“The Heron’s Cry,” the second book in Anne Cleeve’s new Two Rivers Series, follows Detective Matthew Venn as he investigates a series of ritually staged murders along the North Devon coast. Readers will appreciate the author’s skill at creating realistic, flawed, but honorable characters. Venn is a careful, sensitive detective, focused and orderly, struggling to find a killer as well as his place in the community. Set against a sweeping landscape that envelops the story "The Heron's Cry" was a worthy listen narrated by Jack Holden. I listened to the previous novel, "The Long Call," but found it less emotionally engaging. With this second novel Cleeve has hit her stride. I look forward to reading the next installment in the series .

In Book #2 of the Two River series, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn returns to the North Devon coast to investigate a murder that took place at at an artist's studio. Dr. Nigel Yeo is the victim and he was stabbed in the neck with a jagged shard of blown glass from his own daughter Eve's workshop and art studio.

The previous evening the deceased approached Matthew's homicide partner Jen Rafferty telling her there was something he wanted to discuss with her in private but, Jen had a little too much to drink so she gave him her number and asked if they could talk in the morning. When her phone wakes her the next morning, it is Matthew giving her the bad news and asking her to meet him. Apparently, the late doctor was a patient advocate who had concerns regarding some suicides of patients with mental health issues. He was planning on voicing his concerns about the NHS and the way certain groups of patients were being handled. When a second person is murdered under similar circumstances, the reason for the murders as well as the suspect pool widens.

Less than a month ago I read, The Long Call (Book 1 of this series) and I was quite impressed. In this sequel we see further development of each of the returning characters both professional as well as Matthew's marriage and relationship with his husband Jonathan. I loved seeing how Jonathan is trying very hard to have Matthew rebuild his estranged relationship with his mother. I love the character driven style of this author and also the unique way in which her crime procedurals and investigations proceed. There are lots of details and clues to take in and quite a few characters as well. This was a very good sequel. Someone mentioned that the Two River series will become a 4-part series for television.

Thanks go to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for allowing me to download this audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review. The audio was narrated by Jack Holden who did a very good job.

https://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2021/09/book-review-herons-cry-ann-cleeves.html
Rating - 4.5/5 stars

This is the second book in Cleeves’ new Two Rivers series. The series is already slated to follow predecessors Vera and Shetland into (my) favorite British mystery shows.

An elaborately staged murder — the weapon, a beautiful piece of glass crafted by the victim’s daughter is the first murder to intrude on the idyllic North Devon countryside, but it won’t be the last. Detective Matthew Venn — calm and focussed, works with colleagues Jen Rafferty (a now-single mom of two who left Liverpool and an abusive husband to come to Devon) and Ross May, a local boy.

I haven’t read any of Cleeves’ earlier books, but I have watched all of the mini series. What I really liked about reading (listening) to this one is how much depth her characters have. I liked that all the background and ongoing personal lives were integrated into the action — which after all is what life is like. I particularly liked that her characters have depth but are not overflowing with repetitive faults, as in so many of the newer TV series — I suppose that’s to make us readers / watchers happier about our own faults but I would prefer to engage with realistic characters who work to improve themselves than with screw ups who make me feel better about myself.

This was an audio book — the first I’ve ever reviewed. The reader — Jack Holden — was excellent. He read at exactly the right pace (so many readers are simply too slow), a lovely British accent, and good at doing the various accents and voices so that it was always clear who was doing the speaking. I’m not a huge audio book person — I read so fast that an audio book just takes far too long — so I’m very picky about readers and this is one I’d be happy to listen to again.

Complex characters, twisted plot, beautiful environment — I’m definitely going back to read book one and look forward to the ITV series.

I did not realize this was a sequel book. I do not feel I missed anything by jumping right into the second one. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to and rate the novel and try out a new author, Ann Cleeves. I really enjoyed the characters.

Author Ann Cleeves creates books that get snapped up and made into TV shows, and I won’t be surprised if this happens again with her latest series. Detective Matthew Venn ends up with a few missing people and few dead bodies in the first two books of the Two Rivers Series. “The Heron’s Call” (book two) introduces a few more characters, and builds depth into the initial cast. This gently suspenseful mystery takes a few random turns, just enough to keep the reader guessing. The English setting, with its small towns and a community art center, will provide a solid place for Detective Venn and his artistic husband Jonathan to have at least a few more adventures. Look for the first book, “The Long Call”, and then continue on to “The Heron’s Cry.”

I received an audiobook version from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I really enjoy Ann Cleeves’ Shetland novels, so I was happy to see her new series in audiobook form! Jack Holden is the narrator, and he does an excellent job. Good pace, enunciation, and tone.

The story itself is very interesting. The location on a farm/commune/arts centre is a nice twist on reliable mystery settings and the characters are familiar but with their own idiosyncrasies, making each person a plausible suspect. Until they get whacked, of course.

Definitely worth a read if you’ve enjoyed Ann Cleeves before, and even if you are new to her work!

The Heron's Cry
author: Ann Cleeves
narrator:  Jack Holden
Macmillan Audio
 
Ann Cleeves' new mystery thriller is a spellbinding page turner, with the beauty of the rural North Devon coastal setting marred by a period of violence. Second in the "Two Rivers" series, this book features Investigator Detective Matthew Venn. He is on the artistic community crime scene, collaborating with a team of partners. Cleeves builds up tension steadily through the story, as events lead to chills, apprehension, uncertainty, and clouds of suspicion.   A complex cast of people who are family, friends, or acquaintances provide plenty of possibilities for suspects, and Detective Venn leaves no stone unturned.
     Cleeves is a gifted master of furnishing an ensemble of intriguing characters involved in a gripping plot against a stunning backdrop. Jack Holden smartly narrates this story with a compelling voice that resonates the tone of the circumstances throughout Cleeves' story. He aptly captures the individual personalities and traits of all characters. I felt the tension and chill in the air and winds of the coast and countryside of North Devon throughout this well-paced mystery. 
Thank you to Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for the advance reader's audiobook copy and the opportunity to provide my unbiased review.
#NetGalley   #TheHeronsCry

I very much enjoyed the first book in Ann Cleeves' Two Rivers/Matthew Venn series, so was happy to see the next book come out. It did not disappoint. I love that the the primary recurring characters on the police force are all flawed characters with doubts and insecurities in both their professional and personal lives. They feel like real people rather than cardboard cutouts. The recurring supporting characters are also well-portrayed and it was nice to revisit them and see how their lives had progressed. Plotwise, once again the mystery was a good one and there were a number of interesting potential suspects. The narration of the audiobook by Jack Holden was excellent. Overall, very enjoyable and it's reminded me of what I thought when I finished the first one. I need to read more of Ann Cleeves!
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

I have never read Ann Cleeves before, though I love "Shetland", the series based on her mystery novels. I decided to listen to this audiobook when I found it available on NetGalley. This is the second installment in a series, the first of which I have not read.
This book stands well on its own. The author provides backstory regarding previous events that took place in the first book. However, this is not overdone and does not distract from the current plot. I liked Detective Matthew Venn and his husband. They are both likeable characters. The author presented this same-sex married couple in a respectful way that fosters inclusion and diversity.
The mystery itself was very interesting. One person is found dead and an apparent suicide seems to be related. The suicide becomes more the focus of the story. The mystery involves layering of these two events and the interconnectedness between those involved. There were a lot of people involved, and I actually listened to the last couple of chapters again because I had forgotten who the relevant people were. Maybe I had been distracted at the wrong moment and missed a critical element of the story.
Overall, a good read and a good mystery. I will go back and read the first book and will look forward to future books in this series.

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 Macmillan Audio 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

Yea, this one didn’t do it for me. I kept losing focus while I was reading and found myself thinking about other things rather than being invested in the story.

The multiple murders was cool, but I think that was the only exciting thing for me. I felt as though the book dragged on and nothing really grabbed my attention or stood out to me.

I didn’t care much about the characters or their stories and I wanted it all to end by the time I got to the middle of the book.

To me, this was just another police procedural with a few murders.

Ann Cleeves builds an intricate, twisting, suspenseful, literary police procedural in The Heron’s Cry. This is the first Matthew Venn novel that I have read, though I am a fan of Ann Cleeves from the Jimmy Perez Shetland Island series. DI Venn’s husband not only treads closely to the investigation; he plays an active role in its resolution at times, straining their interpersonal relationship. Here Cleeves delivers solid plotting peopled by complicated, full-blooded characters. As frequently is the case in the Shetland series, she paints with a dark palette. Although the ending may be surprising to some, Cleeves plays fair with readers; all of the pieces are there and the motivations of the players seem consistent with their personas. Although there will never be another Jimmy Perez, there will also never be another Ann Cleeves, and she is obviously at the top of her game here. There are few writing mysteries today that deliver such consistently satisfying novels.

Thanks to NetGalley that provided an audiobook review copy of this work.

I do not even know how to write this review - I LOVE this series and Ann Cleeves is a genius. I am so glad I took a chance on the first book in this series and that that book led me to the Vera Stanhope and Shetland series'. I have had some of my best reading experiences at the hand of Ms. Cleeves and I am very grateful.

Matthew Venn is a really good MC - he is a good cop, who has to work against some pretty stupid [and money and power-hungry] upper-managment cops and that gets frustrating, but he handles it so well. He is flawed and so human that I almost wish he was a real person because he would have made a great friend BECAUSE of these qualities. He loves his job, even when it is tough and uncomfortable [and there is PLENTY of that in this book - WHOOSH] and does his job well. He treats his subordinates with respect [even when they annoy the crap out of him - I am looking at you Ross. WHAT a tool. Hmph], and demands respect back, but not in an in-you-face kind of way - people cannot help respect Matthew Venn because of who he just is. I love his relationship with his husband Jonathan and how real that relationship is as well - too often in books we get the "fairy-tale" of a relationship and it both isn't real or realistic and you are left feeling meh; that is not the case here. They have real life problems and I enjoy their dynamic as they work on their relationship all while doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.

This was a crazy story - one I cannot really review because SPOILERS. It is absolutely a story that you need to read and watch unfold with no preconceived notions. It absolutely needs to unfold organically and I am glad I didn't really read anything about the story. I can say that it deals with some serious mature matters and is at times, desperately sad, and there are points where you just want to weep for the people involved, including the primary characters. I have only twice figured out what was going on in an Ann Cleeves book [and one of them was a complete guess] and it didn't happen with this one. :-) I was going in a completely different direction and was GOBSMACKED at the reveal and ending. Even as I type this, I am shaking my head and taking deep breaths because I never, ever saw that coming. At. ALL. Which makes this an amazing read. Totally.

I cannot wait for the next one!!!

I was also able to receive the audiobook that goes with this book and all I can say is WOW! Jack Holden does an amazing job narrating this book and at no time was I ever irritated with his narration of the story or how he presented the characters [which if you know me and my pickiness with narrators know that this is the greatest praise I can give a narrator]. I will absolutely be looking for other things that he has narrated - very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ann Cleeves, Jack Holden, St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books and Macmillian Audio for providing this ARC and Audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ann Cleeves takes readers back to North Devon in book two of the Two Rivers seties. With a series of murders disrupting a peaceful artistic community we join Detective Matthew Venn and his team as they search for the truth. While Cleeves creates a large cast out main characters stay front and centre giving readers a deeper look at what makes them tick.

The twists and turns kept me guessing and I was pleasantly surprised with the wrap up. Although this character driven mystery could be read as a stand alone I would highly recommend starting with book one.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves parallel plot lines and twisted murder mysteries without all the graphic bits 😉

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars with a PG rating

It's June in North Devon and residents and vacationers are in the village visiting the shops and local artisan shops. Frank Ley is a local economist, who made a lot of money and wants to help others. He owns a large estate and rents rooms and cottages to local artists for a low rate. When one of the artists, glassblower, Eve Yeo finds her father, Dr. Nigel Yeo, dead in her studio she is stunned. To make matters worse, he was stabbed with a shard of glass from a vase she made. No one knows what could have happened, he had no enemies. This book showcases DS Jen Rafferty who was introduced to Dr. Nigel Yeo the previous evening. He was bothered by something, but they never met before he was found dead. DI Matthew Venn will be investigating, but it is complicated. When another craftsman is also killed in the same manner, it all points to Eve. Venn's husband, Jonathan, is the director of the community arts center and has connections to the dead men. The deaths are brutal and not at all in line with a community that treasures the arts. Can they solve these murders before anyone dies?

The Heron's Cry gives nothing away. As the investigation is conducted, Eve shares that her father works for an advocacy group that represents patients' interests. At the time of his death Nigel was helping a family whose teenage son had committed suicide. The Mackenzies feel their mentally ill boy was let down by the health trust that oversees North Devon hospitals, and Nigel was looking into the matter. Did this have anything to do with his murder? Ann Cleeves drops a few clues, but does not give away who the killer is. As the team investigates both of these mysteries, some disturbing information comes to light. Once again, I loved DS Rafferty's style and questioning techniques. She is once again able to get witnesses to share information that she puts together like a puzzle. As both storylines begin to converge upon one another, the suspense increases. This is not a fast paced crime read, it is more rooted in the characters, location and a community. The setting is perfect for a moody murder mystery. This is another well written, character driven, difficult to solve mystery. I had no idea who the murderer was, yet the ending tied up everything well. I am enjoying this series and am looking forward to seeing what is next for Matthew Venn and his team. Although Jack Holden took over the narration of this series, I didn't notice much of a change in the sound and feel of this book. I enjoyed his voice, tone and expression and hope that he will continue with narrating the Two Rivers series.

The Heron’s Cry had the potential to be a highly suspenseful thriller. However, the book’s slow build never quite got my heart pumping the way a murder mystery read can. The audiobook was good but did not add anything more to the story. Overall, it was a good book but fell a little flat for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, the narrator, and publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

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Thanks to NetGalley for a chance to preview this new audiobook, publication date September 7, 2021.
I have long enjoyed Ann Cleeves previous work, Vera, etc and I eagerly read the first book in this series ,Two Rivers.
This book was another 5 start read for me and I enjoyed the audio experience. Ann Cleeves work is made for drama, i.e. the success with BBC. Her dialogue is always well done.
The case involves Matthew Venn and his team as well as some of the cast from the Woodyards Center. There are a series of murders for the team to solve beginning with a beloved physician of great integrity. The story deals with themes of mental illness/suicide. The book is sensitively written and I learned about these topics - good incite into how treatment of mental illness affects the whole community.
Each member of the team is also living their own story which is followed in this book, my favorite part of any series. We learn more about Matthew, Jen and Ross. Lucy Braddock is another favorite character .
This book is highly recommended for those who love police procedurals with SO MUCH MORE! Can't wait for the next Two Rivers book!

This was a great follow-up to The Long Call. I really like Matthew Venn and the other characters. This story was very complex with many suspects and a lot of surprises. I couldn't read fast enough and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. The ending totally took me by surprise! I loved the narrator of the audio version of this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this audio book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The second book in the new series by Ann Cleeves featuring Matthew Venn, The Heron's Cry is a methodical, character-driven mystery. Jen, a member of Venn's team, seems to take the lead as main character here, giving us a better look into her thoughts and life. Three deaths shake up a small artist's village and farm. Venn and his team unravel the secrets of the others involved in typical Ann Cleeves fashion.