The Long Call by Ann Cleeves

First Line: The day they found the body on the shore, Matthew Venn was already haunted by thoughts of death and dying.

In North Devon in a place where two rivers meet for their final run to the sea, Matthew Venn stands outside the church where his estranged father's funeral is taking place. Then his phone rings. A body has been found on a nearby beach, a man, stabbed to death, with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck.

This investigation will prove to Venn that the past often refuses to be left behind. As he and his team hunt for a killer, Matthew is taken back to the people and places of his youth, and deadly secrets are slowly revealed.

For those of you still in mourning for the ending of Ann Cleeves' Shetland series, you have cause to rejoice. This new Two Rivers series featuring Matthew Venn has a powerhouse beginning in The Long Call, and I'm looking forward to more.

Cleeves has chosen another atmospheric setting for her new series, the coastal area of North Devon. This land of water and sky and "...the cry of the herring gull, the sound naturalists named the long call, the cry which always sounded to him like an inarticulate howl of pain" is woven through every inch of the story until it is a character in and of itself.

Matthew Venn is the sort of insightful, compassionate main character that readers should love. Raised by strict evangelical Christians, Venn is a quiet man. Buttoned down. Very self-contained. He's also more than brave enough to stand up for himself and his beliefs, leaving that religious sect and eventually becoming a policeman and marrying Jonathan, an outgoing, caring man who manages the Woodyard, a vital part of the community of Barnstaple. Their chalk-and-cheese personality traits are just what each of them needs to keep themselves on an even keel. One more thing about Matthew Venn? He's so good at listening that he reminds me a bit of Jimmy Perez, you Shetland fans.

Venn also has an interesting team to work with. Constable Ross May is the Detective Chief Inspector's golden boy, and everyone knows that they have to be careful of what they say around him. May is also young and impetuous and has a lot to learn. On the other hand, Venn believes Sergeant Jen Rafferty is probably the best detective he's ever worked with. Rafferty is the single mother of two who escaped an abusive husband. She has guts, spirit, loves to laugh, and can be a lot of fun... when she's not investigating a murder.

Although I didn't find either the crimes or those who committed them to be very surprising, I didn't care. As an introduction to a new series, The Long Call is superb. Ann Cleeves weaves spells when she tells a story. Now all I have to do is wait to be trapped willingly in the web of the next one.

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves

eISBN: 9781250204462

Minotaur Books © 2019

eBook, 382 pages

Police Procedural, #1 Two Rivers mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley

Beyond Belief by Helen Smith

First Line: It was a Thursday evening in March; the sky had given up its nightly fight against the dark a little later than the day before, but it still felt more like winter than spring.

Bored with her London office job and strapped for cash-- as usual-- Emily Castles willingly jumps at the chance for an all-expenses-paid trip to the Belief and Beyond Conference being held in Torquay. She even has a job title: "future crimes investigator", given to her by Perspicacious Peg, a psychic who's a member of the Royal Society for the Exploration of Science and Culture-- the organization which is paying Emily's bills. The psychic has foreseen a murder being committed at the conference, and Emily is to investigate and, hopefully, prevent it.

Emily meets a very colorful and eccentric cast of characters in the seaside resort town of Torquay: Madame Nova, a fortune teller who sells costumes on the side; Bobby Blue Suit and his three psychic dachshunds; a couple mourning their dead son; religious cult members; and celebrated magician Edmund Zenon, who's offering £50,000 to anyone who can prove that the paranormal exists. Since Zenon is the predicted murder victim, Emily has her work cut out for her amongst such a large list of possible suspects.

For all the tweets and Twitter mentions of Gerald Ayode, president of the Royal Society for the Exploration of Science and Culture, this book actually feels as though it takes place in the 1930s and 1940s of the "Thin Man" movies starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. Beyond Belief moves along at a leisurely pace, and its humor is gentle-- those aforementioned tweets are one of the best parts of the book. Smith excels in creating setting, atmosphere, and a dazzling array of characters, but the book lacks cohesion.

This is the fourth book in the Emily Castles series, and the first that I've read. From the beginning I felt as though I was missing some important background on the main characters, and this feeling never went away. Although the cast is marvelous, several of the characters' motivations were never clear. The tone of the book jerks back and forth between Smith's wacky, gentle humor to a more sinister note. If anything, I felt that this story needed about fifty more pages to add more detail and to smooth out rough spots. There's much to appreciate in Beyond Belief: the author's ability to set a scene, her talent for characterization, her use of humor; but in the end the story itself isn't quite up to the task.

Beyond Belief by Helen Smith

ISBN: 9781477849729

Thomas & Mercer © 2014

eBook, 231 pages

Cozy Mystery, #4 Emily Castles mystery

Rating: C

Source: publicist