HARBOUR STREET by Ann Cleeves

Detective Joe Ashworth, and teen daughter, Jessie, are on the Metro returning home in a snow storm after attending a school choir concert at New Castle Cathedral. The Metro is filled with Christmas shoppers/revelers and no seats are available. Joe notices an elegant, attractive, well dressed woman in her 70's, take a recently vacated seat and he becomes annoyed. He and Jessie must remain standing, squashed into a corner The lights flicker as the train pulls into a station, and an announcement is made that because of the snow there is trouble on the line and the train can go no further. The passengers depart quickly into the foul weather. Jessie points to the older lady telling her dad she must be asleep. She walks over to alert her, but the woman is dead. Detective Joe Ashworth, upon examination, discovers she has been fatally stabbed. He immediately calls the police and his Inspector to report the crime.

Inspector Vera Stanhope is a larger than life force to be reckoned with. She is unattractive, overweight, out of shape, older, impatient, but renowned for her strong intuition. The victim is Margaret Krukowski. She has lived in the top floor apartment at #1 Harbour Street for many years. It is a B&B owned by widow and previous singing star, Kate Dewar and her two teenage children, Chloe and Ryan. Upon questioning Kate, her children, and the guests, Margaret is depicted as a saint, active in church and a volunteer at a women's shelter for homeless and abused women. She helps with baking at the B&B and is private person, leading a quiet life. This opinion is shared by everyone questioned. But Vera in her diligent digging, discovers that Margaret is no saint and has shocking secrets that have been hidden for years. When a second woman is murdered in the neighborhood, the hunt is on to find the murderer. Vera solves the crimes the old fashioned way...footwork, following clues, constantly interviewing anyone who knew the victims, and working her detective and her assistant hard and without mercy.

This is the sixth book of crime novels featuring roly-poly Vera Stanhope, and is a big hit series on British television, Vera. I think Ann Cleeves is a master storyteller, and her thriller, HARBOUR STREET, gripped me from start to finish. I regard myself as a super sleuth, I followed the clues, but failed to solve this whodunit. Her ensemble cast of characters include Vera, her always-eager-to-please fashion plate assistant, Holly, and Detective Joe, her protegee. They work hard together to solve two murders. In a town with a very tight community filled with dark, disturbing secrets, people are reluctant to speak. They do not trust the police and want to protect their own. Ms. Cleeves descriptions of this quiet fishing town of Mardle, the seemingly innocent neighborhood of Harbour Street and the colorful characters that live there is painted brilliantly. I feel like I was there watching and waiting for the finale that surprises and has me scurrying for another great read by Ann Cleeves. Well done and I recommend it to mystery lovers everywhere.

HARBOUR STREET is the next spellbinding installment in Ann Cleeves' series of crime novels about Vera Stanhope, played in the TV detective drama VERA by Brenda Blethyn.

As the snow falls thickly on Newcastle, the shouts and laughter of Christmas revelers break the muffled silence. Detective Joe Ashworth and his daughter Jessie are swept along in the jostling crowd onto the Metro.

But when the train is stopped due to the bad weather, and the other passengers fade into the swirling snow, Jessie notices that one lady hasn't left the train: Margaret Krukowski has been fatally stabbed.

Arriving at the scene, DI Vera Stanhope is relieved to have an excuse to escape the holiday festivities. As she stands on the silent, snow-covered station platform, Vera feels a familiar buzz of anticipation, sensing that this will be a complex and unusual case.

Then, just days later, a second woman is murdered. Vera knows that to find the key to this new killing she needs to understand what had been troubling Margaret so deeply before she died - before another life is lost. She can feel in her bones that there's a link. Retracing Margaret's final steps, Vera finds herself searching deep into the hidden past of this seemingly innocent neighborhood, led by clues that keep revolving around one street...

Why are the residents of Harbour Street so reluctant to speak?

Told with piercing prose and a forensic eye, Ann Cleeves' gripping new novel explores what happens when a community closes ranks to protect their own-and at what point silent witnesses become complicit.