The Rising Tide (Vera Stanhope)

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The performance by narrator Janine Birkett was fair. She uses tone, mood, and accents to distinguish characters. Her voice is a good match for the book. I could easily visualize Vera and the other characters in the book. In this standalone that includes characters Joe and Holly, murder suspects drop their defenses before Colombo-like detective Vera Stanhope, a character who understands natives and criminals better than most—and who seems to carry a deep empathy for them all. Every five years the group of friends who had been there gets together to remember Isobel and what they all had had. A special group bonded by their shared experiences when they were in last year in high school. Then, from where he’d stood, he’d seen Annie rounding the bend in the lane, a woven shopping bag in one hand. She must have been into the village for provisions. No longer a mother, she’d mothered them all that weekend, and now, all these years later, she was still the person who shopped and cooked.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Cleeves, who captures the world and its people in shades of gray tone, evokes compelling images of nostalgia, sadness, yearning, envy…and murder. She is adept at conjuring the texture of their complex relationships, their stories, and the stories they tell themselves to keep on going.

The setting of this whodunnit is hugely atmospheric, cold, misty, wild and ancient….I loved it….I know the island well, and many of the other locations, so, for me, this really adds another layer of pleasure to this favourite series. Ann Cleeves is the author of over thirty critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez who can now 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. Ann Cleeves is well known for her popular Shetland Island mystery series, featuring Detective Jimmy Perez and her Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope mystery series, set in northern England. In this 10th novel in the Vera Stanhope series, the intrepid sleuth investigates a suspicious death on Holy Island, a tourist destination off the west coast of Scotland. Holy Island has the distinction of being approachable only during certain hours, at low tide, when the causeway is accessible.

Vera and her team start to investigate and try to figure out what each one of the friend's group is hiding and who has the strongest motive! Their case becomes more complicated when one of their own is revealed to be connected to the case! The Rising Tide" takes place about a year after the events in the last novel. Vera is about to go away with her next door neighbor to a book retreat. She's thrilled though when a possible suspicious death on Holy Island could be a murder. With Vera, Joe, and Holly on Holy Island they realize that a group of friends who have been coming to the island for 50 years may know more than they are saying after their friend is found dead by hanging. Per usual, Cleeves gives us perspective not on just the group of friends, but also Vera, Joe, and Holly.Brenda adds: “So when we finish filming, I always say, ‘I really don’t think I can do this anymore’.” I loved this book! I have enjoyed all the Vera books (as I also love the tv series--I hear Brenda Blethyn's voice now when I read the books) but this one is, I think, my favorite. I think I feel that way when I finish all her books but this one is, for me, the best. So it’s a nice, complex murder mystery, but it is Vera that draws the reader in, Vera who holds the reader’s attention. Admittedly, someone who hadn’t read several of the earlier Vera books would miss many of the references to her past, wouldn’t fully understand her tenacity, her reasoning, how life with Hector, her father, warped her mind. Hector was always there, bullying her from the grave. Character development was good, but the story truly begins when Vera enters the Pilgrim House. She is quite the character and drives the story. She is more reminiscent of an overweight bag lady and not afraid of speaking her mind. Her self-assurance is admirable, and her manner of investigation is interesting. The more you read, the more intriguing the story gets