True confessions! I am an avid fan of Ann Cleeves’ books right from my first Cleeves read of SILENT VOICES (Book 3). Since discovering this amazing author and Vera, I have read the lot of them from Vera first getting her team to work as a team and as they develop and work together over time. As much as I enjoyed them all, THE RISING TIDE is certainly the top in class! It is brilliant! Vera at her finest and most frustrated!
Like the famous tide at Holy Island (Lindisfarne), THE RISING TIDE starts off gently enough with a five-year reunion of a group of former Grammar School students who first did the CONNECT retreat with their young and pretty teacher fifty years ago and they are continuing their tradition of gathering at the same island every five years. Then, they share their stories and rituals. After an evening gathering and sleep, their early morning bantering is interrupted when one of their members, Rick Kelsall, is found hanging from a rafter.
Vera gets called in on her weekend off and gets confronted with the usual question: Is it murder or suicide? As Vera starts with the interviews, Holly is sent to the post-mortem with some pointed questions for Dr. Keating. Used to Vera’s penchant for murder, he notes answering the questions will make Vera insufferable if proven right. Was there any doubt?
Now approaching her sixties, Vera has developed her team well and knows all their strengths and concerns. She is happy with her lot in life and especially with her team (but only lets them know in small, but clever ways). Still, the situation at Pilgrims House should be a slam dunk, but Vera and the team are frustrated with all the stories and no clear answers. What can they do? Even Vera’s skill at chatting people up and noting every detail is leaving its mark on the team. What is the secret that is being kept hidden?
Like the tide itself, THE RISING TIDE is both deceptively simple; yet, frustratingly complex, and dangerous. Cleeves’ many fans are sure to find much to ponder over with her very realistic characters and how they interact with Vera and each other. Readers new to Vera will be thrilled to discover Vera’s different way of police investigations and will rejoice at the many other police procedural books by Cleeves that they can now enjoy!
So if you are in the market for intelligent police procedurals, love Vera books, or just enjoy a damn good read, then look no further than THE RISING TIDE! Ann Cleeves is at her finest with this dark, chilling, shocking, and most intriguing and complex mystery! I heartily recommend to you THE RISING TIDE!
From Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes the stunning tenth Vera Stanhope novel, The Rising Tide, a powerful novel about guilt, betrayal, and the longheld secrets people keep. "Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers."—Louise Penny
For fifty years a group of friends have been meeting regularly for reunions on Holy Island, celebrating the school trip where they met, and the friend that they lost to the rising causeway tide five years later. Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . .
But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible . . .
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