The Darkest Evening: A Vera Stanhope Novel by Ann Cleeves

382 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Release Date: September 8, 2020

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is returning home during a snowstorm. Even though she is familiar with the area, she makes a wrong turn and isn’t sure where she is. She finds a car abandoned on the side of the road – the driver’s door is open and in the backseat is a little boy in a car seat. Vera unbuckles him and puts him in her Land Rover. As she continues down the road, she comes across the body of a young woman. The nearest house belongs to a distant relative of Vera’s. She goes to the door and finds them in the middle of a weekend house party. Now her job is to find out who the dead woman is and where is the boy’s father.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are well developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. Over the years, I have enjoyed watching the Vera mystery series. This was the first book I have read in the series. The book is very similar to the series with a few changes. If you love the Vera television series or Shetland, another series by the same author, you certainly will enjoy this book.

#TheDarkestEvening #AnnCleeves #DreamscapeMedia #MinotaurBooks #NetGalley #VeraStanhope

This is a review of an ARC of the book.

The inimitable Vera Stanhope is at it again! Driving back home on a wintry night, Detective Stanhope sees an abandoned car with a baby still inside. Perturbed, she seeks help from nearby and comes across the home of a wealthy branch of the Stanhope family.
The rest of the story details the thorough boots-on-the ground investigation that this detective is known for, until she finds out the truth.
Ann Cleeves is a favorite author of mine and I enjoy the quirks and eccentricities of her detectives, especially those of Vera. The television series "Vera" is also noteworthy, alongside "Shetland".

In this edition of the Vera Stanhope mystery series, DCI Stanhope discovers an abandoned toddler and the mother's body not far from her family's estate. Vera has been estranged from that part of the family for decades, but she knows that this branch of the family isn't as polished as they seem on the outside. She knows about the secrets and indiscretions of previous the Stanhope generation. Now Vera needs to find out exactly how much the family knows about the dead woman and who the baby's father might be.

Another captivating story by Ann Cleeves, The Darkest Evening, delves into Vera Stanhope's backstory, particularly life with her father, Hector, and the time she spent on the family estate. Surprisingly, this isn't a story about Vera reconnecting with the cousin and aunt she spent time with as a child. In fact, she feels rather uncomfortable around them and doesn't quite get their lifestyle; she prefers the life she has as a single woman and DCI. Nonetheless, Cleeves crafted an interesting backstory for Vera Stanhope.

In The Darkest Evening (Minotaur Books 2020), the ninth installment of the blazingly popular Vera Stanhope series (also a blockbuster TV series), Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is called out when a body is found on the grounds of Brockburn, in the wilds of Northumberland and her ancestral home. This grand but going-to-shabby house belongs to her fathers family, quasi noblemen who pretty much showed no interest in her father and less in his iconoclastic daughter Vera but now they have no choice. A dead girl is on their property and it is Vera's job to figure out how she died and who is guilty. As is Vera Stanhope's way, she digs into the history of everyone in the house and won't stop asking questions until she has uncloaked all family secrets that could contribute to solving this murder. Before she’s done, more murders occur and events she never wanted to know about are revealed.

It’s hard not to get caught up in Vera's enthusiasm for her job and commitment to truth. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is one of the quirkiest most fascinating detectives out there. She always makes unusual decisions, panned by most and then to everyone's surprise except hers, are likely how she solves the case. Highly recommended.

Vera Stanhope is on her way home in a blizzard when she almost collides with another car. When she gets out to check on then she realizes the door is open and only a baby is left in the back. She is confused and wondering what has happened to the mother so she follows the lights up ahead only to realize it leads to a party. This party is at non other that her ancestral home that her father and she were blacklisted from. She is confused and wonder what this all has to do with the each other until the mother is found dead. This was an fantastic book full of intrigue that keep me guessing until the very end. I was given a copy from St Martian press via Netgalley and my review is based solely on my options.

This was the first Vera book, although the 9th in the series, this book is a great standalone. Anne does a phenomenal job of describing this winter setting- you truly can picture yourself in this vast mansion. A perfect winter mystery.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? Here again, as we’ve seen before, Ann Cleeves, one of my all time favorite authors, writes like no other, in this, Book 9 of the wonderful Vera Stanhope series.

In this story we meet Lorna Falstone, a beautiful and troubled young mother with a one-year-old son, living alone in rural Northumberland, in a setting as gothically sinister as it is bleakly beautiful.

Joined by a cast of characters vaguely Agatha Christie-esque in their colorful representation of village life, there are suspects a-plenty when murder strikes, including but not limited to the “gentry” Stanhopes, - Vera’s estranged and glamorous widowed Aunt Harriet, along with her meek and middle-aged daughter Juliet, who is still beautiful, and unhappily married to the flamboyant and untrustworthy Mark Bolitho. Occupiers of the Stanhope family home, a money-pit of a mansion in need of new funding, Vera’s relatives are odd and unfriendly, (perhaps not that different, after all, in every way, from our eccentric hero).

As Vera and her team scramble to uncover what may be a serial killer hidden in the midst of the village, the author ratchets up the tension with creepy woodlands, bracing snowstorms, abandoned cottages and isolated fields, - a setting that proves to be as dangerous for our heroes as it is for those they are trying to protect.

A top-notch mystery, rife with suspense, enthralling characters, and a chance to meet again with the indomitable Vera, her trusty and sensible side-kick Joe, and the cool and collected Holly (who receives plenty of air-time in this particular installment).

I love this series, this author and not surprisingly, this book - a treat (unabashedly) to light up even the darkest evening.

A great big thank you to @NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from St. Martin's Press and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.


Ann Cleeves has the mystery genre nailed. The Darkest Evening is another testament to that fact.

This book is the ninth in the Vera Stanhope series and is the first one I have read. The story is nicely written. Vera makes a wrong turn on the way home in the Northumbria district on a snowy night. She finds an abandoned car with a baby alone inside. Upon searching the area, she stumbles on the dead body of a young woman. This is a great whodunit mystery! I’ll be reading more in this series!

I went into this book with the full knowledge of the fact that this book was well into a series that I had never read before. And that was not a mistake at all! This book worked well as a standalone read, and was so gripping and well-written that I think I may have a new series to read. Bonus points for the fact that it's set in small-town northern England!

So, DI Vera Stanhope kind of reminds me of one of the characters from an all-time favourite mystery series, also set in small-town England: Dr. Ruth Galloway. Her demeanour and the way she goes about an investigation is very similar, as is her outlook on her personal life.

The Darkest Evening follows the events of a very dark evening indeed: a baby is found abandoned in a car that was left on the side of a deserted road, in the middle of a very bleak winter storm. Vera takes the baby out of the cold and ends up at the house of her distant, very rich relatives, who are in the middle of a dinner party. As the dinner party draws to a close, what started out as a case of an abandoned child turns into the discovery of the child's murdered mother, which then goes into a full-blown murder investigation.

The investigation takes darker turns as another woman goes missing and the child is kidnapped. DI Stanhope and her team quickly try to piece the puzzle together, digging into the many backstories for all of their suspects and witnesses. As small-town secrets are brought to the surface, DI Stanhope comes face to face with some more personal secrets, brought to light by her sudden involvement with a side of her family she has all but forgotten about.

This was a very good police procedural. I felt that all of the steps of the investigation were very well laid out and followed a logical progression. I also think the author did a great job of leading us through the thought processes in DI Stanhope's mind as she worked out who the true culprit was. The characters were well-developed, and the setting was so real I felt I was there. Did I mention I love stories set in small-town England?

I look forward to going all the way back to book 1 and starting this series from the beginning. If this book is any indication on how the other books are, I don't think I will be disappointed!

Thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my advanced reader copy.

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mystery: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½, rounded down

Families are at issue in the 9th installment of Ann Cleves’ Vera series. Vera’s own family raises questions of what makes family: blood, relationships, love, or some other alchemy that ties people together or tears them apart. Vera’s normal curmudgeonly behavior is dialed back when she must deal with grieving mothers and grandmothers, fathers and possible fathers. It all starts with bitter cold, a snowstorm, a dead woman in the snow and and a child left in a car with the door standing open and ends with Vera making a surprising resolution about her own family.

One snowy night, Vera Stanhope missed a turn going home and stumbled upon an abandoned car with the door open and a baby in a carseat in the back. She took the baby out of the car and went in search of a warm place and the baby's mother. She came to the country house of her father's family and later to the body of the child's mother. The story is of fractured families, strong women, illicit relationships, and murder. Vera, once again, with the help of her team, especially Joe and Holly, digs through the surface reticence of the locals to find out who the murderer is and who is the father of the baby Thomas. For a time she wonders if she is related to the child and thinks what that could mean to her. When she eventually finds out who the murderer is, it is at a great cost to her personally.
Cleeves writing evinces the soul of Northumberland and why the residents feel so attached to the land. Her narrative keeps the reader captivated until the end of the last chapter. There are so many suspects. I will continue to read every one of Cleeves books I can get my hands on.

Ann Cleeves is a master of the police procedural, and her Vera Stanhope is beloved by many for good reason. She's blunt, smart as hell, and a bit of a mess. On her way to her father's family home she stumbles upon a car with onky a baby inside. She rescues the baby, and later the body of the baby's mother is discovered. Follow along with Vera as she puts the pieces together and finds the answers to put a killer in jail.

5 stars, but honestly I'm a huge fan and think all of her books are amazing.

After reading the book it offered me so excited entertainment, such as all the characters had mysterious quirks about their personalities. The husband who owns the house seemed very arrogant and stand-offish with his wife. Vera certainly has gotten herself in a pickle with the people in this house. The book moves at a moderate pace as Vera tries to come up with answers to her questions regarding her case. The narrative of the story seems a bit long winded for me.

Ann Cleeves can always be counted on for a good mystery.

This one is set in the winter on a slippery terrain. What appears to be an abandoned car is found with a baby in the back.
Taking the baby to her destination, Vera begins to explore a tangled mystery

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read The Darkest Evening in return for an honest review.

Any fan of the Vera Stanhope crime novels written by Ann Cleeves has also seen the superb BBC series starring Brenda Blythen. As a result it is difficult to read a new Vera book without picturing BB and hearing her say 'pet' to everyone. Vera Stanhope is such a wonderful creation, so human, so bright, so lonely but never morose. Over the years we have learned much of her backstory. This book adds a tremendous amount to that backstory.

Vera finds herself stranded on a snowstorm evening close to the home of the Stanhope family--a part of the family she knows little about, has no desire to know about, and is black to her white. She is taken in where she find a party of potential donors to a project her cousin's husband is launching. The next morning, a neighbor arrives declaring that there is the body of a dead woman outside the house. And thus starts another Vera investigation with her cohorts of wonderful characters. We get entertained by her thoughts on her father and his relationship to this part of the family, the members of her family that live in "the big house" and how she feels about their prim and proper ways.

As with all Ann Cleave books, the clues emerge slowly and we learn what she learns as she investigates the life and loves of the victim. She brings in a new theme of anorexia which the victim suffered from. I found that track interesting. There were a number of suspects towards the end of the novel and I guessed right but that's all it was: a guess. Yet when it was revealed, it made perfect sense.

The whole idea of what makes a happy family was explored in many different ways and many different families in this book. It was really fascinating to me. And since we are privy to Vera's thoughts, we get her perspective as well as her feelings about all the various families she encounters. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it.

The twists and turns in this book will leave you on the edge of your seat. This is my first book from the author and I’m excited to read all of her books already. This is an engaging story with well developed characters. I loved everything about it. Phenomenal writing.

Unfortunately, this novel did not grab my attention. From the start, I had no interest in what was going to happen. Normally, I sit and am finished reading a mystery within a day or two. The storyline sounded exciting but did not deliver for me.

Thanks to NetGalley & Minotaur for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You really can't go wrong with Vera Stanhope; every time I might feel my interest starting to wane, Ann Cleeves beefs up some part of Vera's past. This time it's some family history about the Stanhope Clan as landed gentry living in an old pile of a country house, fit for an Agatha Christie story. Vera ends up here after finding a baby strapped in to a seemingly abandoned vehicle, and bringing him to the house, the closest domicile available during a snowy night. The baby's mother is discovered murdered a little ways off from the car, but would the murdered woman have left the baby?

As always, there's a whole cast of interesting characters: what's left of the Stanhopes, the dead woman's simple but proud parents (with a few secrets up their sleeves), a local family with several teenage children, the domestic help from the Stanhope estate who is actually trained as a barrister, and, of course, Holly, Joe, and Charlie. We get a little bit of extra Holly, but there's not much Joe and a smidge of Charlie. Cleeves seems intent on pushing the idea that Holly is a Vera-in-training, both from a professional perspective and a personal one. We also gain some insight into Vera's feelings about babies (not a fan, but she likes the idea of wielding benevolent influence over one and being a mentor).

Still some life in the old girl, thanks be to the gods, pet.

I have loved all the other Vera books (and the show) but this book really dragged for me. The pace felt slower, the characters less interesting, the crime and investigation less entertaining. I'll still read her future books but this was a bit of a let down for me.