Series: Two Rivers

#BookReview The Raging Storm (Two Rivers #3) by Ann Cleeves @AnnCleeves @panmacmillan #TheRagingStorm #AnnCleeves #TwoRiversSeries #PGCBooks

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview The Raging Storm (Two Rivers #3) by Ann Cleeves @AnnCleeves @panmacmillan #TheRagingStorm #AnnCleeves #TwoRiversSeries #PGCBooks Title: The Raging Storm

Author: Ann Cleeves

Series: Two Rivers #3

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 5, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 383

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Fierce winds, dark secrets, deadly intentions.

When Jem Rosco—sailor, adventurer, and legend—blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own.

This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Matthew finds his judgment clouded. As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one, including himself, is safe from Scully Cove’s storm of dark secrets.

Review:

Shrewd, intricate, and gripping!

In this complex third instalment in the Two Rivers series, The Raging Storm, Cleeves has written a sinuous, menacing thriller that has DI Venn and his team immersed in the investigation into the brutal murder of a famous adventurer who seems to have received more than just a celebratory welcome home by the residents of the small town where he grew up, learned to sail, and seemingly had no problem turning his back on.

The prose is sharp and tight. The characters are impulsive, secretive, and deceitful. And the plot, including all the subplots, seamlessly intertwine and unravel into an ominous tale full of deception, manipulation, jealousy, misdirection, mayhem, violence, small-town coastal living, love triangles, and murder.

Overall, The Raging Storm is another engrossing, pacey, action-packed thrill ride by Cleeves that once again has just the right amount of suspense, creative storyline, and well-drawn characterization to make it a highly entertaining, satisfying read for any lover of the police procedural genre.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves is the author behind PBS’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 becoming a crime writer. 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, and in 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside, England.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

#BookReview The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves @AnnCleeves @PGCBooks @panmacmillan @headcrime #thelongcall

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves @AnnCleeves @PGCBooks @panmacmillan @headcrime #thelongcall Title: The Long Call

Author: Ann Cleeves

Series: Two Rivers #1

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 3, 2019

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Bestselling author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope series’, Ann Cleeves returns with the first in a brand-new series set in North Devon and featuring Detective Matthew Venn. In this rural idyll, where two rivers meet, crime is always there waiting to rise from the water.

In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.

Now he’s back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.

A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew’s new home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.

Finding the killer is Venn’s only focus, and his team’s investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind, and the deadly secrets that lurk there.

Review:

Simmering, menacing, and clever!

The Long Call is the kickoff for a brand-new series by Cleeves that sweeps you away to North Devon where the reticent, intelligent, DI Matthew Vern finds himself investigating a complicated case involving a stabbing victim with a bird tattoo, two missing girls, a community centre that hits a little too close to home, and an evangelical Brethren that excommunicated him in the past.

The prose is meticulous and crisp. The characters are methodical, relentless, and flawed. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine into a mysterious tale filled with mixed emotions, deception, abuse, manipulation, corruption, red herrings, and murder.

Overall, The Long Call is a well-paced, pensive, sophisticated thriller by Cleeves that’s a brilliant start to the Two Rivers series and another fine example of her ability to write police procedurals with well-drawn characters and sinister storylines.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                                          

 

 

Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves is the author behind PBS’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 becoming a crime writer. 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, and in 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Ann lives in North Tyneside, England.

Website | Twitter | Facebook