North Devon is so critical to the plot that the first page of The Heron’s Cry is a map of the area. The Long Call introduced readers to Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and his two subordinates, Jen Rafferty and Ross May. Matthew’s husband is Jonathan, who manages “the Woodyard, a large and successful community arts centre in Barnstaple.” Jen is a single mother with two teenagers, whilst Ross is married to Mel, his childhood sweetheart.

Jen, a divorcée, has an active social life: she “couldn’t bear the idea of being lonely for the rest of her life.” She occasionally over-indulges like at her friend Cynthia Prior’s party. An older man, “small and sturdy, built like a troll from a fairy story,” chats her up in the garden and introduces himself as Nigel Yeo. Nigel works “in the health sector,” but says that he’s no longer a doctor, rather “more of a private investigator at the moment.”

‘In fact, there was something I wanted to discuss, but I’m not sure this is the right place after all.’ He seemed distracted for a moment. ‘Actually, it’s probably time for me to head home, I think.’ Nigel got to his feet, the movement smooth and easy, and wiped a few grass clippings from his bum. It was rather a nice bum too.



He hesitated when he was on his feet. ‘Is it okay if I get your number from Cynthia and call you?’



‘Yeah,’ Jen said. ‘Sure.’

The evening deteriorates and Jen goes to bed alone. She wakes up fully clothed, with a headache to boot. Her daughter Ella tells her disapprovingly that Matthew Venn has been calling all morning.

‘Shit.’ Matt Venn was the boss. The best boss she’d ever had, but he wasn’t much into fun either. He was a man of principle, still haunted, Jen thought, by a strict evangelical childhood. He could do disapproval as well as her daughter.

There’s been “an unexplained death.” Matthew needs Jen to join him and Ross in Westacombe, “a group of craft workshops in the grounds of a big house.” The victim was discovered by his daughter, a glass blower, in her studio: “the murder weapon is a shard of one of her broken vases.” Jen is taken aback when she sees the body—it’s Nigel Yeo. She tells Matthew that she met him the night before.

‘He wanted to talk to me, but said it could wait.’



‘He wanted to talk to you professionally?’

That’s their first clue as to why someone might have wanted Nigel dead. Matthew tells Francis (Frank) Ley, a wealthy man who underwrites much of the commercial activities in the area, that Nigel had been killed. Ley owns the big house adjacent to the farmhouse and craft workshops. ‘Shit!’ says Ley.

‘Dr Yeo was a friend?’



‘No.’ A pause. ‘Well. I suppose he was in a way; becoming one at least. Eve came here a couple of years ago after finishing her Master’s degree.’



Matthew said nothing. Silence, he’d found, was an ally and a weapon.



At last, Ley continued: ‘Nigel worked for North Devon Patients Together, NDPT. It represents patients’ views to the trusts. It’s a small organization but very efficient, I thought. Since Nigel took over as boss, he’s widened the brief to look into anomalies, and to explore patients’ complaints.’



Venn nodded. That chimed with what Jen Rafferty had said.

There’s a personal connection. Alexander Mackenzie, a young friend of Ley’s, was brought low by depression, something Ley had personally experienced. The difference was that ‘Mack killed himself.’ Ley can’t understand why a “talented, bright” young man with a loving family would make such a choice. Could the psychiatric hospital where Mack was sectioned be somehow culpable?

The inter-relationships between the investigators and the investigated are murky. Cynthia tells Jen after the fact that Nigel only came to her party to meet Jen and share with her his concerns. Jonathan is good friends with Eve, the daughter of the first victim and so on and so forth. It’s an insular community. Eve reaches out to her friend Jonathan, after Wes Curnow, her colleague and friend, is found murdered. Jonathan sits with her in her little flat, fetches her a glass of wine, and mops up her tears.

‘It was my glass that killed him,’ she said. ‘Just like with Dad. Why would somebody do that? They had to go into Frank’s part of the house and steal the vase and break it. Then they set me up to find him. Who would hate me that much?’



‘I can’t believe that anyone hates you.’



‘Why use my glass then? Why try to point the blame at me?’



Jonathan didn’t have an answer to that. He sat beside her on the sofa and put his arms around her again, stroking her hair away from her face as if she were a child.

Contrast Jonathan comforting a friend with Matthew’s dismay when he discovers Jen in the farmyard, waiting in the glomming to speak to Eve.

‘How is she?’



‘I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her yet. Jonathan asked for an hour with her, before I started the questions.’



Matthew felt a spark of fury. How dare Jonathan interfere with his investigation and order his staff around!



‘I was just about to go up.’ Jen seemed awkward, a child caught in the middle of rowing parents. It wasn’t fair, Matthew thought, to have put her in this position, to have compromised her authority. Jonathan had used his relationship with Matthew to get his own way.

Jen demurs that Jonathan “was just being kind,” but Matthew isn’t having any of that: ‘‘We’re police officers.’ He knew his voice was sharp, hard. ‘Not social workers.’” Who’s right—Jonathan or Matthew? There are often circumstances when police officers choose to use an oblique approach to interrogate witnesses, falling back on the old chestnut that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The two men are unlikely to agree on this matter. Perhaps it’s as simple as opposites attract.

Jonathan is such a milk-of-kindness man. The Long Call introduced us to Matthew’s overbearing mother Dorothy. She is no prize but Jonathan asks her to have lunch with him and Matthew so they can celebrate her birthday. Surprisingly, she accepts and Jonathan creates a delicious and magical birthday lunch. Jonathan is the connective tissue between two damaged souls: Matthew left North Devon at age nineteen, in flight from the Barum Brethren, a small, harsh religious sect.

Who is behind the killings? The answer is surprising and complicated. For readers who haven’t yet gotten enough of the Two Rivers series, you can look forward to a four-part major TV series based on the books. It’s already in production!

Set in North Devon, a tourist destination along the coastline of England, sets Westacombe, where craftsmen and women have settled under the auspices of Frank Ley, a wealthy but not overbearing patron of those who live on the estate. Nigel Yeo, a doctor who has been brought to the area to head the mental health needs the area’s residents, is found murdered, stabbed with a piece of one of his daughter’s blown glass creations. When a second person is murdered in the same way, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and his team are pressured to solve the crime as quickly as possible to avoid staining the idyllic town’s image. Peeling back layer after layer of lies and misdirections, including his own insecurities in his marriage to Jonathan, Venn will eventually get to the bottom of the case. I give this book 3 stars despite the fact that I really did not enjoy it. I am a fan of Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope series. This is the second book in the Two Rivers series featuring DI Matthew Venn and the first that I have read. She is an excellent author but I just could never get into the flow of the book. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and the plot was very slow to develop (although that is not unusual for British authors). If you are a fan of British mysteries, this one might be ok for you. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my review.

3.5 stars

The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves is the 2nd in the Two Rivers Detective series.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher St. Martin’s Press (Minotaur Books), and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


Series Background:     (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
The location is North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge merge with the Atlantic.  DI Matthew Venn has returned to the area where he grew up,  where he walked away from the strict evangelical church, and away from his family.  He and his husband Jon have bought a small cottage on the marsh, and Matthew is now working for the local police.  Jon is the administrator of Woodyard Centre, where he created a space for artists, and a space for those with learning disabilities.  Matthew is the straight-laced, rather introverted detective, and Jon is a more free-wheeling extrovert. 

Matthew's team consists of DC Ross May, a rather egotistical but energetic man who is a personal friend of Matthew's boss, and DS Jenn Rafferty, rather too spirited and fun-loving for Matthew's taste, but the best detective he'd ever worked with.  Matthew's boss, DCI Oldham, is due to retire soon, is rather lazy, and prefers to drink and watch rugby, rather than run the precinct.


My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
Dr. Nigel Yeo has been killed with a shard from one of his daughter Eve's broken vases.  Eve finds her father's body in her studio, hours before he was supposed to be there.

Everyone says Nigel was a likable man, and no one can figure out who would want to kill him.  He recently retired from being an active physician, and is now being an advocate for people who feel the doctors neglected the care of their loved ones.

Then, another body is found, again by Eve, but it won't be the last death to occur in this small village.

Matthew and his team are sent in multiple directions, trying to find the right connection between these deaths, because the connections are many.  Is it something to do with Nigels' job? Perhaps one of the doctors has taken offence.  Could it be the suicide that he was investigating?  Or the nursing home take-over that he's questioning?

When it turns out  that Eve is a close friend of Jonathan's, Matthew has to deal with his spouse getting overly involved in a current case.


My Opinions:
I found the book a little slow-moving, and somewhat repetitive (as the same information is relayed again and again), yet it held my interest.

I love the relationship between Matthew and Jon, as they are very different individuals, yet they make their marriage work.   I don't particularly like Ross, as he seems to be a bit of a boot-licker, and I have mixed feelings about Jen as well.  I think she's really good at her job, but she seems a little flighty.  I hope they will grow on me.

The author wrote about mental illness and suicide, and I thought she handled  these dark topics rather well.  She made a point  that not everyone can handle being around someone who is mentally unstable, and it is, indeed, a sad fact.

I admit to not knowing who the culprit was, and that's always a good thing.  I love a true mystery.

I am looking forward to the next in the series!

Wow. This is only my second Ann Cleeves book - the first being The Long Call - the first in this series, and I'm truly blown away. Great characters, great relationship building, and a fantastic police procedural. Oh, and also very evocative of place. i REALLY want to go to the Devon coast now. This book will keep you guessing until the very end. Very highly recommended for mystery lovers!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

In this second book in the author's Two River series, the characters of Matthew Venn, his husband Jonathan, and his team, Jen and Ross, continue to develop and their relationships are challenged by the impact of the latest case. It hits close to home again, as several of the victims are connected with the arts center that Jonathan runs, and the witnesses and potential suspects are friends and acquaintances. This causes some tension between the married couple and also between the team members, accentuated by their rivalry. The supporting characters are also believably drawn and add interest to the story as the body count rises. The suspense builds slowly with increasing urgency as Matthew races to save the final potential victim. The North Devon setting of the series is appealing, and the influence of the idyllic but insular rural atmosphere upon the various inhabitants is an integral part of the story. This character-driven mystery from Ann Cleeves is another worthy entry in an intriguing series.

Ann Cleve’s writes so well her characters come alive the storyline immediately drew me in to the second book in the series,,Enjoyed the setting reading about the point of view glimpse into the personal lives of the detectives Matt ,Jonathan & Ross Will be recommending.#netgalley #st.Martins books

Loving this series!

Once more trouble comes to the Two Rivers area (where the Taw meets the Torridge) in North Devon.
Detective Inspector Matthew Venn continues to be revealed both on the personal and work level.
A bizarre murder has occurred at an artists’ commune. The surprising thing is that Venn’s colleague Jen Rafferty had met the victim, Nigel Yeo, the previous evening at a party. He had wanted to talk to her about some matter.
The property consisted of a house with seperate faults and workshops. The tenants had come together under the patronage of a rather strange benefactor Francis Ley, a well known but somewhat reclusive, eccentric economist.
When another murder occurs Matthew has a strange road to travel in order to unravel what’s happening, along with his team, Jen and the reluctant Ross.
It turns out the victim ‘Nigel [had]worked for North Devon Patients Together, NDPT. It represents patients’ views to the [health] trusts… [Nigel had] widened the brief to look into anomalies, and to explore patients’ complaints.’ Nigel had been looking into a complaint about a suicide.
A starting point for Venn!
Matthew’s husband Jonathan ‘managed the Woodyard, a large and successful community arts centre.’ So further connections are drawn. On the home front we see more of Matthew and Jonathan’s relationship, circling not only Matthew’s compartmentalisation of work and home, but also his troubled rapport with his mother.
I loved the juxtaposition between Jonathan’s analogy about Matthew’s focus on the elements of cases, and Matthew’s view of himself. From just this short scene we learn so much more.
Matthew: ‘There was the silhouette of a heron, tall and stately, dark grey against the paler grey of the water. It stood quite alone.’
Jonathan: ‘Those birds always remind me of you. So patient. Just willing to wait. Entirely focused on their prey…Silent. [and then] I never know what you’re thinking.’
Put these reflections together with the title, The Heron’s Cry, and there’s so much more one could unpack here.
Another complex and saturated mystery from Cleeves.

A St. Martins Press ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

Real Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded down...you'll see why

While I'm a fan of Author Cleeves's writing, I'm also a fan of her mystery chops...the way a story comes together from the bits and bobs she makes it out of. In this entry into the Two Rivers series, DI Venn has murders and suicides and some extremely upsetting issues to deal with.

Oh, and his husband invited the Gorgon who gave birth to him, then rejected him for being queer, round to theirs for her birthday. Sunday roast, yorkie puds, cream-embellished birthday cake...champagne even!

How he didn't pass out from the stress I do not know.

But family drama is always good for a mystery. Put three families under stress and, well...it multiplies. In this book, in most approved Cleevesian fashion, we see Lucy and Maurice from the book before; we visit several beauty spots marred by tragedy; Jonathan goes whole-hearted and unthinking into best-friend mode when he should stop and think a minute; Matthew, well, he thinks himself into many corners and gets out when Jen and Ross need him to fix things for them.

And, in the end, when the deaths are finally apportioned to their causal agents, he's there to be thanked by those who have lived and cursed by those whose guilt was narrowly revealed. Jen, god bless her cotton socks, is a good friend. And Ross, a seriously bratty entitled goofball, might be salvageable yet. A bit like Sandy in the Shetland mysteries, it's not like he's a bad person just bad at self-control and self-reflection.

But possibly the most grim and revolting parts of this death-fest are not to be spoiled. I want y'all to experience the, to me at least, appalling and nauseating manner in which some people choose to conduct themselves without any prior warning. When you come across the information I'm referring to, you will know immediately. To my disgust, this is not something Author Cleeves dreamt up. It is a very real thing. It just...words can not do justice to the *fury* it inspires in me. I had to research the reality of it, and then re-write my review several times before I realized I can't say anything at all about it.

I hope it goes without saying that you are never, ever alone if you need help with suicidal ideation or emotional crisis. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline number is 1-800-273-8255. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline fields calls 24/7 for anyone with suicidal thoughts or who are in crisis. You could also get US help by texting "HEAL" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

Web searches for other countries return the same kind of information in seconds. Take that action before taking any other actions. Please. It can not be said often enough: That investment of mere seconds can do you no harm.

I'm sure there are many out there who, like me, very much appreciate the severity of the mental health crisis in the world today. This story is one that will cause a goodly number of its readers to think about issues that they might not wish to think deeply about...but really very much should. I hope the way the story is told will help you, if you're simply unaware of it, to process the delicacy of the hold many people maintain on their relationship to life. Please, even if you think you know, check on the reality of those in your orbit who strike you as troubled.

(And Ross gets off too easily in the end!)

The Heron's Cry, a police procedural by Ann Cleeves, is a fabulous addition to the other series' that she writes. While I did not read the first of this series, this book can also serve as a stand alone. Matthew Venn is a police detective in North Devon, a beautiful city on the coast, outside of the hustle and bustle of London life. When Dr. Yeo, a doctor at an independent oversight company, keeping tabs on medical clinics and the NHS, is stabbed to death by his daughter's glass sculpture, it is all hands on deck to get this murder solved quickly.

As I said, I did not read the first book in this series. While the previous case (from the first book, I'm assuming) is referenced, it is not something that you need to know to enjoy this book. This is a completely stand alone book, as well. While (I'm sure) some background information was missing, it did not take away from my overall enjoyment of this book.

I enjoyed the character of Matthew Venn, a stoic, but caring detective that puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform. Also in the mix are his two fellow detectives, Jen and Ross, who both have their own family problems to deal with. Despite this, they do not let it interfere with the job. I really enjoyed all the characters, and although all were flawed in some way, they made for a very good team overall. I also liked that Matthew was gay, with his partner/husband, Jonathan. I enjoyed the portrayal of something other than your standard white hetero male detective. It made for a fabulous other dynamic in the story.

The actual murder and investigation was interesting and made sense. Although the group was led on a few false leads, they do end up tying up the story in spectacular fashion, and in a way that made sense to the story. Although I'm not going to give plot away here, the twists and turns of this story line really made the story as a whole, and everything really fell into place in the end.

Overall, this was a great and entertaining story, both as a series and as a standalone. The characters were what made the story, and I urge those who love police procedurals, or Ann Cleeves to give this sophomore effort in the Matthew Venn series a try.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so glad that Ann Cleeves is back with the second installment in her Two Rivers series, and it's even better than The Long Call. The Heron's Cry opens with DS Jen Rafferty drinking a bit too much at a party, and when the next morning dawns, a person who had attended the party is found murdered. DI Matthew Venn is back, along with his husband Jonathan, and the ambitious DC Ross May. The characters are multi-layered, with both strengths and weaknesses, and the plot is multi-layered as well. Cleeves builds suspense, twists and turns, and the reader's interest in this outstanding book to the very end. It was a book I couldn't put down with an ending that I didn't guess, and I hope she is busy writing the next Two Rivers book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

The Heron's Cry by Ann Cleeves is another in the Detective Matthew Venn Mystery series. Matthew is a young man with a complicated background, married to a man as opposite to him as possible. Matthew is secretive, partially based on his job, and that causes strain with his husband, Jonathon, who is open and loving and artistic. They have a solid relationship but work on it constantly. He is an enticing character with a good heart, as well as being an excellent detective. The mystery is an excellent one, with multiple murders, some disguised as suicide.

The supporting characters, Jen and Ross are also complicated characters who have lives outside the job but when working are 100% there. Ann Cleeves writes an amazing police procedural. This is one.
Nigel was the head of a patient advocacy group who was murdered one night in his daughter's glass studio. He was killed with a piece of her glass to the neck. Thus began a complicated journey to capture a killer at the same time that the lives of others are moving forward, some affected by the deaths, some not. His death lead to a complicated web of suicides and suicide advocacy groups online. This is a real issue along with many other less than savory things, which draw people away from a safer path in life. It was a compelling novel.

Jack Holden is the narrator and is the perfect voice for this North Devon murder mystery. He is Matthew Venn and makes a compelling novel even better. I recommend it.

I was invited to listen to and read The Heron's Cry by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #theheronscry

This is the third series by Ann Cleeves I have read, after her Vera Stanhope series and her Shetland series, and so far it is just as good as its predecessors. This is the second book, after last year's The Long Call, and as good as that one was, this book is even better. The protagonist in this series is Detective Inspector Matthew Venn.

One of the things I like best about these books is that Matthew is gay, married to Jonathan, and it is no big deal. Which is the way it should be, but so often in life it is not. Matthew is a by-the-book police officer, aided by his Detective Sergeant Jen and Detective Constable Ross.

The book starts with a drunken Jen at a party being approached by a man who wishes to talk to her as a police officer, but she is too far gone and he takes her number instead. I don't like spoilers so I am not going to give any. This is a complicated case, with all sorts of convolutions, and it is all very interesting.

I was sorry to reach the end of the Shetland series as I was a big fan of Jimmy Perez. But I am really liking Matthew and his team, as well as his husband, Jonathan. I enjoyed "The Heron's Cry,' and look forward to the next book.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions are my own.

The first Ann Cleeves novel I ever read was The Long Call (book 1 in this series). But most people will know the author from her very popular crime novels that have been made into hit British television series such as Vera. I enjoyed The Long Call, but I think I like this next book, The Heron's Cry, even more. Much like Louise Penny (author of the Inspector Gamache series), Ann Cleeves creates a whole town full of characters and relationships that become richer with each successive novel. With it's small seaside town setting, wonderful characters, and a mystery that is compelling, this was a winning reading experience.

What I Liked:

Setting:

North Devon is a seaside community that get's lots of tourists each summer. With beaches and smart cafes, it's a popular destination. But for the locals, there is also lots of traffic, and busy restaurants to contend with. While the characters make their irritations clear, they have also created places that are more for the townspeople. There is the Woodyard, a community center where people can meet for a coffee, or a yoga class in the daytime, and then see a theatre production there at night. There's also a thriving arts community. With a mix of lifelong locals, and London transplants, this is certainly a town I would want to live in. But even an Idyllic town has its share of crime,,,

Characters:

The author not only has a great cast of characters who are police detectives, but also a wonderful mix of spouses, as well. Matthew Venn, the lead detective at the local police force, is a quiet, serious person who is married to Jonathan, who is more of a free spirit. Considering how important Matthew's job is (catching killers), it's no wonder that Matthew is so controlled with his emotions. Jonathan has no such constraints. He is more impulsive and more open with his emotions than Matthew. They are usually a good balance for each other, but not always. They often miscommunicate.

Jen, another police officer in the group, is a single mom with two teenage kids. She is often overworked and stressed. This leads her to make some poor choices in her off hours, when she just wants to relax. But the demands of the job make this understandable.

Ross is the third person on the team. I found him harder to like, as he is more of a traditional male. He thinks he is better than Jen, and always wants to be praised for his work. But, I understood him too. He is married, but seems to struggle with understanding his wife. I think he really wishes this were the 1950's, where he could be the "breadwinner" and his wife would stay at home and cater just to him. But you can see that this is how he was raised. He knows that times have changed, and he is (mostly) willing to have more of a partnership with his wife.

Story:

The story centers around a murder at a farm where an eccentric rich man has surrounded himself with artists, and artisans. Like every small town, there are a lot of people who are related to each other, and this complicates Matthew's investigation.

I enjoyed reading about how the detective and his team went about piecing everything together. There were some interesting twists and turns, such as a previous suicide and a possible connection with the murder. This leads to a look at how stretched the National Health Service is, especially in regards to dealing with mental health issues. This is an issue in the U.S., as well.

When it comes to book series, the wait between installments can be one of the biggest impediments – by the time a new book is released, I’ve forgotten most of the details of the previous book. There’s one genre where that is significantly less of an issue – murder mysteries. It’s been about two years since the first book in Ann Cleeves Two Rivers series, The Long Call was released. While I only recall vague impressions of the plot, my memory of the central characters was better and I couldn’t wait to read another book with them at the heart. The Heron’s Cry, releasing today, September 7, 2021, addresses issues of mental health and the gaps in modern healthcare and social support systems as the central murder case looks like it might be linked to the investigation into an earlier suicide.

A man approaches Detective Sergeant Jen Rafferty at a party asking to speak with her at a better time. The next morning, that man’s body is found in his daughter’s glass blowing studio. Detective Inspector Matthew Venn leads the investigation into Nigel Yeo’s death. Working for a patient advocacy group, Nigel took it as part of his job nut just to advocate for patients’ rights in the abstract but to investigate specific complaints, including a local family’s criticism of how their suicidal son’s case was managed. But when a second body turns up, it throws the team’s working theories out of whack and forces them to reassess what they know about the victims and how they’re connected.

As with The Long Call, power systems and vulnerable populations are at the heart of The Heron’s Cry. Where the previous novel explored these through adults with learning and mental challenges, this novel explores mental health through different means. Much of the investigation is spent recreating Nigel Yeo’s inquiries about how the local healthcare authorities treat mental health patients – specifically how and when they’re discharged from facilities and what support services (if any) are provided. Depression and suicide are raised multiple times as questions arise about ties to Nigel’s inquiry and his murder. I didn’t think that these issues were handled with quite the delicacy and nuance found in The Long Call. There’s a bit of acknowledging how difficult it is for family and friends of those who are severely depressed – how the demands of caring and supporting someone with those issues impacts their mental health. And there are references both to how funding for the healthcare services and local out-patient support have been cut over the years leaving larger cracks for those in need to fall through.

Other social questions are examined through the character of Frank Ley, a wealthy and quirky man who seeks to assuage some of the guilt he feels for being wealthy through performing acts of charity. Many of his philanthropic acts support locals and provide jobs but also create ripples of gentrification that not everyone appreciates (and Frank isn’t the best at reading people or situations and the “greater good” he is looking toward can mean a lot of people get swept aside or disregarded along the way).

To be honest, I found those questions raised by Nigel’s inquiries more compelling than the murders themselves. In many ways, those investigative paths are a means to kill time till the final reveals of the last fifty-ish pages, but I cared much more about them than the climactic showdown and wrap-up explanations for the central murders. Part of that might be that I was reading a digital advanced reader copy and for whatever reason all the text-message exchanges weren’t included (possibly because those are considered “images” and hadn’t been added yet?). While there weren’t so many instances that it made the novel impossible to read, it was jarring and frustrating. I think that for future installments in this series, I will forego trying to get preview copies and will wait till after they actually hit shelves.

Ann Cleeves is one of my favourite crime writers, and the second entry in the Two Rivers series did not disappoint, and I look forward to the new tv program based on this series when it comes out. DI Venn is back and as buttoned up as usual, although there are glimmers of hope. We are given some insight into the private lives of Venn, DS Jen Rafferty and DC Ross May. Lots of twists and turns and suspects in this latest mystery.

3.5 Stars

This is the second installment of the Two Rivers series set in North Devon where the Taw and Torridge rivers converge and empty into the Atlantic.

The investigative team of DI Matthew Venn, DS Jen Rafferty, and DC Ross May are initially faced with the murder of Nigel Yeo. He was killed by a shard of glass from a vase made by his daughter Eve, a glassblower. Nigel was investigating patients’ complaints about care received from the health system, in particular whether the death by suicide of a young man could have been prevented; Matthew suspects the motive for Nigel’s death may lie in something he discovered in the course of his probing. Then a second, virtually identical, murder occurs. It not only complicates the investigation but also ramps up the pressure on the team to find the murderer.

The investigation is interesting and the reader will be kept guessing. There are twists and turns, especially when a suicide muddies the picture. I wish there had been fewer subplots – and fewer dead bodies – and more focus on the two obviously connected deaths. The resolution isn’t totally convincing; the killer’s motive works initially but is less persuasive subsequently.

What I enjoyed most is the character development. Jen struggles to find a work-family balance. Matthew works at becoming less rigid and even tries mending his relationship with his mother. Ross continues to be annoying; he wants to be like his mentor with “his determination not to be cowed, to get what he wanted.” He coerces his wife into having a drink with him because he senses some tension in her, but then he keeps “a seed of anger in his mind, because he was her husband, and she shouldn’t have made him feel like that, so anxious and so impotent. So needy.” At the end, there is a hint that he has realized some of his shortcomings, but since we do not see him afterwards, there is no proof that he has indeed had an epiphany.

Characters from the first novel, The Long Call, reappear. Jonathan, Matthew’s husband, becomes involved, but also Lucy Braddick who played an important role in the first book. I would advise readers to read The Long Call first because the background provided will add to the enjoyment of the second book.

I ended my review of The Long Call by stating, “There is little to distinguish this book from a standard murder mystery. The element that might entice me to read the next installment is the characters and the relationships among those characters.” These comments are also an apt ending for my review of The Heron’s Cry.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves
St. Martin’s Press
This is book two in the Two Rivers series. It is probably not absolutely necessary to have read book one in order to enjoy this one, although it may be helpful to understand Matthew as a person. I did not really love this character in book one, he is a bit prickly. I read this book to give him another chance because I do love Vera and the Shetland series. I find that he is growing on me, along with his team of misfits, Jen and even Ross. Besides which, this was an excellent mystery. I was totally stunned by the ending. I never saw that coming, In retrospect, maybe I should have but I just did not.
Truly excellent literary mystery. Ann Cleeves has a beautiful way of expressing things, especially her details of nature. I felt that I was experiencing the surroundings, the plants, the birds, the weather events. I finished the book yesterday and I still feel immersed in it today. I almost hate to start a new book and lose this feeling. This book really was that good.

Dr. Nigel Yeo attended a party specifically to talk to DS Jen Rafferty, but Jen had been drinking and their conversation was put off to the next day. By then he was dead, stabbed with a shard of glass from his daughter’s studio. Yeo worked for Patients Together assisting people to connect with the national health service. He was well respected and everyone spoke highly of him. He had been looking into the suicide of a young man and was disturbed by what he found. DI Matthew Venn’s investigation is complicated by his husband’s friendship with Yeo’s daughter Eve. Jonathan runs the Woodyard, an arts and community center, where Eve is a frequent visitor and she turned to him for support when she discovered her father’s body.

As Venn and his team investigate the murder they also look into the suicide that disturbed Yeo. The young man had been on a web site offering support to possible suicides but there was also a group on the site called the Suicide Club that encouraged the action. As the team follows up on this the body of another artist is discovered, also murdered with a glass shard from Eve’s work. He had also attended the party with Yeo and Jen. With his studio also located at Westmacombe Farm close to Eve’s, he was a possible witness to Yeo’s murder. What did he see and why are these murders staged to implicate Eve?

This is Ann Cleeves’ second book in the Matthew Venn series following The Long Call. Venn was raised in a strictly religious community and he takes life very seriously. Jonathan is his exact opposite. He is warm and forgiving. While Matthew deals with death, Jonathan deals with life. Together they are a couple that make this series a fascinating read. Cleeves is the author of the popular Vera Stanhope series and she brings her characters to life for her readers. I am a fan of both of her series and would not hesitate to recommend The Heron’s Cry. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin Press for providing this book for my review.

Second in the series, great follow-up to the long call, can be read as a standalone.
I love how Ann Cleeves portrays her characters.
She doesn’t give us perfect people and relationships but a very realistic portrayal of humans with their individual faults and quirks. Relationships aren’t always smooth but often include anger, frustration besides the love you feel for each other. Matthew is unnerved to find out that Jonathan his husband is friends with the first victim’s daughter and of course Jonathan cannot stand by without helping his glassblower artist friend. The story is complex with many unexpected twist and as many suspects. Read to the end it is well worth it.

Another great novel from Ann Cleeves! Detective Matthew Venn is the main character again (we met him in the novel The Long Call), but this novel has more of an ensemble cast as larger roles are given to DS Jen Rafferty and DC Ross May. The mystery, which involves a series of murders at a rural artist colony, is intriguing enough to make this novel read well as a stand-alone. But for those of us who read The Long Call, we get to see more of the relationship between Venn and his husband Jonathan and even see the first steps of some healing between Venn and his religious mother. This is a strong entry in what I hope will be a very long series.