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A review by deeclancy
The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves
5.0
Already a big fan of Ann Cleeves, it was great to pick up a new Vera book in the bookshop last week. Recently, I'd read that Ann Cleeves lost her laptop in a Shetland blizzard, with a half-finished novel in her Shetland series on it. It seems that life has been imitating art. Having offered a reward, the mystery of the missing laptop was resolved. And though she did have a backup copy of the manuscript, one can imagine a popular writer feeling anxious about leaks. For the sake of us fans, I would urge Ann Cleeves to keep everything on a secure cloud platform!
This particular Vera installment is about a group of friends who gather every five years on Lindisfarne (or Holy Island), having once been there as teenagers on retreat with a naive young teacher in the 1970s, who'd encouraged them to share their honest feelings about everything. This definitely strikes me as the type of thing that happened in the '70s: and well into the '80s in Ireland. I also recognized the character of the 'down with the kids' teacher, as those types were common in my day, and the most of the more street wise kids regarded them with suspicion (with some good reason, often).
Obviously, there is a complicated history of conflict and destructiveness within the group, otherwise there wouldn't be a plot. Some of its members have matured appropriately in terms of values, while others have only a veneer of respectability that they will do anything to protect, even committing murder. It takes a while to figure out who has the faltering veneer, but Vera of course does, eventually.
This is as gripping a Vera novel as I've ever read, so five stars, given that I'm already a fan. I was alarmed at one point when I thought Ann Cleeves was on the verge of killing Vera off, which would have meant I'd have had a day or two of mourning over the Christmas period. Luckily, Vera still lives, larger than life as ever.
This particular Vera installment is about a group of friends who gather every five years on Lindisfarne (or Holy Island), having once been there as teenagers on retreat with a naive young teacher in the 1970s, who'd encouraged them to share their honest feelings about everything. This definitely strikes me as the type of thing that happened in the '70s: and well into the '80s in Ireland. I also recognized the character of the 'down with the kids' teacher, as those types were common in my day, and the most of the more street wise kids regarded them with suspicion (with some good reason, often).
Obviously, there is a complicated history of conflict and destructiveness within the group, otherwise there wouldn't be a plot. Some of its members have matured appropriately in terms of values, while others have only a veneer of respectability that they will do anything to protect, even committing murder. It takes a while to figure out who has the faltering veneer, but Vera of course does, eventually.
This is as gripping a Vera novel as I've ever read, so five stars, given that I'm already a fan. I was alarmed at one point when I thought Ann Cleeves was on the verge of killing Vera off, which would have meant I'd have had a day or two of mourning over the Christmas period. Luckily, Vera still lives, larger than life as ever.