3.97 AVERAGE

mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Another great investigation by Vera Stanhope and her team.

This time there’s a blast from the past in the investigation and I appreciated that Vera didn’t look at the past with pink coloured glasses but with her usual critical view of things, especially the issues pertaining to her father & his friends. 
As usual, I was a bit annoyed by Holly but that character has always been my least favourite of them all with that butter wouldn’t melt attitude of hers. But, she somewhat redeemed herself in this book.
Overall, I loved that book and I’m looking forward to the next instalment in the series.
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

After plowing through several consecutive books with heavy themes, I decided it was time for something a bit lighter. I settled on a tale about a triple murder as told by Ann Cleeves.

This is the eighth and latest book in the D.I. Vera Stanhope series and it is a very good one. And, of course, the tale isn't primarily about three murders; it's about Vera and her A-team of Joe, Holly, and Charlie, and how they work together to solve puzzles.

This is a particularly complicated puzzle because two of the aforementioned murders had occurred back in the 80s, the remains only recently discovered. They were discovered because Vera was selected for a public relations stint.

She was assigned by her boss to make a presentation to convicts at a local prison about how crime affects the victims. She went, grudgingly, to give her spiel and in the audience was a former copper named John Brace. John Brace was a bent copper who had finally received his comeuppance in relation to a scheme in which a local gamekeeper was killed. John Brace was also a member of a Gang of Four who used to go tramping around the countryside stealing eggs from birds' nests for sale and sometimes trapping raptors to sell. All highly illegal, of course. The other three members of the gang were Robbie Marshall, someone known only as "the Prof," and Hector Stanhope, Vera's reprobate of a father.

Brace immediately recognizes who Vera is and devises a plan for getting her to look in on his daughter and her children, whom Brace is worried about, in exchange for information about the whereabouts of a body. It seems that Robbie Marshall has been missing for years and the police have never found a trace of him. But Robbie, as Brace knows, is dead because he hid the body back in the 80s when he was still with the police.

Vera meets with Brace and they make the deal. She is to check on the daughter, Patty, who was the product of his affair with a junkie who was the "love of his life," a woman named Mary-Frances Escuola, who, coincidentally, had disappeared around the same time as Marshall. The child had been given up for adoption and had grown up to marry a loser named Gary Keane, who has now abandoned her and their three children. After Vera meets her and reports back, Brace will tell her where the body is buried.

Vera finds Patty to be clinically depressed and sinking fast and her hitherto unsuspected maternal instincts take over. She befriends Patty and her kids and reports back to Brace who keeps his end of the bargain by telling her that Robbie Marshall is buried in a culvert, the location of which he gives. When the search team goes to look, sure enough, they find the bones of Robbie Marshall, but there is also a second set of bones, apparently female. Could it be Mary-Frances Escuola? Did Brace kill them both?

Vera and her team get to work trying to find the answer to those and other questions about what happened all those years ago, and then, in the middle of their investigation, Gary Keane is murdered. Surely that can't be a coincidence.

Watching Vera and her team work is such a pleasure. We are privy to their thoughts as they go about the investigation, which, in the case of her team members all seem to focus on "What would Vera think about how I'm interviewing this person, or how I'm scrutinizing the evidence?" They are all eager to find some nugget to bring to her that will help to break the case open.

I do find these four people so engaging to read about. Cleeves has given them backstories and personalities that make them real to the reader. Moreover, her plotting, while complicated, is impeccable and always plays fair with the reader. This was just the kind of page-turning read that I needed at this time.

In the end, of course, Vera figures it all out on a dark and stormy night. And then her house ("Hector's house," as she always thinks of it) burns. We'll have to wait until the next book, due out in September, to learn how Vera copes.

I’m a bit sad that I am all caught up in this series. Hopefully a new one comes out next year. This was good. The plot was complex and the side characters were interesting.
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Description
From Ann Cleeves, winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger Award, comes The Seagull.

A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper – and Vera played a key part in his downfall.

Now, Brace promises Vera information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who disappeared in the mid-nineties, if she will look out for his daughter and grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is buried close to St Mary’s Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search team investigates, officers find not one skeleton, but two.

This cold case case takes Vera back in time, and very close to home, as Brace and Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as ‘the Prof’, were close friends of Hector, her father. Together, they were the ‘Gang of Four’, regulars at a glamorous nightclub called The Seagull. Hector had been one of the last people to see Marshall alive. As the past begins to collide dangerously with the present, Vera confronts her prejudices and unwanted memories to dig out the truth . . .

Review

This is the eighth book in the DI Vera Stanhope mysteries from Ann Cleeves. I have read several of the series and, for me, The Seagull is the most engrossing and the one I have most enjoyed reading. It flows well and brings back all the characters we have come to know alongside Vera.

Whilst this is a story in which Vera and her team are trying to resolve more than one murder it is not gory but a well told tale of detection. It brings with it the human side of life lived in the shady areas of prostitution, drugs and organised crime rather than the gritty side but nor does it allow you to bury your head in the ground of how difficult and dangerous these worlds can be. Rather this is a book that concentrates on resolving the crimes through solid police work and detection.

Vera is a wonderful character and is most certainly central to unravelling the mystery, especially as this one involved her father Hector, and solving the crimes but the rest of the team – Joe, Holly and Charlie – play their part. It brings us more of Vera’s history, touching so much on the past – her mother, neighbours old and new and Hector who, despite his criminal activities, Vera staunchly protects the memory of. Is she right to now that he may be linked to murder?

Well written and engaging I am happy to recommend this book.

Rating ****

Information

This book, in the form of an e-galley, was made available via NetGalley from St Martins Press for an honest review. My thanks to them both

John se uita la uşă din scaunul lui cu rotile şi se întreba cine avea să fie târât să le vorbească în ziua respectivă. Un deţinut de serviciu aduse o cană de ceai şi o lăsă lângă el, pe podea, deşi probabil că îşi dăduse seama că lui John i-ar fi fost imposibil să ajungă la ea din scaun. Se gândi să-i strige să arate puţin respect, însă decise că nu merita efortul. Pentru că urma o vizită, pe o farfurie din biroul capelanului erau biscuiţi cu ciocolată, însă nu urmau să fie aduşi decât după întrevedere. O recompensă oferită numai dacă grupul se purta frumos. Formaseră un cerc în capelă – un grup de bărbaţi în vârstă având acelaşi ten palid şi aceleaşi haine care le veneau prost, iar John se întrebă cum de ajunsese aşa. N-avea ce căuta acolo. Când intrase prima oară fusese cuprins de o furie care nu-l lăsase să doarmă noaptea, plănuise răzbunări şi visase să facă rău. Însă rutina devenise liniştitoare, iar acum viaţa lui se concentra în jurul meselor, în cea mai mare parte a timpului fiind moleşit. Parcă-şi petrecea zilele fără rost, pe jumătate adormit, aşteptându-le să se termine şi să ia viaţa de la capăt, aşteptând rarele momente de bucurie care făceau ca totul să merite. Întâlnirile îl încântaseră cândva, le luase ca pe o ieşire din rutina închisorii; ajunsese să nu le mai suporte pentru că-i aduceau aminte de lumea de afară.

În jurul lui, bărbaţii vorbeau, însă nu-i băga în seamă şi, în ciuda zgomotului de fundal, tot reuşi să-l audă pe vizitator înaintea celorlalţi. Auzi sunetul cheii în lacătul de la celălalt capăt al coridorului, sunetul greu, ca de clopot, al porţii care se deschidea, apoi auzi cum sunt închişi din nou şi cheile se întorc în borsetă. Cândva el fusese vizitatorul, însă de atunci trecuse atât de mult timp încât parcă îşi aducea aminte de altă persoană. Sau de un personaj dintr-o poveste. Pe linoleumul lucios se auziră paşi, apoi cheile ieşiră din nou din borsetă. Ceilalţi bărbaţi auziră zgomotul şi începură să murmure anticipativ.

Sărmanii fraieri! În fiecare săptămână credeau că vine cineva interesant. Vreo femeiuşcă arătoasă sau vreun avocat cu idei cum să-i scoată de-acolo. Vreun jurnalist interesat să le cumpere povestea şi să-i îmbogăţească. Şi în fiecare săptămână erau dezamăgiţi.

Capelanul intră primul. Era genul de individ care făcea pe plac tuturor, avea un râs forţat şi respiraţie urât mirositoare. John avusese oameni ca el în echipă şi scăpase de ei cu prima ocazie. Îşi zise că pentru un popă era floare la ureche. La închisoare avea parte de un public captiv, iar când oamenii sunt disperaţi îi poţi convinge să creadă în orice. Puteau fi momiţi să vină la predici cu biscuiţi cu ciocolată şi căni de porţelan pline cu ceai. Le erau ascultate poveştile despre suferinţă şi inocenţă. Abia apoi venea religia. Unii dintre ei poate chiar erau sinceri – ăia care citeau Biblia în celulă chiar şi când nu se uitau paznicii şi nu luau parte la bătăile de pe culoar. Însă John putea să pună pariu că n-aveau să continue aşa odată ce ieşeau.

I received a free ARC of this title from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

DI Vera Stanhope visits a prison on the orders of her boss to give a talk to inmates. Once there she meets up with an old inmate, who strikes a deal with her for information on the location of a body. This jumps starts an investigation into a twenty year old murder..or two and sets off a chain of events in the current time. The plot line becomes heavily intermingled with Vera’s, or more correctly her father, Hector’s past. His “hobby” of bird and egg poaching and the men he associated with are enmeshed in this investigation causing Vera more than one episode of being haunted by her memories. This novel really shows Vera as a woman, a daughter, a friend, and an intelligent, critically thinking DI, an amazingly well drawn character.

The team of Charlie, Joe and Holly are really well done here, fully fleshed out characters, who are engaging in their own right, not just in the relation to Vera. I particularly enjoyed the development of Charlie’s character over the course of the series and love that it goes against the stereotype of the older, maudlin, divorced cop who sinks into a puddle of alcohol in despair. There are other characters outside of the team, who are just as well done, and demonstrate the effect of crimes on the families left behind.

The setting is just as well done, evocative and atmospheric. There is a highly developed sense of place, which I really love in a book. The setting is as important as the characters and the plot. I would highly recommend The Seagull to readers of mystery fiction, to readers who love strong female leads, (particularly ones that are not in their 20s and beautiful), or to readers who just love good books!
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
mysterious