Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan for granting me access to this book! I love Ann Cleeves so I was really glad to be able to get to read this. It will be published on the 31st of August. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughta and opinions are my own.
So this is the third book in the Matthew Venn series, which are set in north Devon. He grew up in the area, in a small religious sect, but lost his faith and moved away. He met and married his husband Jonathan and they have moved back to the area. Matthew is the local DI now; his underling are Jen, a Scouser who left an abusive marriage and is living in the area with her two children, and Ross, who is local to the area and who is married. I did feel like in this book we got to see more of Ross' inner thoughts, which I liked, and I like the parts from Jen's point of view too. I will say that I still think Jonathan is a bit two dimensional, but there is a set up at the end of the book that may open up his story more in the next book. I do really like Matthew and think he really settles into himself in this book.
So, the book starts with a woman called Mary Ford being called out to the lifeboat. She is on the volunteer crew and they have had a distress call just off a small village called Greystone. They head out, Mary at the helm, and find a small boat anchored in the bay. There is a dead body curled up in it - the whole scene has clearly been set for them. They take the body back to shore and recognise it as that of local Jem Rosco.
Jeremy grew up in the area and has become a world famous sailor. He broke some record or something sailing round the world, and has become a celebrity and somewhat of a national hero. He no longer lives in the area but he had reappeared in the village a few weeks ago and drank in the local pub every night, saying that he was waiting for a visitor. He had been quite coy about exactly whom he was waiting for, but on questioning, it turns out his first girlfriend still lives in the area, and that he also has no shortage of enemies around about. He was staying in a house owned by locals, too, even though he still maintained a house in the next village across. Police find the murder scene there, but what they can't work out is who would have killed him.
I really liked the mystery, there was loads of stuff I didn't guess. I loved the setting, in a really cloistered village where there's a lot of members of the sect that Matthew left, where no one really wants to speak to the police, and where things go back years and years. It is a really good book and I can't wait for the next one.
I have previously read the others in this series: The Long Call and The Heron's Cry, so do read those reviews too! I am giving this five out of five as I really enjoyed it!
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