Another great installment from Cleeves. I loved it. It had a very traditional feel; Christmas, an old country house, a feudal setting. A hint of Agatha Christie in the atmosphere. I would absolutely recommend this book.

I imagine myself curling up on the couch, wrapping up my blanket, sipping my brandy, sitting next to fireplace, hearing the fire crackling sound as it is snowing and cold outside when I’m reading this heart throbbing, dark mystery. But instead of that I’m wearing baggy sweatpants, it’s sunny outside, birds are chirping and I’m drinking ginger-cayenne-lemon shots! Welcome to my quarantine read! But thanks to the author’s world building, I can visualize myself at somewhere else!

After being addicted to watch British crime thriller series: ”Vera’ based on the books, I was so keen to read the ninth installment, welcome Vera Stanhope with opened arms and enjoy her quirkiness, unkempt looks, sharp, harsh but smart comments and her berating/ caring kind of interesting relationship dynamics with her colleagues Joe and Holly.

This time the murder investigation dragged Vera to her own past, estranged family ties and unresolved matters. At the first snowy night of the winter, Vera acts stubborn to drive her car into expected snow storm and eventually she misses her turn and finds a car left abandoned, skidded off the narrow road, front door is open. As soon as she leaves her own car to check what’s going on, she hears a baby cry warns her something is terribly wrong.

She takes the baby who left alone at the back seat of the car, leaves her business card to inform the mother if she comes back to look for her baby. She still thinks maybe the mother left the car to find proper reception for her phone.

Her steps take her to the grandiose mansion Brockburn- the very same place where her father a.k.a. black sheep of the family, Hector grew up and estranged from the wealthy, privileged, pretentious family members.
She knocks their door to use their phone and finds out there is Christmas party/ her cousin’s husband Mark’s
fundraising party for his new art project. Her cousin Juliet reluctantly welcomes her but as Vera realizes, Juliet was more interested in the baby she is holding in her hands.

As Vera calls her team for back up and giving a call the owner of the car: Constance Browne, she finds out the car must have been borrowed by her young neighbor Lorna Falstone who has a little baby. And a few minutes later a farmer neighbor, driving a tractor to pick up her daughters from the party who were serving as waitresses appear in the kitchen where Vera resumes making her phone calls. The guy is in panic because he found a dead woman in the back yard. Unfortunately the brutally killed woman is Lorna who is also the mother of the little baby.

This investigation brings out the dirty secrets of the family and verifying the small town gossips: Lorna and Juliet might be step sisters or Lorna may have an affair with Juliet’s husband who may be also the secret father of the baby.

Vera’s intense investigation forces her to face her sad, lonely times of her childhood, ill-fated relationship with her father and condescending manners of her estranged relatives. And she finds herself to empathize more with the victim who suffered from anorexia to slowly disappear from the surface of the earth and then she finds her strength to raise her child alone but her efforts resulted with tragic end.

You want to drink cups of tea and eating biscuits throughout your read and enjoy the dark, gripping mystery with the quirky, straightforward, also entertaining tactics of Vera.

This is not one of my favorite books of the series but it was unputdownable page-turner and I highly recommend crime thriller lovers and series’ fans.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press/Minotaur Books for sharing this one of my favorite series’ ARC copy in exchange my honest review.

Ann Cleeves always gets my attention and keeps it. Her skillful plotting and her vivid depictions of Vera in action are something I look forward to.

Blizzard-like conditions contrive to make Vera Stanhope miss the right turn-off on her way home. As she drives through the snow, she spots a car off the road. When she stops to check, she finds the driver side door open and a toddler in the back seat. With no sign of the driver, Vera takes the toddler her with to the closet house, which happens to be that of estranged relatives. The wealthier and more sophisticated Stanhopes have a dinner party in progress, and despite her reluctance, Vera has no choice but to interrupt it.

Sitting in the kitchen, checking with the police, Vera is shocked when the little boy's mother is found dead by a neighboring farmer who arrived on a tractor to pick up his daughters who were acting as waitresses for the Stanhope dinner.

The Darkest Evening kept me engrossed throughout, and I sped right through it, a little annoyed with my husband's interruptions in the afternoon. :)

Two slight changes from previous books made me like it even more. Of course, Vera is a bit unkempt and she is brusque with her colleagues, but she is a sharp and observant detective. It is particularly interesting to see the way Vera sees Joe and Holly--her team, and the way they view her.

The Darkest Evening is the 9th in the series, but can function as a stand-alone. Ann Cleeves has another winner in this one. I recently saw this quote about Vera and found it apt:

"... one of the most appealing fictional detectives to emerge since Andy Dalziel got into his stride..."
Martin Edwards, Spinetingler Magazine

Read in May. Blog review scheduled for August 21, 2020.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press
Police Procedural/Mystery. Sept. 8. 2020. Print length: 384 pages.

Wow... I was really impressed with this novel! This is definitely one that I am going to recommend to my friends. The suspense and characters were excellent, along with the writing!

Ann Cleeves never fails another terrific bread.A book with characters so well written Vera Stanhope and everyone around her,I stayed up way past my bedtime to read this tense page turner.Highly recommend this and allAnn Cleeves book’s.#netgalley#St.martinsbooks

Even if you have never read any of the Vera series, I can wholeheartedly recommend this engaging thriller as a standalone. Cleeves excels in complicated characters who have a lot of emotional depth, and this book is no exception. I could have spent hundreds of more pages with these fascinating characters. Her pacing and plot is also extraordinary--I literally could not put the book down.

(A bonus for us Vera-on-TV fans: I dare you to try NOT to read Vera's dialogue in Belinda Blethyn's voice. PERFECT casting.)

*I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I haven't read a 'Vera' novel for ages, although I faithfully watch the TV series. The spirit of the books is faithfully transferred across, I see. This was a solid police procedural, with the added complication of the murder victims being discovered in the grounds of a country house belonging to Vera's cousin. The first victim, Lorna, remained a bit of an enigma, so the ending was only somewhat satisfactory to me. I had suspected various other people throughout though, and the novel depicts teamwork at its best.

What a great Vera Stanhope book this was! 5 Stars thanks #TheDarkestEvening #NetGalley and St. Martin's press for this one! I also want to say Ann Cleeves new series was great and I'm going to grab the 3 Vera Stanhopes I did not yet get to.

"On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for her home in the hills...Vera assumes that the owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in the back seat."

Vera seems to be mellowing with age, as she was more tolerant of her assistants and definitely felt an affinity with her remaining Stanhope cousin.I read it right through except for when I was sleeping.

The mystery held until the end of the book and almost to Vera's end..She left it a bit too long I think.
It ended nicely with most of the (living) characters in a pretty good emotional place.

Recommended for any mystery fan!

Vera Stanhope is back in this gripping tale that blends revealing information about Vera's family with the mysterious and violent death of a young woman during a blizzard.

This is Cleeves (and Vera) at her best with snappy dialog, well-drawn characters, and the gorgeous Northumbrian scenery we've come to expect in the series. Cleeves take time to further develop not only Vera's character but also DC Holly Jackman, who is becoming an increasingly interesting character. Cleeves bring the rural English village and country manor to life in a way that feels real. This isn't the idealized village of Christie or Beaton, but one of gritty, sometimes boring, real life.

Fans will surely read this one in a single sitting as I did. If you haven't read Cleeves' "Vera" books before, start at the beginning and work your way up to this one.

Recommended.

This was a good mystery which good characters. It's #9 in a series, that was new to me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the series from the beginning. I also found the long descriptions tedious and made the book slow going. However, the last part of the book went faster though and was good. Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for the ARC of this book!

Ann Cleeves has done it again. I had another night without sleep because in The Darkest evening, the 10th in her Vera Stanhope series, she gives us a gripping story that despite its length had me clinging to every word and characters that are human beings who have deep thoughts and silly thoughts and self-doubt just as the rest of us. I could not put this book down and I doubt that many other readers will either.

384 pages

5 stars

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is driving home very slowly, chastising herself for leaving the station at all in this weather, when she comes across an abandoned car. The door is left open and there is a baby in a car seat in the back. Not knowing what happened to the mother, she takes the baby to a place of safety. It happens to be the old family pile Brockburn. It belongs to the Stanhopes. Vera has not seen her posh relatives since her own father's funeral. She is not looking forward to it.

When the body of the baby's mother is discovered on Brockburn's grounds, it opens a can of worms for not only Vera's relatives, but the guests who were at the house party when the murder occurred.

Vera and her team uncover many secrets in their investigation. Lorna Falstone, the young mother, was semi-estranged from her farming family. She had suffered from anorexia and was hospitalized for it. When another woman is murdered, the stakes rise. The two murders must be related. The two women were friends after all.

What follows is an exciting investigation. The identity of the murderer surprised me. I never had that person on my radar.

The overweight and disheveled Vera continues to both confound and delight me. I marvel at her ability to detect the truth of a situation. She is abrupt with her team, but at the same time offers them support. I was delighted to learn more history of the Stanhopes and to see Juliet come into her own a bit. It looks as though there may be a future for Vera and Juliet's friendship. Ms. Cleeves' descriptions of the weather made me want to reach for my heavy coat, gloves and hat. I felt the biting cold and relentless wind as well as the characters in the book. This author writes a complete book. Exciting characters, great plot line, superb writing and plotting.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for forwarding to me a copy of this remarkable book for me to read, enjoy and review.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.
Another great Vera Stanhope mystery! I love this series so much, I really tried to read slowly because I wanted to savor the book, not knowing when the next one is coming...probably not for another year at least!
Vera is driving home at night in horrific conditions, the deep snow making her turn into the wrong road. She finds a car with an open door and a baby in the back. She ends up at Brockburn, the manor owned by her estranged relatives, where a while later the body of a young woman is found, brutally murdered.
She hasn't had contact with her family since the funeral of her father, who was their black sheep.
This read gives us more in-depth information about her backstory. She's such an interesting character, implacable, comfortable in her own skin, albeit a bit lonely at times. But she doesn't dwell on negative thoughts, she'd rather delve into her cases, her job being her life. Although I do worry about the time she's forced to retire. I really hope something will happen in her life to keep her busy and happy after retirement.
Joe is still her stalwart sidekick and Holly is finally growing on me, although she's still a bit too tightly wrapped and competitive.
What a wonderful read; it's probably my favorite in the series. I had no idea who the killer was, Ann Cleeves is such a clever author, great storylines, great writing and all the characters are always top notch. 5+++ stars, highly recommended!

What a treat for fans of the popular Vera Stanhope series -- and for anyone who enjoys a good English country house murder mystery.

In this ninth Stanhope book, Ann Cleeves further develops the backstory of her endearing, admirable, and sometimes irascible protagonist while she plays with the trope of the country house murder. Vera finds a baby in the backseat of a car abandoned in a blizzard. His mother lies bludgeoned on the path leading to the grand and crumbling Brockburn, home of Vera's distanced but not-so-distant relatives. As the police try to unravel the murder, they encounter the secrets, resentments, and entanglements of three different families.

I loved this book. Vera is as rumpled, sleepless, and perceptive as ever, simultaneously inspiring and exasperating her team. Her complicated feelings about her fancy relatives develop throughout the story, driving the plot and deepening her character. Her interactions with her team let the reader follow along with the investigation, like a police procedural, while also giving insight into each team member. Northumberland is almost its own character, beautifully described and sometimes menacing, as in this picture of a timbered clearing:

"Everything else had been discarded, left in heaps, grey now in the moonlight. The bones of the trees thrown into giant piles, the huge roots pulled out by diggers, upturned, so they looked like fingers reaching towards the sky. The area of devastation was huge and the moonlight shone in."

Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and Ann Cleeves for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.