For my second post of the day I’m excited to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for excellent police procedural thriller The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves. Thank you to Anne Cater and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read and review this fantastic book, which is the second in the Two Rivers series of books featuring Detective Matthew Venn.
About the book:
Award winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, Ann Cleeves, returns with the second in her new TWO RIVERS series set in North Devon featuring Detective Matthew Venn.
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.
His daughter Eve is a glassblower, and the murder weapon is a shard of one of her 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. It’s not long since Matthew’s returned to North Devon with Jonathan, after 20 years estranged from his deeply religious family, now he finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home . . .
THE HERON’S CRY IS THE SECOND TWO RIVERS SERIES FOLLOWING THE SENSATIONAL NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, THE LONG CALL, NOW IN PRODUCTION FOR ITV DRAMA
‘The master of innuendo, smooth prose and deeply drawn characters’ HERALD
‘One of the best natural writers of detective fiction’ SUNDAY EXPRESS
About the author:
Ann Cleeves is the author of over thirty critically acclaimed novels and is translated into as many languages. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera and BBC One’s Shetland. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide. Sunday Times number 1 bestseller, THE LONG CALL, was the first in Ann’s Two Rivers series set in Devon, and is now in production for an ITV drama.
Ann moved to North Devon when she was 11 years old. Before then the family lived in a tiny village, and as the headmaster’s daughter she always felt like the outsider at school. But in Barnstaple, Ann found a real home. She made life-long friends and fell in love with the beautiful North Devon coast, which still has a very special place in her heart. She worked as a probation officer, librarian, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she embarked on her
career as an author.
Ann’s been awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the 2017 CWA Diamond Dagger, and is a
member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. A
passionate champion for libraries, she was a national libraries Day Ambassador in 2016. Her new ‘Reading Coaches’ project, providing support for health and wellbeing in communities, launches in the North East this
summer.
Ann lives in North Tyneside near where the Vera books are set.
Find her on twitter @AnnCleeves.
My Review:
The Heron’s Cry by acclaimed author Anne Cleeves is the second in the Two Rivers series of books featuring Detective Matthew Venn. Set in North Devon, it’s very much a slow burning and character driven police procedural novel that increases the tension gradually as the story progresses. Building on the foundations set by The Long Call, we continue to get to know DI Matthew Venn and his team, with The Heron’s Cry delving even deeper beneath the surface than its predecessor.
Touching on themes of mental health and suicide, The Heron’s Cry is a richly plotted and complex murder mystery that keeps you guessing throughout. And just like Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez before him, Matthew Venn is another fascinating character from the pen of Ann Cleeves, who really is an author at the top of her game. It’s no surprise to hear that he too will soon be gracing our TV screens, and I look forward to seeing him brought to life on the small screen in the very near future.
This time the story begins with DS Jen Rafferty as she enjoys a few drinks at a party. Approached by Doctor Nigel Yeo who wants to have a serious discussion with her, Jen puts him off to the following day as she’s feeling a bit too worse for wear. But the following morning she’s called to the scene of a murder and to her horror discovers the victim is none other than Nigel Yeo, the man who had spoken to her the night before. Stabbed with a shard of glass from one of his daughter’s own creations, the hunt is on to find the identity of his killer.
DI Matthew Venn and his team are in charge of the investigation, working hard to get to the bottom of what happened to the well liked Nigel. Having only recently settled back in North Devon with his husband, Jonathan, after a twenty year estrangement from his childhood home, Matthew knows he needs to tread carefully, especially where his deeply religious and disapproving mother is concerned. But then another body is found in very similar circumstances to Nigel and Matthew, much to his dismay, finds himself investigating a case that has suddenly become dangerously close to home…
The Heron’s Cry is an excellent police procedural thriller that is not only a murder mystery with all the intrigue and suspense you would expect, but is also very much a character driven story, with the personal lives of DI Matthew Venn, DS Jen Rafferty and DC Ross May playing an important role in the narrative. I love sinking my teeth into a new series and this one appears to be going from strength to strength! Ann Cleeves is a writer who certainly understands her audience and the Two Rivers series is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I can’t wait to see where she takes this brilliant cast of characters next.
Highly recommended.
The Heron’s Cry (Two Rivers Book 2) by Ann Cleeves is available to purchase now:
Check out what these other wonderful bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 