Telling Tales by
Anne Cleeves
hbk out January 05
Published by Macmillan
at £16.99
Rural settings provide an evocative backdrop to most of Ann Cleeves' novels and her
latest is set around the crumbling coastline of East Yorkshire. The close-knit
community in the windswept village of Elvet seems to have recovered from the
murder of an attractive girl called Abigail Mantel a decade ago. Jeanie Long, the lover
of Abigail's father, was convicted of the crime and sent to prison. But when Jeanie's
innocence is belatedly established, the past comes back to haunt the locals - and none
more so than Emma Bennett, who discovered Abigail's body. This book sees a
welcome return for Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who first appeared in 'The
Crow Trap' and she takes centre stage once a further murder is committed. The
relentlessly unglamorous and uncool Vera is a terrific character, perhaps the most
memorable Ann Cleeves has ever created, and it is good to encounter her again. The
result is a novel that lies on the boundary between psychological suspense and police
procedural - although Vera is no respecter of conventional procedure, and is not
above breaking into the house of a suspect who also happens to be a former cop. As
often in this author's work, the complicated relationships within dysfunctional
families play an important part in the plot. Suspicion shifts from person to person
much as in classic novels of detection, but this is nevertheless a distinctively
contemporary work with a startling outcome. It is a not a fast-paced action thriller but
rather a book to savour, to be read more than once.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Telling Tales by
Anne Cleeves
