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. "In Matthew Venn, Ann has created a complex, daring, subtle character." —Louise Penny"A complex mystery full of surprises . . . this character-driven exploration of people's darkest flaws is a sterling example of Cleeves' formidable talents." —Kirkus ReviewsNorth 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....

Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—returns with a darkly delicious short story, "The Girls on the Shore", featuring DI Matthew Venn from the Two Rivers series.It was winter. Cold and clear, a different sort of day for this coast where the westerly winds usually blew rain and cloud.Detective Inspector Matthew Venn is standing by his kitchen window when he first spots them. Two young girls, facing away from him, seemingly staring towards something in the distance. They are holding hands, and they are alone.Though not a natural with children, Matthew knows he must find out why the girls are here, on a school day, unsupervised. And so he meets Olivia and Imogen, a pair of sisters whose secrets Matthew must uncover if he hopes to get them home.

From Ann Cleeves—bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes the first in a gripping new series. "Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers."—Louise PennyIn North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father's funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too.Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide.An astonishing new novel told with compassion and searing...

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. "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 CallOn 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...

DCI Vera Stanhope returns in The Darkest Evening, the ninth novel in Sunday Times bestseller Ann Cleeves' enduringly popular series.Driving home during a swirling blizzard, Vera Stanhope's only thought is to get there quickly. But the snow is so heavy, she becomes disoriented and loses her way. Ploughing on, she sees a car slewed off the road ahead of her. With the driver's door open, Vera assumes the driver has sought shelter but when she inspects the car she is shocked to find a young toddler strapped in the back seat. Afraid they will freeze, Vera takes the child and drives on, arriving at Brockburn, a run-down stately home she immediately recognizes as the house her father Hector grew up in.Inside Brockburn a party is in full swing, with music and laughter to herald the coming Christmas. But outside in the snow, a young woman lies dead and Vera knows immediately she has a new case. Could this woman be the child's mother, and if so, what happened to her?A classic country house mystery with a contemporary twist, Ann Cleeves returns with a brilliant Vera novel to savour.

Ann Cleeves returns with a delicious short story featuring DCI Vera Stanhope. Set before The Rising Tide, Vera goes on a day trip to Holy Island, eager to escape the pressures of work. When there she is reminded of the day decades earlier when she, as a teenager, went with her father Hector on another day trip, and the mystery woman he met there . . . Vera already knew then that Hector kept secrets, but this time the fledgling investigator was determined to find the truth, never realizing it would mean taking her first step onto a path to becoming a detective . . .

From the author of Shetland and VeraGus Lynch is directing the Youth Theatre through a rehearsal. The cast is in place but the female lead, Gabriella Paston, is missing. Later that evening her body is discovered in the boot of Gus’s car. Detective Inspector Stephen Ramsay and Sergeant Gordon Hunter are assigned to head the murder enquiry. Meanwhile violence is escalating on the Starling Farm Estate as police battle to contain the latest outbreak of joyriding. Is the death of Gabriella connected to the events at Starling Farm? When another death occurs, investigations suggest a possible link. Ramsay realises what could have provoked someone to kill . . . and kill again.From the Inside FlapWhy is everyone afraid of Gabriella Paston? Is it because she's too beautiful, too talented, too self-confident? In the middle of rehearsals for her first big show at the arts center, eighteen-year-old Gabriella is murdered . . . and it seems to Inspector Stephen Ramsay that people are more afraid of her than ever. For Gabriella turns out to have been not only gifted and gorgeous but ruthless, and not everyone mourns her loss. In a community where teen crime is becoming a dangerous problem, the murder is just one more headache for the police. But the stage is already being set for another killing . . . . About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside. www.anncleeves.com

Who hanged the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Hallowe’en Party? Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster’s enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence. With the help of his restless enthusiastic daughter, Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit – of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness.              

It has been ten years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie's innocence. Abigail's killer is still at large._x000D_ _x000D_ For one young woman, Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend - and of that fearful winter's day when she discovered the body lying cold in a ditch. As Inspector Vera Stanhope makes fresh enquiries, tensions begin to mount. But are people afraid of the killer, or of their own guilty pasts?

News of the murder first came to Inspector Stephen Ramsay early on Monday morning. He was in a meeting, one of the endless meetings the Chief Superintendent regularly called, and the summons from Sergeant Gordon Hunter came as a relief.They found middle-aged farmer Ernie Bowles lying on his kitchen floor. He had been strangled, and was not a pretty sight. The gruesome discovery of his body had first been made by the beautiful Lily Jackman, a new-age traveller who was living with her boyfriend in a caravan on Bowles’s land. Neither of them, however, had been close to the dead farmer, who had lived alone since the death of his mother and was, by all accounts, a rather unpleasant character.Inspector Ramsay fears that this case will not be simple. In his experience, most murders are straightforward: an explosion of family pressure, the loss of control in a fight. But Bowles seems to have kept himself to himself, and Ramsay feels that to solve the mystery of his death he will need all the help he can get. Then another person is strangled, a woman who, on the surface, had absolutely no connection with the dead farmer. Surely two such killings in the same locality are more than just chilling coincidence.When Ramsay hears of a third suspicious death, a very tenuous link between the victims takes on a new importance, for all were connected in some way to the Alternative Therapy Centre in Mittingford. Could one of the healers be a killer?              

The Crow Trap is the first book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series – which is now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn, VERA. Three very different women come together at isolated Baikie's Cottage on the North Pennines, to complete an environmental survey. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal . . . Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman, hiding plenty of her own secrets. Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, where she discovers the body of her friend, Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide – a verdict Rachael refuses to accept. When another death occurs, a fourth woman enters the picture – the unconventional...

From CWA Diamond Dagger winner Ann Cleeves comes The Seagull, the eighth installment in the Vera Stanhope series.A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper – and Vera played a key part in his downfall.Now, Brace promises Vera information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who disappeared in the mid-nineties, if she will look out for his daughter and grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is buried close to St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search team investigates, officers find not one skeleton, but two.This cold case case takes Vera back in time, and very close to home, as Brace and Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as 'the Prof', were close friends of...

For Dorothea Cassidy Thursdays were special. Every week she would look forward to the one day she could call her own, and would plan to visit people she wanted to see as a welcome respite from the routine duties that being a vicar’s wife entailed. But one Thursday in June was to be more special than any other. It was the day that Dorothea Cassidy was strangled. As the small town of Otterbridge prepares for its summer carnival, Inspector Stephen Ramsay begins a painstaking reconstruction of Dorothea’s last hours. He soon discovers that she had taken on a number of deserving cases – a sick and lonely old woman, a disturbed adolescent, a compulsive gambler, a single mother with a violent boyfriend and a child in care – and even her close family have their secrets to hide. All these people are daunted, in one way or another, by Dorothea’s goodness. But which of them could have possibly wanted her dead? It is not until a second body is discovered that Ramsay starts to understand how Dorothea lived – and why she died. With the carnival festivities in full swing and dusk failing in Otterbridge, Ramsay’s murder investigation reaches its chilling climax . . .

From the author of Shetland and VeraEven if there had been no murder, the last trip of a small band of dedicated bird-watchers aboard the Jessie Ellen would still have been news. For George Palmer-Jones and the other avid crew members achieve every bird-watcher’s dream when they sight a sea bird which has never before been recorded. In the subsequent excitement, however, no one notices the sudden absence of the most fanatical birder of them all . . . Later, Greg Franks’ corpse, the head bludgeoned, is found floating in the sea. Had it not been for Greg Franks, amateur detective George Palmer-Jones would not have been on the bird watching trip in Cornwall in the first place. He had been hired by Greg Franks’ anxious parents to try and persuade their errant son to return home. George would have turned the case down flat but the offer of a free weekend’s bird watching was too tempting to resist. Now, he must unhappily shoulder the burden of finding why the young man had been murdered. Who hated Franks enough to kill him? Almost everyone, it seems . . .From Publishers WeeklyBribery, blackmail and suspects abound in this confusing ornithological whodunit. Seasoned private detective and bird-watching enthusiast George Palmer-Jones and his wife stet commas around Molly/he has only one wife/pk Molly are hired by a distraught couple to find their errant son, coincidentally George's bird-watching colleague Greg Franks. Gregpk is traced to a seabird-watching expedition in Cornwall, but while all on board are distracted by a rare petrel,p. 31 he is murdered and his body is thrown overboard.rather than say thrown overboard with a blow to his head, why not say something a little clearer: is found washed up (if that is the case), with evidence of a suspicious blow to the head, or somesuch It soon becomes clear that Greg had gotten on the wrong side of almost everyone on the boat: competitive birdwatcher Roger Pym; his hard-drinking wifestet commas here too?pk Jane, a probation officerp. 71 ; seemingly meek conservationist Duncan James; and the seductive Rose Pengelly's spurned would-be lover Gerald Matthews. The one the other characters are mentioned without comment/mc/stet one!pk intriguing character is police inspector Claire Bingham, struggling to balance the demands of her investigative work with those of her home life. Cleeves's ( A Bird in the Hand ) dry and awkward writing slows the momentum in the first half, but pk clues multiply and intrigue mounts, culminating clues convene with rare seabirds; a little lazily written in a devastating sea-storm. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside. www.anncleeves.com

Too Good To Be True is a gripping Quick Read from Ann Cleeves, featuring Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez from the bestselling Shetland series.When young teacher Anna Blackwell is found dead in her home, the police think her death was suicide or a tragic accident. After all, Stonebridge is a quiet country village in the Scottish Borders, where murders just don't happen. But Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez soon arrives from far-away Shetland when his ex-wife, Sarah, asks him to look into the case. The local gossips are saying that her new husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna. Could Tom have been involved with her death? Sarah refuses to believe it - but needs proof.Anna had been a teacher. She must have loved kids. Would she kill herself knowing there was nobody to look after her daughter? She had seemed happier than ever before she died. And to Perez, this suggests not suicide, but murder . . .

From the author of Shetland and Vera‘The huge and powerful hawk dominated the scene. Its talons pierced the woman’s flesh and the beak pointed towards her eyes . . .’ The sight is a particularly horrible shock for George Palmer-Jones, ornithologist and amateur detective. An old friend of Eleanor Masefield, a beautiful and charming widow, he is staying with his wife, Molly, at Eleanor’s family run hotel . . . On the other hand, Molly Palmer-Jones feels that Eleanor was more of a black than a merry widow – a ruthless manipulator of all those caught in her far-reaching web. Is Molly a little jealous, or is she right? And will she be in time to prevent another death?About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside. www.anncleeves.com

IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT AND ERNIE BOWLES IS STEPPING OUT--TO DIE.Ernie's big fantasy is that his blind date with a blonde divorcee will end with the two of them back at the farm, cozily shacked up. Alas, Sunday morning finds Ernie on the cold kitchen floor, all alone and strangled.A simple case of kiss-and-kill? Perhaps, but Inspector Stephen Ramsay can find no one in the entire village who liked the man, certainly not the young couple who rent his caravan nor the respectable folk on the adjoining farm. Another strangling--the even more puzzling murder of quiet housewife Val McDougal--compounds the confusion, leading Ramsay to the local center for alternative healing, where both victims were well known.Meanwhile, a murderer quietly observes the hunt, as Ramsay pursues a case in which the astonishing finale will catch even the canniest reader by the throat...From the Inside FlapIT'S SATURDAY NIGHT AND ERNIE BOWLES IS STEPPING OUT--TO DIE.Ernie's big fantasy is that his blind date with a blonde divorcee will end with the two of them back at the farm, cozily shacked up. Alas, Sunday morning finds Ernie on the cold kitchen floor, all alone and strangled.A simple case of kiss-and-kill? Perhaps, but Inspector Stephen Ramsay can find no one in the entire village who liked the man, certainly not the young couple who rent his caravan nor the respectable folk on the adjoining farm. Another strangling--the even more puzzling murder of quiet housewife Val McDougal--compounds the confusion, leading Ramsay to the local center for alternative healing, where both victims were well known.Meanwhile, a murderer quietly observes the hunt, as Ramsay pursues a case in which the astonishing finale will catch even the canniest reader by the throat...

The Moth Catcher is the seventh book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series - now the major ITV detective drama Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn.'This case was different from anything Vera had ever worked before. Two bodies, connected but not lying together. And nothing made her feel as alive as murder.' Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist named Patrick, to look after the place while they're away. But Patrick is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley - a beautiful, lonely place to die. DI Vera Stanhope arrives on the scene, with her detectives Holly and Joe. When they look round the attic of the big house - where Patrick has a flat - she finds the body of a second man. All the two victims have in common is a fascination with moths -...

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunters eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance. The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one manloner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherines neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst

A hot summer on the Northumberland coast, and Julie Armstrong arrives home from a night out to find her son murdered. Luke has been strangled, laid out in a bath of water, and covered with wild flowers. This stylized murder scene has Inspector Vera Stanhope and her team intrigued. But then a second bodythat of beautiful young teacher Lily Marshis discovered laid out in a rock pool, the water strewn with flowers. Now Vera must work quickly to find this dramatist, this killer who is making art out of death. Clues are slow to emerge from those who had known Luke and Lily, but Vera soon finds herself drawn towards the curious group of friends who discovered Lilys body. What unites these four men and one woman? Are they really the close-knit, trustworthy unit they claim to be? As local residents are forced to share their private lives and those of their loved ones, sinister secrets are slowly unearthed. And, all the while, the killer remains in their midst, waiting for an opportunity to prepare another beautiful, watery grave

Cold Earth is the seventh book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series - a major BBC One drama starring Douglas Henshall.In the dark days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main Lerwick-Sumburgh road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of mud and peaty water smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. In his mind, she shares his Mediterranean ancestry and soon he becomes obsessed with tracing her identity. Then it emerges that she was already dead before the landslide hit the house. Perez knows he must find out who she was, and how she died.Also available in the Shetland series are Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning, Dead Water and Thin Air.

No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry . . . but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve. And when detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. Even among her neighbours, Alice Parry’s helpfulness had sometimes misfired; and after her death, tension tight as a clenched fist grips the uneasy village. Meanwhile, the suspects keep rolling in, and Heppleburn’s friendly neighbourhood killer continues his nasty piece of work . . .              

An ingenious psychological suspense novel. At the isolated Baikie's Cottage on the North Pennines, three very different women come together. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal... For team leader Rachael the project is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her confidence after a double-betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Botanist Anne, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman with plenty of her own secrets to hide... When Rachael arrives at the cottage, however, she is horrified to discover the body of her friend Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide - a verdict Rachael finds impossible to accept. Only when the next death occurs does a fourth woman enter the picture - the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope...

Dead Water is the fifth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series - which is now the major BBC1 drama starring Douglas Henshall, SHETLAND. When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found in a traditional Shetland boat, outside the house of the Fiscal, down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Since the death of his fiancée, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his interest in this new case is stirred and he decides to help the inquiry. Markham - originally a Shetlander but who had made a name for himself in London - had left the islands years before. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl, Evie Watt, who is now engaged to a seaman. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back? Willow and Jimmy are led to Sullum Voe, the heart of Shetland's North Sea oil and gas industry. It soon emerges from their investigation that Markham was chasing a story in his final days. One that must have been significant enough to warrant his death . . . Also available in the Shetland series are Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones and Blue Lightning. Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series (ITV television drama VERA) contains five titles, of which The Glass Room is the most recent.

The eighth, and final book, in Ann Cleeves' bestselling Shetland series – a major BBC One drama starring Douglas Henshall as Jimmy Perez. Shetland: Welcoming. Wild. Remote. Drawn in by the reputation of the islands, a new English family move to the area, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wild fire. With suspicion raining down on the family, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. For him it will mean returning to the islands of his on-off lover and boss Willow Reeves, who will run the case. Perez is already facing the most disturbing investigation of his career, when Willow drops a bombshell that will change his life forever. Is he ready for what is to come?

Published for the first time in the U.S., an early book in Diamond Dagger award-winning crime novelist Ann Cleeves's Vera Stanhope series, brought to life in the hit TV series Vera.On a hot summer on the Northumberland coast, Julie Armstrong arrives home from a night out to find her son murdered. Luke has been strangled, laid out in a bath of water and covered with wild flowers. This stylized murder scene has Inspector Vera Stanhope and her team intrigued. But now, Vera must work quickly to find this killer who is making art out of death. As local residents are forced to share their private lives, sinister secrets are slowly unearthed. And all the while the killer remains in their midst, waiting for an opportunity to prepare another beautiful, watery grave..."I do love Vera!" —Val McDermid"Cleeves offers up evocative settings and flawed characters with depth, making her mysteries wonderfully addictive. Her latest...

From CWA Diamond Dagger Award winner Ann Cleeves comes The Glass Room, the fifth book in the Vera Stanhope series. Published for the first time in the US."I do love Vera!" —Val McDermid"Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers! I relish learning more about Vera with each book."—Louise Penney, New York Times Bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache seriesDI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her hippy neighbors keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation, and somehow bonds have formed. When one of them goes missing, Vera tracks the young woman down to the Writer's House, a country retreat where aspiring authors work on their stories. Things get complicated when a body is discovered, and Vera's neighbor is found with a knife in her hand.Calling in the team, Vera knows that she should hand the case over. She's too close to the main suspect. But the investigation is too...

From the author of Shetland and VeraWhen fifteen-year-old Marilyn Howe turns up alone and frightened on Inspector Ramsay’s doorstep he has little choice but to invite her in. Marilyn and her mother, Kathleen, are a familiar sight around Heppleburn, a strangely inseparable couple. But Kathleen has unaccountably failed to return home that evening, and Marilyn is fearful for her mother’s safety.Ramsay takes the young girl home, to the isolated coastal community known as the Headland. And in the Howes’ dark and cluttered kitchen they find Kathleen safe and apparently well, though acting rather mysteriously. Six months later, Ramsay has more or less forgotten the strange incident, busy as he is on the trail of a local child abductor. Until he receives news that Mrs Howe has disappeared once more. And for the second time he is drawn into the strange relationships of the families living on the lonely Headland. Then a woman’s body is washed up on the beach . . .About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside.

From the author of Shetland and VeraThe honeymoon was over . . . and Jim and his English bride, Sarah, had come home to Kinness to settle down. But first there was to be one huge celebration for the newlyweds, with the whole island present. And before the party was over, there would be a shockingly unexpected death. Somehow, in the dark of the night, Jim’s young sister, Mary, slipped off Ellie’s Head to the rocks below. A terrible end to a boisterously cheerful evening. But did Mary fall, or was she pushed? George Palmer-Jones, retired birdwatcher and amateur detective, suspected the latter, but proving it would be difficult: no one wanted to upset the balance of the island’s ancient relationships. Yet those with something to hide inevitably try to hide it, and George, helped by Sarah, began to piece together a tragic story he wished he had never heard. Kinness was a paradise lost.About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside. www.anncleeves.com

Ann Cleeves' bestselling series of crime novels, featuring Detective Jimmy Perez, and now also adapted for a major BBC television series, draw their inspiration from the place in which they take place: Shetland.An archipelago of more than a hundred islands, it is the one of the most remote places in the United Kingdom. Its fifteen hundred miles of shore mean that wherever one stands, there is a view of the sea. It has sheltered voes and beaches and dramatically exposed cliffs, lush meadows full of wild flowers in the summer and bleak hilltops where only the hardiest of plants will grow. It is a place where traditions are valued and celebrated, but new technologies and ways of working are also embraced. In this gloriously illustrated companion to her novels, Ann Cleeves takes readers through a year on Shetland, learning about its past, meeting its people, celebrating its festivals and seeing how the flora and fauna of the islands changes with the...

From the author of Shetland and VeraIn England’s birdwatching paradise, a new breed has been sighted—a murderer . . . Young Tom French was found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom had put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they? George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher who decided quietly to look into the brutal crime, discovered mixed feelings aplenty. Still, he remained baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether. But as he and his fellow “twitchers” flocked from Norfolk to Scotland to the Scilly Isles, in response to rumours of rare sightings, George—with help from his lovely wife, Molly—gradually discerned the true markings of a killer. All he had to do was prove it . . . before the murderer strikes again.From the Inside FlapYoung Tom French is found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they?George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher, decides to look into the crime. He finds mixed feelings aplenty, but remains baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether. But as he and his fellow birders pursue rumors of rare sightings, George -- with help from his lovely wife, Molly -- gradually discovers the true markings of a killer. Now all he has to do is prove it . . . before the killer strikes again. About the AuthorAnn Cleeves is the author behind ITV's VERA and BBC One's SHETLAND. She has written over twenty-five novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez -- characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (CWA Gold Dagger) for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland series. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside. www.anncleeves.com