Monday, September 05, 2022

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves

 
First Line: Philip was the first of the group to the island.

For fifty years, a group of friends has been meeting every five years on Holy Island to celebrate the day they all met and to remember one of their group that they lost to the causeway tide five years later.
 
The morning after they've all gathered together again, one of them is found hanged in his room, and Vera Stanhope and her team are called in to investigate. Learning that the man had recently been fired for allegations of misconduct, Vera knows that is the first line of inquiry, but the deeper they dig, Vera becomes convinced that the man's death has far more to do with the past than with the present. 
 
Are she and her team going to be able to uncover fifty-year-old secrets in order to find a killer?
 
~
 
Having actually driven across the causeway and visited Holy (AKA Lindisfarne) Island, I looked forward to reading Ann Cleeves' The Rising Tide with a great deal of anticipation. Neither Ann nor Vera disappointed.
 
As always, the setting is perfect, and a mystery concerning a group of people who've been hiding secrets for fifty years is suitably complex and satisfying. There's a house with a view of Holy Island across the water that I would love to have for myself (as long as I could have Vera's mythical Land Rover to go with it). Still, houses and Land Rovers and old secrets aside, it is the characters in this series that always bring me back for more.
 
Vera herself, utterly unconcerned with her appearance and her behavior, is a bit of a hermit, but she's getting used to having a neighbor she can spend some time with. It's an added bonus for readers that the neighbor is mystery writer Joanna. Not only does Joanna get to ask Vera technical questions for her books, but now Vera is getting asked to accompany her on book-related trips. 
 
Vera is part matriarch part guru for her team, and she thinks of second-in-command Joe Ashworth as a surrogate son and her conscience. Joe provides a lot of hard work and a steadying influence on the team while Holly is the bright, competitive one who dreams of taking Vera's place while simultaneously worrying that she could actually become Vera, appearance and all. The two women do share some similarities after all.
 
The Rising Tide is all about hypocrisy and the lengths some people will go to in order to hide the sins of their past. Set on an island where the tide tables are in charge of daily life, this mystery has all the twists and turns and secrets and shocks that will make readers lock their doors on all interruptions so they can spend time with one of the best detectives in crime fiction.

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves
eISBN: 9781250204554
Minotaur Books © 2022
eBook, 384 pages
 
Police Procedural, #10 Vera Stanhope mystery
Rating: A
Source: Net Galley

9 comments:

  1. You mention one of the things about Vera that I like best, Cathy - she doesn't care about what people might think of the way she looks and dresses. How refreshing! I like it, too, that she's not exactly twenty anymore. Nice to have some more mature protagonists out there. And, yes, Cleeves does such a good job with setting, doesn't she? I feel as though I'm actually in that place when I read her work.

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    1. Cleeves and I both share a love of birding, and watching for our feathered friends tends to bring out powers of concentration and observation in a person. Cleeves can put it all down on paper much much better than I.

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  2. A new Vera Stanhope! You just made my day.

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  3. As Denis would say, Blogger seems to be playing silly buggers today and is hanging on to Kay's comment, so I'll post it for her.

    Kay said:

    "Yes, this book has finally published! I just read Lesa's review of the book and now read yours. Between the two of you, I know I'll enjoy this one. Can't wait to start it. Yay!"

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    1. Yes, I think it's pretty much guaranteed that you're going to like it. I'm anticipating scathing reviews to come out concerning the ending, but that's to be expected from people who do not want any change in the books that they read.

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  4. That is a cool setting! And it sounds like another good mystery. I just finished reading Tahoe Deathfall, the first book in Borg's Owen McKenna series. And it was a fun read. You reviewed one of his other books which was my introduction me to both author and series. So, thanks! :D

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    1. You're welcome-- I am so very glad that you liked it. I'd be turning cartwheels now if I could!

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  5. Sounds like a good one. Will add it to the TBR lists.

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