Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves - Review

As I have said previously, I bought the first eight Vera Stanhope books for my mum for Christmas because I thought she would like them. She has read the first two and lent them to me. This is the second one and I got round to it towards the end of March. 

I generally love Ann Cleeves but I felt this one meandered and lost its way a bit. I didn't guess who did it and I thought the murderer just didn't make much sense in the context of the book. 

So the book. Firstly, a woman called Jeanie Long has taken her own life in prison. She was serving a long stretch for the murder ten years ago of her boyfriend Keith's fifteen year old daughter, Abigail. She has always maintained her innocence so she wasn't eligible for parole and now she has died by suicide. Her daed, Michael, had previously spoken to the parole board and said he wouldn't support her if she was out on parole. He is a bit of a traumatised person and I felt for him. 

Because of Jeanie's suicide Vera is sent in to look at the case again, to see if the original investigating team, including a woman called Caroline Fletcher and a man called Dan Greenwood, made mistakes or indeed just put all their suspicions on Jeanie and made a case out of it. The original case took place in East Yorkshire, around Hull somewhere, in a place on the coast, a flat boring type of place. Ten years ago, Emma was Abigail's best friend. And she found her body. 

Emma's family had moved fairly recently from York. Her dad is a parole officer who found god and moved the family to Elvet. She met Abigail and the two girls were close, but there was some animosity betweeen them. Emma found Abigail strangled to death in a ditch. She is now married to James and they have a small baby, Matthew. James is a boat pilot in Hull and works irregular hours. Emma has feelings for Dan, who is now a potter whose pottery is over the road from Emma's house. 

Emma's life is a little bit dull and regimented. On Sundays she dutifully goes to church with James and her parents. She looks after the baby. She tries not to think about Abigail. But Vera is asking questions because of Jeanie's death. Then a second death occurs which is too close to the original investigation. Vera obviously sticks her oar in there, as she does. Emma is in danger but from whom exactly? 

I liked probably the first two thirds of the book and felt like they ran well, but I felt it lost its way and I just really didn't believe the ending. It's a shame because I wanted it to be better. In all I'm giving this three out of five.