasionally worked with troubled young people who’d grown up in chaotic families. Perhaps, that was why a radio documentary about teens living in residential care moved me so much. The programme explored a few of the unscrupulous private companies that run residential…
The Rising Tide will strike a chord of recognition with lovers of The Big Chill. Our deepest hopes, ambitions, and fears of failure are well known to the friends of our youth. They know where the bodies are buried, who feels guilt, who was betrayed, and who’s sitting on “long-held secrets.” The friends in The…
Just before Christmas, Vera finds a young boy, strapped in his car seat, in an abandoned car close to Brockburn, her family’s ancestral estate. Vera’s complicated family history—her father Hector grew up at Brockburn—plays into the narrative. She well remembers strained visits to Brockburn with her father. That branch of the clan used politeness as…
Describe the first time you pictured Vera in your head? Ann Cleeves: Vera appeared suddenly, in one of those incredible moments that make writing such a joy. The Crow Trap was never intended as a traditional detective novel, which is why she doesn’t arrive until a good way in. I never plan my books in…
When you think of the best of British crime drama, Ann Cleeves’s name is always near the top. From the highly successful Vera Stanhope series to the critically acclaimed Shetland Island mysteries (both of which have been adapted into fantastic television shows), Cleeves has cemented herself as a force to be reckoned with. But we…
From CWA Diamond Dagger Award winner Ann Cleeves comes The Glass Room, the fifth book in the Vera Stanhope series, published for the first time in the US. Read Janet Webb’s review of The Glass Room! DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her hippy neighbors keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation, and…
From CWA Diamond Dagger Award winner Ann Cleeves comes The Glass Room, the fifth book in the Vera Stanhope series, published for the first time in the US. The Glass Room is the fifth book in Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series. Since 2011, Detective Chief Inspector Stanhope has been portrayed by actor Brenda Blethyn in the popular…
GIFnotes: Giving you the basic plot summary of an upcoming book with the help of the Graphics Interchange Format. From Crime Writers Association's Diamond Dagger Award winner Ann Cleeves comes The Glass Room, published for the first time in the US—take a visual tour of the fifth Vera Stanhope mystery with GIFnotes!
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, the first in Jessica Fellowes's new historical mystery series set in the Mitford household joins Ann Cleeves's third Vera…
