Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nietzschesghost 's review for:
The Darkest Evening
by Ann Cleeves
The Darkest Evening is the ninth instalment in the DI Vera Stanhope series set in the wild landscape of Northumberland, my home county. 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.
This is yet another spectacular and compulsive addition to what has become a much-loved, character-driven series with Vera and her colleagues being a fascinating cast of characters that you really become invested in. The case is a compelling one which you'll find difficult not to devour in one sitting. The plot is superbly executed with enough mystery, intrigue, twists and turns to keeping you feverishly turning the pages. It's fast paced and written in Cleeves's straightforward prose which makes it such an easy book to read and lose yourself in. Cleeves manages to keep the perpetrators identity hidden until the big reveal where the tension is ratcheted up ready to uncover the mystery behind the brutal killing. This is a crime writer who knows exactly how to pull the wool over readers' eyes time and time again and who can be trusted to have you on the edge of your seat, making guesses at those behind the crimes but each time she somehow completely fools you and those involved shock you to your core once revealed. A highly entertaining, masterful and utterly engrossing police procedural from start to finish. READ IT! Many thanks to Macmillan for an ARC.
This is yet another spectacular and compulsive addition to what has become a much-loved, character-driven series with Vera and her colleagues being a fascinating cast of characters that you really become invested in. The case is a compelling one which you'll find difficult not to devour in one sitting. The plot is superbly executed with enough mystery, intrigue, twists and turns to keeping you feverishly turning the pages. It's fast paced and written in Cleeves's straightforward prose which makes it such an easy book to read and lose yourself in. Cleeves manages to keep the perpetrators identity hidden until the big reveal where the tension is ratcheted up ready to uncover the mystery behind the brutal killing. This is a crime writer who knows exactly how to pull the wool over readers' eyes time and time again and who can be trusted to have you on the edge of your seat, making guesses at those behind the crimes but each time she somehow completely fools you and those involved shock you to your core once revealed. A highly entertaining, masterful and utterly engrossing police procedural from start to finish. READ IT! Many thanks to Macmillan for an ARC.