The Darkest Evening (Vera Stanhope Series #9)

by Ann Cleeves

Overview

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 new Vera Stanhope novel, The Darkest Evening.

"Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers."—Louise Penny

"As a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high expectations for Cleeves’ latest. . . . A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crimefighter."—David Baldacci on The Long Call

On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in the back seat.

Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s also where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.

As the blizzard traps the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250204509
Publisher:	St. Martin''s Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Series:	Vera Stanhope Series , #9
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	424
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

ANN CLEEVES is the multi-million copy and New York Times bestselling author behind two hit television series—the BBC’s Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall, and ITV’s Vera, starring Academy Award Nominee Brenda Blethyn—both of which are watched and loved in the US. The Long Call, the first in the Two Rivers series introducing Detective Matthew Venn, was an instant New York Times bestseller. She lives in the UK.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/08/2020

CWA Diamond Dagger Award winner Cleeves’s superb ninth novel featuring astute, irascible Det. Insp. Vera Stanhope (after 2017’s The Seagull) finds Vera driving home late one night through rural Northumberland in a blizzard when she comes upon a car that’s slewed off the road. The driver is gone, but Vera discovers a toddler strapped into a car seat. Soon after she transfers the child to her own car, she realizes that she’s close to Brockburn, the once grand family home of the Stanhopes, and decides to go there. She last visited the place with her father when she was 15, and remembers that “the family had been unfailingly polite. That branch of the clan used politeness as a weapon of mass destruction.” At Brockburn, the abandoned car’s driver, a young woman, is found murdered behind the house. Vera assembles her loyal, if at times exasperated, homicide team to investigate, and comes to realize that the “whole case... was about families, about what held them together and what ripped them apart.” This fair-play mystery brims with fully developed suspects and motives that are hidden in plain sight. Skillful misdirection masks the killer’s identity. This page-turner is must reading for fans as well as newcomers. Agent: Sarah Menguc, Sarah Menguc Literary (U.K.). (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Long Call:

"Brilliant, thoughtful and deeply engaging."—Sara Paretsky on The Long Call

"Cleeves's true strength lies in her descriptions of the natural world, gorgeously captured."—New York Times Book Review

"Cleeves' acclaimed Shetland series may be history, but her newest detective—buttoned-up, gay, married, ex-evangelical Matthew Venn—is a righteous successor."—People

"The plotting is complex and intriguing, the location comes alive, and the resolution satisfies... fans of Cleeves lamenting the end of the 'Shetland' series will find much to love in her new characters and setting."—Library Journal (starred)

"Fans missing detective Jimmy Perez (Wild Fire, 2018, etc.) will find a worthy successor in the equally complex Venn, who presides over an excellent mystery in this series kickoff."—Kirkus

"Cleeves makes good use of Devon local color and populates this subtle, expertly paced mystery with distinctive supporting characters."—Publishers Weekly

"As usual with this talented author, the key is relationships, and the murder is an occasion to examine them and then, finally, to expose what rips them apart."—Booklist

"Cleeves' new series is as nuanced, compassionate and compelling as her bestsellers starring two other gifted cops, Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez."—Seattle Times

Praise for the Vera Stanhope series:

"Cleeves offers up evocative settings and flawed characters with depth, making her mysteries wonderfully addictive. Her latest is no exception."—Library Journal (starred)

"Engrossing...This nuanced, adroitly paced tale should satisfy both series fans and new readers."—Publishers Weekly

"A nice mixture, in the British tradition, of social comedy and detective work. More Vera, please."—Booklist (starred)

"It's easy to admire Vera's brainpower...her adventures have been a hit on British television, and readers devoted to Cleeves’ tales of Jimmy Perez (Blue Lightning, 2010, etc.) will want to give Vera a try."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

04/01/2020

In Cleeves's latest "Vera Stanhope" mystery, Vera is driving gingerly through the Northumberland countryside snow when she encounters a stalled car with no driver and a baby secured in the backseat. Grabbing the baby, she hustles to the nearest house—the seen-better-days Brockburn, where her father grew up and where a Christmas party is now blasting away. And there's a woman out front, lying dead in the snow. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

2020-06-17
A murder investigation hits close to home for an experienced police officer in the north of England.

Taking a wrong turn in a snowstorm, Inspector Vera Stanhope finds a car with only a baby inside. With no cellphone service, she drives to the nearest house, which just happens to belong to her estranged relatives. Vera’s cousin Juliet and Juliet’s husband, Mark Bolitho, are giving a dinner party in hopes of courting prospective donors to support Mark’s plan of converting their estate into an art center, promoting Mark’s artistic interests and keeping the faltering estate alive. When a farmer tied to the estate discovers the body of a murdered woman in the snow near the main house, Vera becomes involved in a case that bring her closer to her only family. The car belongs to a retired schoolteacher who often loaned it to Lorna Falstone, the mother of a baby son. The suspects in her murder include the dinner guests along with Juliet’s snobbish mother, Harriet, and Dorothy Felling, a superior housekeeper who lives with her husband and child in a tied cottage. It seems unlikely that a madman wandered out of the storm to kill Lorna, who’s never identified the father of her child. After the baby is taken to Lorna’s parents, who own a farm nearby, a second murder spurs Vera and her team to investigate a tangled web of family connections and buried secrets.

Fans will enjoy matching wits with Cleeves’ eccentric sleuth right up to the dangerous surprise in her denouement.

Kirkus Reviews

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