A review by gabmc
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves

4.0

I really enjoyed this first book in the Vera Stanhope series. The first half of the book sets the scene. We meet three women: Racheal, Anne and Grace, sharing a small cottage as they do a survey to see what a proposed new quarry will do to the land. Racheal is the team leader and her expertise is birds, Anne is a botanist and Grace focuses on small mammals. The three women are very different and the first part of the book explores their lives and their reasons for doing the survey. When Racheal first arrives at the cottage she is horrified to discover the body of her neighbour, Bella, who has apparently committed suicide. Racheal finds Bella's death very puzzling and can't believe that she would have taken her own life. As the book develops though we realise that maybe Racheal didn't know Bella as well as she thought she did. It is only when another death occurs that Vera enters the story. I 'know' her personality from watching the TV show the book is based on and it was great to get to know her better in book form. Vera certainly has a very unconventional investigative style, which sometimes involved her telling the characters what I thought was too much about the case. As they body count continues to increase, the women wonder who is safe and who is at risk.