Book Review: The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from St Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via #Netgalley, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own

New York Times bestseller Ann Cleeves returns with The Heron's Cry, the extraordinary follow-up to The Long Call, soon to be a major TV series, alongside her two hit TV shows Shetland and Vera.

Synopsis:

North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder--Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter's broken vases.

Dr. Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though, to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.

Then another body is found--killed in a similar way. Matthew soon finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home.

Review:

I have long loved the Vera series, and the Shetland TV series, so absolutely NO surprise that I love this new series from one of my fav authors! DI Venn is an interesting character- a man from a close knit religious community, whose adult live is the far opposite of how he was raised. In this book, his current case keeps coming too close to home, as it involves his husband's center, and the artists who work and congregate there. Add in a unexpected visit from his mother, and his character is any of us- trying to keep work and home life separate, while also needing all the help he can get to solve the case that blossoms from one murder to two. With red herrings and sleights of hand, Cleeves gives us an unexpected ending, that is perfect for the story, and that will win over new readers!

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.

Shetland is available in the US on Netflix, Amazon Video, Britbox and PBS, and is available on Amazon Video, BritBox and PBS.

The first Shetland novel, Raven Black, won the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel, and Ann was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2017. She lives in the UK.