As the 9th book the Vera Stanhope series, The Darkest Evening is a meditative look at life, love and loss in the British Northumberland countryside.

On a cold and snowy evening, detective Vera Stanhope takes a wrong turn that soon leads her to an abandoned car at the side of the road. Inside is a toddler strapped in his car seat and his mother nowhere to be found. As Vera pulls the child from the care, she realizes she’s near her father’s ancestral home. She heads there to find help for the child and start a search for the mother, who later turns up dead on the family property.

This was my first Vera Stanhope mystery and it worked quite well as a standalone. I did not feel lost or confused by the characters or members of Vera’s investigative team as they were introduced. Clearly there is some backstory with them, but it didn’t prevent me from understanding or enjoying the story.

I really enjoyed that Vera is a single, middle-aged woman devoted to her career. No love interest or other distractions slowed the storyline, although she does spend time ruminating on her past as well as her childhood with her black-sheep of a father. I also liked the mystery surrounding the young mother’s death. I felt so sorry for the young woman trying to find her way, and I was angry when the killer was revealed – along with their motive.

This is an atmospheric story that plays on the approaching darkness and cold of winter. The title is a nod to Robert Frost’s “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening,” which includes that line. He has paused in the snowy woods on presumably the shortest (and darkest) day of the year but it can also be interpreted as an individual struggling with sadness or depression who ultimately chooses to move forward in life, fitting perfectly with this storyline.

This was a strong procedural mystery as Vera and her team work to uncover the killer. While this is more of a character study than a fast paced thriller, it has depth and intensity that propels the story forward.

Ann Cleeves has just proved again that she is an outstanding author of police procedural mysteries.

This is my first Vera Stanhope book. It is very entertaining and a page-turner. The fact that this is #9 in the series does not take away from reading this as a stand-alone novel. If you like well written, character driven mystery books this is a winner.

In THE DARKEST EVENING, British DI Vera Standhope comes across an abandoned car with a young child in it during a snowstorm. She makes her way to the closest estate which happens to be owned by her estranged family. She finds a party going on , as well as, a dead body in the snow close by. This sets her investigative team in motion and gives us some insight into Vera’s past.

Prior to reading my first Vera Stanhope, I have read the first in Cleeves’ recent TWO RIVERS series along with #1 in her SHETLAND ISLAND series (I’m a big fan of the BBC TV production). I have found them all to be outstanding and plan to continue with each series.

I received a free ARC of THE DARKEST EVENING by Ann Cleeves from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

5 out of 5 stars

Publication Date - September 8, 2020
Posted to Goodreads on 9/02/20

Who killed little Thomas' young mother?🔍Kept me guessing all the way😲

I loved the setting, the plot, the varied cast of characters and the author's facility at building a mystery with so many twists and red herrings. I really never guessed the culprit until Vera Stanhope risks her life to get the full story from the murderer's own mouth.

This was my first time reading a novel by Ann Cleeves and I can certainly understand why she has won over so many readers and her works have made their way to television. I first heard of her works in an Australian author's novel and then learned that Cleeves sets her police procedural mysteries in some of my favorite settings. A perfect fit for me and I love Vera Stanhope's careless appearance and self-confidence. She dares a "take me as I am" attitude that many male detective leads sport and it's refreshing to have a woman detective to match their nonchalance about appearance and physical fitness while powering doggedly to a successful result.

No question about it, I am now a fan.

Thanks to publisher Macmillan and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

Disclaimer: I received a free DARKEST EVENING by Ann Cleves Arc from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

Darkest Evening is the ninth installment of the Vera Stanhope series. Now, I should confess that while I have watched the British mystery series and read some of Cleves’s other series’, this is the first Stanhope I have read.


And I enjoyed it.

Darkest Evening finds Vera meeting family she has not seen in a very long time as she works to discover the murderer of a young mother who had recovered from an eating disorder. The story takes place around Christmas and make good use of the setting and time. The snowstorm description that starts the novel is wonderfully done. Cleves captures the

A good mystery hinges on the reveal not being revealed to early or being too easy to figure out as well as the reveal making sense. This is the case in the book.

What I particularly enjoyed in the novel was the lack of judgement aimed at women who did not want or have children. It is not only just Vera but other women as well and it makes a refreshing change.

And let’s talk about Vera for second as well as Holly and Joe. In a world where every single detective seems to have a tragic backstory and multiple health issue, Vera doesn’t. Okay, she has unresolved issues with her father and she is bit prickly, but her backstory is refreshing normal in its tragedy. This isn’t to downplay the common tragedies that we all go though, but there is vast difference between Vera and say Wallander or Harry Hole or even Sherlock Holmes. You would want to get help for at least two of the three men. With Vera, you want to have a whiskey.

But it isn’t just Vera; it is also Joe and Holly who are both refreshing “normal” in the general sense of the word. Joe is a family who loves his job and his family while Holly is up coming. Both are non-tragic and fun to read about. Both are smart and strong in different ways, making it a pleasure to read both.

The mystery focuses on family secrets and half truths as well as the gossip that keeps any community humming along. The plot does make use of the various tropes that one finds in the lord of manor and mysterious death novels. Is the current lord of the manor the father of the baby? What exactly is the relationship between the married couples like? It is too Cleves credit that the tropes are used but also inverted or twisted. Additionally, even the minor characters are given detail that bring them to life.

If you have seen the Vera television series, you will no doubt be picturing Brenda Blethlyn as Vera and hearing her voice as you read, this is not a bad thing.