Ah Vera pet, it’s good to have you back on our bulging bookshelves! The British TV series is all very well, but as we crime fiction lovers know from experience, there’s nothing that can replace the joy of actually reading a story and The Dark Wives is the 11th book in the Vera Stanhope series, which goes all the way back to The Crow Trap, published in 1999.
As The Dark Wives begins, only a few weeks have passed since the death of a well-loved detective in The Rising Tide, and DI Stanhope and her team are still reeling. Our doughty matriarch in particular is feeling the loss – not that she’d share her feelings with anyone else, mind, so she soldiers on regardless. To add something different into the mix we have a new team member in the shape of lively Geordie lass DC Rosie Ball, who is bright, brash and keen to demonstrate her worth.
But there’s no time for brooding. A body has been found by an early morning dog walker, close to a care home for troubled teenagers. He’s quickly identified as Josh Woodburn, a young man who worked at Rosebank. And to compound matters, one of the teens staying there has gone missing from her room. Are these things connected? And if so, how?
Josh was a nice, straightforward guy and it appears the missing girl, Chloe Spence, had a bit of a crush on him. She liked to write things down in a journal, and as Vera reads the girl’s inner thoughts, she begins to get a feel for a young woman who hasn’t been dealt the best hand in life. It seems unlikely that Chloe killed Josh, so who did? And do they have the young woman or is she in hiding, frightened and alone?
It seems apt that this case drags Vera back into her own past, and as the story unfolds we are given a picture of the ageing detective when she was nobbut a lass. Perhaps that’s why she identifies so closely with the missing Chloe; after all, as fans of this series know all too well, Vera’s childhood and teenage years were dysfunctional, to say the least.
As the search for Chloe continues, Vera and her team are drawn back to parts of Northumberland that she knows like the back of her hand, and she encounters people who knew her, and her father, back in the day – no wonder she’s feeling introspective.
As ever, Ann Cleeves paints her sweeping landscapes with dexterity and realism – so clearly constructed that you can almost feel the sweep of the winds and smell the sheep dung. You may never have stepped on a north eastern moorland but somehow this author makes it feel like home.
The same applies to the characters, because every one of them could be someone you met in the pub or bumped into in town. The ebb and flow of characterisation in a series can be difficult to pull off, especially with the loss of a beloved team member, but here the pieces shift and shuffle to create a complete new image, adding vitality and giving an extra frisson of the unknown. The hard-drinking and outspoken Rosie Ball is a great addition to the cast list and a neat foil to the more by-the-rules and stoic DS Joe Ashworth.
As for Vera? While in the TV series she is clearly working well past her pension age, in Cleeves’ books the ageing process has moved along at a slightly more sedate pace. Yes, the DI isn’t the spring chicken she once was, but in print there is no one helping her with her overshoes at a crime scene (and she’d bite their head off if they tried). I love Brenda Blethyn’s screen portrayal, but my absolute favourite Vera is right here on the page; grumpy, impulsive, slowing down in body but sharp in mind, flawed but sharp as a tack. Let’s hope there’s a novel or two more in her.
Want to find out more? In this video, Ann Cleeves talks about the origins of Vera Stanhope.
Macmillan
Print/Kindle/iBook
£11.99
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
