I have been a Vera Stanhope fan for ever but this is my first time reading one of her cases. A group of friends have been getting together every five years for fifty years. But this year one of them is murdered and Vera must solve the case. Great story.

A 50th Reunion dredges up secrets, jealousies and murder in “The Rising Tide” by Ann Cleeves

Feisty and Disheveled DCI Vera Stanhope returns for her eleventh North Umberland investigation in the Ann Cleeves’ chilling new novel, “The Rising Tide.” Set on a tiny tidal island off the mainland, a group of friends have gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of a school holiday retreat called “Only Connect.” They have encamped at Pilgrims House on Holy Island, a small, isolated retreat operated by nuns on the remote island.
The five friends, Rick, a television journalist, Annie, a gourmet food purveyor, Phillip, a retired priest and Ken, an Alzheimer’s victim and his wife, Louisa, have returned to relive the glory days of their friendships, parties and booze as they do every five years. Although it might be a spoiler, after the first midnight, one guest dies by hanging. The victim had been the glue holding this motley group together and had been suffering from a long list of personal and professional challenges. Initially, the diagnosis of suicide seems reasonable until Vera Stanhope is enlisted to investigate, and discovers evidence of foul play.
Since the crime scene is located far from home, and the tide makes the island inaccessible, Vera and her team, Joe and Holly, set up camp in a local hotel. That way, Vera can keep her suspects close, and observe their relationships and interactions under her detective’s microscope. The investigation expands as potential suspects include former spouses and children of the attendees, the teacher who arranged the first retreat, agents, employers and even Vera’s boss. Vera and her team will rule no one out until they find the killer.
Vera’s investigation dredges up terrible memories of the tragic death of another student who attended the first reunion over twenty-five years ago, and an ancient infanticide investigation involving the friends. She believes there’s a connection between the two historic deaths with the present homicide, but is she correct? And why was the victim killed now? What was the motive for the crime?
Cleeves even acknowledges the #MeToo movement when one character falls prey to sexual misconduct allegations at the workplace. Could the inappropriate workplace behavior have been a motive for the crime?
“The Rising Tide” is a complicated revelation of lies, jealousies, liaisons, guilt, financial relationships, betrayals and secrets that have been festering for a half-century. Even the closest of friends and spouses have been keeping secrets from each other, and especially from Vera and her team. DCI Stanhope knows rules can be stretched to the breaking point, and she will go the distance to fight for victims unable to fight for themselves. And in “The Rising Tide,” she knows that “everything important to this case had happened in the past.”
In this novel, Vera is quite self-aware. She understands that her lieutenant, Joe, has outgrown her team and is ready to move on, but selfishly, she is holding onto him as long as possible. The crime’s setting, Pilgrim Island, also stirs up old memories for Vera as well. It forces her to revisit her relationship with her cruel father, with whom she traveled to the island as a child so he could steal bird’s eggs. Vera draws upon her past pain as her inspiration to become a stealth detective with a brilliant mind. Beneath the rumpled bag lady's appearance, she investigates crimes in her own quiet manner. Once Vera gathers all the evidence, she is ready to confront the killer, despite the danger it poses to her own life.
As usual, Cleeves paints a vivid, visual picture of the remote holiday island. It is winter; a time full of cloudy skies, pounding turf, gulls circling overhead, and locals gathering at the local pub exchanging stories. Cleeves depiction is so fined-tuned that the readers feel as though they are alongside Vera as she tramps through the grasslands of a holiday camp on the trail of a killer. “The Rising Tide” is a treat for the senses and the mind.
“The Rising Tide” cements Ann Cleeves in the annals of crime writers, who seamlessly blend intriguing characters, unusual settings, intricate plotting, and brisk pacing to keep readers turning the page. Let’s hope the author never permits DCI Vera Stanhope to retire her old, ratty Macintosh. She would be sorely missed.

This is the 10th book in the Vera Stanhope mystery series. I had not read other books in the series but didn't have any difficulty in following the story. It mostly takes place on the Holy Island of Lindesfarne in England. I had never heard of the island and it was so interesting - a place where Saint Aiden established a monastery in 635 AD.

One important fact about the island is that it is connected to the mainland by a causeway, which is covered over twice a day by the tides. This means that whoever is on the island when the tide is up is stuck there until it recedes, unless they leave by boat.

In this book, a group of five long-time friends gather every 5 years for a reunion on the island. They have been visiting the island for 50 years, beginning with the first visit when they were young teens in school. Over the years, the group members changed with the addition or subtraction of spouses but the core group remained the same, minus one member who died years before at their first reunion. She tried to leave the island when the tide was covering the road and drowned.

The group members are an Anglican priest (Philip), married couple Ken and Louise (both retired teachers), Rick (a media personality just fired due to consent issues with women) and Annie, who owns half of a very successful deli/bakery. On the very first night, something terrible happens to a member of their group, and the police are called in. DI Vera Stanhope arrives with her two assistants, DS Joe Ashworth and DC Holly Clark.

I found Vera to be brilliant at detecting but also abrasive and obnoxious. I really disliked how she treated the officers under her command - they were kept firmly under her thumb and she seemed to squash any initiative that they showed. She did appear to realize something about that later on. The ending of the book was a shock. I can only hope the next book comes out soon.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher Minotaur Books via NetGalley. These are my opinions of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Vera Stanhope is an experienced police detective and a native of the northern country of England. She knows the land, the customs and, most of all, the people. So when she is called out to an unexplained death which presents as a suicide by hanging, she doesn't believe it. It was murder. She can just feel it.

This group of 70ish people have been meeting on Holy Island every 5 years for 50 years. They were school mates and they all have lived their lives, but they keep in touch and they meet for this reunion every 5 years. But is this year a little different? Some of the old secrets suddenly don't want to stay secret. Someone is threatening them all and that can't be. But who stopped it?

Enter Vera and her team of detectives,

I have been a fan of Vera and her gang for a long time, mostly through the PBS series, but I enjoy the books, too, and this one is simply everything you want it to be.

DI Vera Stanhope in her ongoing series is called to Holy Island to investigate a man, Rick, who has been found hanged in a bedroom where a group of friends are holding a reunion every five years for fifty years. It began when they and a teacher had gone for a bonding experience. Vera is quite certain that he has been murdered, not a victim of suicide, so has taken the opportunity to get in contact with her team of DIs. Vera’s intuition is confirmed by the coroner. The various members of the DI team have various assignments both on and off the island. Not only is this a remote area with bad cell service but the way on and off the island is dependent upon the tides. The victim had recently lost his tv job but had mentioned he was writing a book. He is not the most popular person in the group and elsewhere because of his annoying personality. Not all original participants are present but Vera feels it is essential to interview all of the original group as part of the investigation. To add to this tale during the first five-year reunion a member of the group became upset, left early, and was killed when her car didn’t make it inland before the tides washes her car away and various members have always wondered what made her leave so suddenly. Rick’s divorced wife had been with the original group but was not with them on this weekend. She is interviewed but also winds up being murdered before the investigation is completed. I found this to be a quick read simply because there are so many twists and potential murderers. Vera’s team is a loyal group who find her to be a diligent taskmaster but has she gone too far this time? A dark tale both in the remoteness of the area and the intrigue of the story will be a great read for fans of DI Stanhope’s investigations. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC; this is my honest review.

Another great Vera Stanhope novel from Anne Cleeves. When I read the books in this series, of course I’m picturing actress Brenda Blethyn as Vera! As is often the case, the answer to who is the murderer, lies with events that happened in the past. Vera must figure out who killed one of a long-time group of friends who have been meeting every five years.

Ann Cleeves recently started a new series, and while I like Mathew, I love Vera. This is the tenth Vera Stanhope book, and it is a corker.  Cleeves is an excellent writer, but she has really pulled out all of the stops in this terrific book.  You can read the blurb, but the actual book is more atmospheric than is possible to describe.

In this book Vera is herself in all her shambolic glory. Her devoted team is with her as she investigates the suspicious death on Lindesfarne Island.  "The Rising Tide" is an absolute treat for Vera's zillions of fans, but if you haven't made her acquaintance yet never fear, this is a great book with which to start.  Heartily recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

The Rising Tide” by Ann Cleeves it's the 10th instalment in the Vera Stanhope Mystery Series , a powerful novel about guilt, betrayal, and the longheld secrets people keep. I love the Vera Mystery series and this instalment did not disappoint. In fact, I thought that it was one of the best in the series.

The Series is character-driven and also very descriptive you feel like you are right there in Northumbria, England. In this instalment we get to catch up with Vera and her team, as they try to unravel the secrets a group of friends had been keeping that play a big part in the present murder.

We had lots of suspects but I did guess just before it was revealed. There was a surprise at the very end, which I can’t wait to see what happens with the team dynamics.

I highly recommend this book and the Vera Stanhope Mystery series to all my British Mystery loving friends.

I requested and received an Advanced Readers Copy from the publisher and Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

For 50 years a group of friends have met for a reunion weekend every five years on Holy Island. Located off the Northeastern coast of England, it gets isolated from the mainland with the surging tide.

There the group - a vicar, a television personality, a deli owner, and a retired school head, now with Alzheimer’s Disease - formed a powerful bond as classmates over the initial gathering a half-century earlier.

Naturally one of the pensioners had to die there and as expected Northumberland’s Inspector Vera Stanhope and her team would solve the murder.

That’s where presumption ends.

New York Times bestselling author Ann Cleeves’s and her characters take the reader on an emotional journey with as much nuance and as many turns as the sea revealing and concealing with the coastal tide.

While this is the author’s 10th Vera Stanhope novel, this is my first. A lover of British mystery dramas, I know Vera from watching award-winning actress Brenda Blethyn embody the character. I was thrilled at the opportunity to read and review the latest installment in the series.

I not only enjoyed the masterful puzzle Cleeves laid out in The Rising Tide. The beauty of her writing seamlessly showing the harshness and beauty of nature interspersed with the power of the ordinary is inspiring.

I received a free egalley of The Rising Tide from St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur books through NetGalley. This five-star review is fair and impartial. I look forward to going back and reading the nine previous titles in the Vera Stanhope series.

This is the tenth book in the Vera Stanhope series.

A group of school friends has been gathering every five years for the last fifty on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island on the northeast coast of England. On the Saturday of the reunion weekend, one of the members, a celebrity journalist, is found dead. Vera arrives and quickly determines that though the death looks like a suicide, the man was murdered. Joined by her team of Joe Ashworth and Holly Clarke, she leads the investigation which uncovers several secrets.

There is a large number of suspects so the reader is kept guessing. It is amazing how the author writes so well that the reader is not confused about the various characters. Likewise, there are several possible motives. Was the victim killed because of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him? Or was his promise of a tell-all book the reason for his death? The night before his death, the victim reveals, “’It’s fiction naturally but very definitely based on fact. You’ll find our pasts very much brought back to life. All our secrets, actually, finally seeing the light of day.’” Could his death be connected to the death of another member of the circle of friends 45 years earlier? This is a fair-play mystery in that the clues are all there, though, admittedly, there are red herrings.

Though I love the television adaptation starring Brenda Blethyn, the book, by including Vera’s inner thoughts, provides more information about her personality and motivations. Twice she is described as a “control freak.” There are revealing statements that show a contrast between her no-nonsense exterior and her sensitive interior: “She’d been teased at school about her weight and her clothes and her weird father . . . and the jibes still lingered in her brain” and “She hadn’t really made many friends at school” and “The beginning of an investigation when she could believe that she was the best detective in the world. She’d soon lose that confidence” and “She knew what it was like to be an unwanted child, the unloved survivor” and “she wouldn’t want [Joe and Holly] forming some sort of allegiance against her” and “That was what Vera missed, now she had to spend so long at her desk. The prying and nebbing into other folk’s business” and “She’d never bothered about her immediate surroundings, though she’d always needed outside space. A long horizon. A place to breathe” and “Vera had stood up to plenty of teachers in her time.”

Since the perspectives of others (Joe, Sally, a couple of the reunion attendees) are given, the reader sees how others perceive Vera. For instance, Joe thinks, “Vera tended to complicate matters, and often the most obvious explanation was the right one.” Holly thinks, “Vera liked the detail of an investigation. It was the boss’s strength, but also her weakness. She could dig away at the tiny details, losing sight of the overall picture. The past was her territory. She always said it explained the tensions and stresses of the present.” Others often mention Vera’s unstylish appearance and her size and love of food; I couldn’t help but remember that in the novel preceding this one, The Darkest Evening, we are told that “food had always been her comfort, her means of escape. Her own private addiction.”

Fans of Ann Cleeves and Vera Stanhope will not be disappointed. This is a solid procedural with interesting characters and a strong plotline. And the ending will leave you stunned!

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

Secrets kill!

Vera Stanhope. A dumpy woman with an incisive mind, a terrier-like hold on problems, and the habit of chivying her staff to get results, sometimes pitting them against each other, all in the name of solving the case.
Holy Island. Known to southerners as Lindisfarn. The scene of an ancient tragedy. Isobel Hall flew into a rage and left the island just as the tide was coming in. Her car ran off the causeway and Isobel died. That was 45 years ago.
Every five years the group of friends who had been there gets together to remember Isobel and what they all had had. A special group bonded by their shared experiences when they were in last year in high school.
Now another of their group has been murdered—although dressed up as a suicide.
There’s a swathe of clues to go through, and false starts, overlayed by the sense of time and Hector’s bits of nonsense bullying Vera from the grave.
The ending is one that gives me chills. Vera will recover, but will she be wiser?

A St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

The Rising Tide is the 10th installment of the Vera Stanhope series by bestselling British author, Ann Cleeves. Several friends have been meeting every five years on Holy Island; the first meeting was a class trip, and that was 50 years ago. One of the friends died earlier when she argued with one of the friends and took off getting caught up in the rising tide. Presently, one of the friends has been murdered, and Vera has been called in to solve the murder.

Cleeves has developed the character of Vera Stanhope very well, and she is not a traditional protagonist. Rather, she is overweight, unattractive, and sloppy. But she does know how to solve a murder, and while she may not be liked all that much by her co-workers, she is very much loved by those of us who read the series. She seems like a real person that most of us would like to know.

Cleeves is also an excellent storyteller. She incorporates some British culture into the novel, which makes for something a bit different. This novel flows with ups and downs, as well as building suspense right up to the dénouement, which is, of course, a surprise. The Rising Tide will keep readers on the edge and is well-written. Fans of Vera Stanhope will welcome this excellent novel. Those unfamiliar will find they must read the previous novels because Cleeves style is very appealing.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves is a highly recommended murder mystery and procedural.

For fifty year a group of friends have been meeting every five years for reunions at Pilgrims’ House on Holy Island. They all first met on a school trip when they were sixteen and have remained friends since. From the original group, Phillip, Annie, Lou, Ken, and Rick are present. When Annie finds Rick is dead, apparently by hanging himself, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope and her Northumbria Police colleagues are called in to investigate. When an autopsy reveals someone smothered Rick before faking the hanging, Vera and her team must uncover the hidden truth behind the crime.

In this excellent, complex procedural expect to find a plethora of suspects and motives. Although this is the tenth book in the series, it most certainly can be read as a stand alone. It is vastly entertaining to follow the investigation while fine tuning your own list of suspects based on the information and background uncovered. There is a real sense of danger as the fast paced plot moves forward.

This is a character driven drama, so the most important thing to do is pay attention to the descriptions of the many characters while suspecting everyone as you follow Vera's investigation. Even the setting provides plenty of opportunities for problems with the tides and the fog. As each character is introduced and more information is revealed about them, keep track of everything. Vera does and details are going to matter. Cleeves provides all the information you need on each character and then proceeds to surprise you with where that information is going.

If you enjoy well-written procedurals, The Rising Tide will be a great choice. It will keep you guessing and considering suspects right up to the end.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Macmillian via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

When I'm asked what I like the best about the latest Vera Stanhope mystery (or any of the ten, so far) I am always torn. Do I love it for the top notch mystery? Yes. Do I love it for the complex and wonderful character that is Vera? Yes. Or do I love it because in each of the ten books the setting is a living, breathing major character on its own, just like Venice is in the books of Donna Leon. Oh, yes.
If you have never read one of Vera's cases, no worries, each can be read as a standalone.
Vera has a sharp mind living in a human form that most people would probably pay very little attention to, figuring she was nobody special, easy to ignore. Do so at your peril if you have committed the crime of murder. She is a master at thinking outside the box, connecting the dots.
This time round the case for Vera and her team is on Holy Island when one of a group of friends, on the island for the reunion they have every five tears, is found hanging from a beam. On the surface it's a suicide but Vera is on the case and her instinct goes to murder. As the puzzle unfolds the main question seems to be is this death (murder) in any way connected to the tragic drowning of Isobel at the first of their five year reunions? Was her death following a heated argument with one of their group the reason they had become such a tight unit over the past 50 years? Vera will have to dig far into the past to find the answers and what a hoard of secrets to be unearthed.
With a well crafted puzzle to solve and a cast of characters, each with great depth, this is a mystery (and series) that will stick with you after you have come to its conclusion.
My thanks to the publisher Minotaur and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC to review.

This is the first time I have read a book by Ann Cleeves, but I have been a Vera TV Show fan for many years. I was not at all disappointed by switching to a different medium. The Rising Tide kept me hooked from page one, and I had to find out who the killer was before I went to sleep. Vera is a well-developed character, and even though this is many books into the series, I didn't feel like I was missing anything. I give The Rising Tide 5/5 stars.

Fifty years ago a group of teens gathered on Holy Island for a school project led by Judith Marshall, a new teacher who was not much older than her students. It was a weekend of opening up to each other and forging long lasting friendships. With few exceptions, the group still meets every five years on Holy Island. The island is inaccessible by road when there is a high tide. At the first reunion, an argument between Isobel and Rick ended with her attempting to leave the island as the tide was coming in, causing an accident and her death. Over forty years later at the current reunion Rick is found hanging in his room. What was originally considered suicide is later revealed as a murder. He had announced that he was writing a book based on the group. Even though it is fiction, secrets would be revealed. Each member of the group has their secrets, but are they worth killing for?

Vera Stanhope is called to the island to investigate. Rick was a celebrity television journalist until his show was recently cancelled due to accusations of harassment. While Vera has Joe and Holly, her investigators, looking into his past, she can not dismiss a possible connection to Isobel’s accident as a possible motive. Annie, a deli owner, found Rick’s body. Louisa and Ken are married and dealing with his worsening Alzheimer’s and Phillip is now a priest. Two other members of the original group, Charlotte, who was Rick’s ex-wife, and Daniel, Annie’s ex-husband, had not been to the reunions since Isobel died. While Annie knows who Vera is, the others are taken in by her rumpled, frumpy appearance that hides a sharp, intuitive mind. Her associates question the relevance of the past incident and her investigation does not appear to be progressing when another member of the group is murdered. As she continues questioning Isobel’s death and begins to narrow her investigation, one of her investigators is attacked and disappears. As they race to find her and prevent another possible murder the tension mounts.

Ann Cleeves’ Vera series is one of my favorites. The mysteries are complex and Cleeves keeps you guessing to the very end. Her characters have a good working rapport and Vera knows their strengths and weaknesses while working a case. This is a series that any mystery lover can lose themselves in and The Rising Tide is another wonderful entry in the series. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book for my review.

A group of friends reunite on an island every five years to celebrate and reminisce about their school trip to the same location fifty years ago. At the current reunion, one of the members of the group was found hanged. Initially, this looks like a suicide, but Vera is convinced it’s murder. Coincidentally, there was also a death at the five year reunion. Could the current death and the one from long ago be related?

This installment in the Vera series does not disappoint. With an excellent plot and interesting cast of suspects, this mystery will have you guessing until the very end,

Cleeves is going from strength to strength with the Vera novels, this one imbued with a ruefulness and melancholy beyond the past ones. Very much a pandemic novel in spirit, with the characters taking stock and looking back at their lives. Delighted to include this title in the September instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

Having actually driven across the causeway and visited Holy (AKA Lindisfarne) Island, I looked forward to reading Ann Cleeves' The Rising Tide with a great deal of anticipation. Neither Ann nor Vera disappointed.

As always, the setting is perfect, and a mystery concerning a group of people who've been hiding secrets for fifty years is suitably complex and satisfying. There's a house with a view of Holy Island across the water that I would love to have for myself (as long as I could have Vera's mythical Land Rover to go with it). Still, houses and Land Rovers and old secrets aside, it is the characters in this series that always bring me back for more.

Vera herself, utterly unconcerned with her appearance and her behavior, is a bit of a hermit, but she's getting used to having a neighbor she can spend some time with. It's an added bonus for readers that the neighbor is mystery writer Joanna. Not only does Joanna get to ask Vera technical questions for her books, but now Vera is getting asked to accompany her on book-related trips.

Vera is part matriarch part guru for her team, and she thinks of second-in-command Joe Ashworth as a surrogate son and her conscience. Joe provides a lot of hard work and a steadying influence on the team while Holly is the bright, competitive one who dreams of taking Vera's place while simultaneously worrying that she could actually become Vera, appearance and all. The two women do share some similarities after all.

The Rising Tide is all about hypocrisy and the lengths some people will go to in order to hide the sins of their past. Set on an island where the tide tables are in charge of daily life, this mystery has all the twists and turns and secrets and shocks that will make readers lock their doors on all interruptions so they can spend time with one of the best detectives in crime fiction.

This tenth Vera Stanhope mystery is just as satisfying as all the previous ones. The murder takes place on Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland. A group of friends, who have been gathering every five years for 50 years, meet in a house on the island and one of them is dead before morning.
The theme is very much connected to the tides, which cut off the causeway to the island when they come in and allow access to the island as they go out. The timing of the murder is connected to the tide, of course, as well as to a murder that occurred there 50 years ago.
Vera and her team do the thorough police questioning and investigation and close in on the killer who is not above killing again to save themself from being found out. Can Vera get to the murderer in time before they strike again?
The ending is very abrupt and a bit of a shock. Which means there must be an eleventh novel in the works.
Highly recommended for all mystery, British mystery, and Vera fans (of the books or tv series).
*Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.