Set mostly on Holy Island, England, The Rising Tide is the tenth in the remarkable Vera series, told in easy-to-follow multiple viewpoints. This time, private investigator Vera finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place on an isolated island as she investigates a mysterious death. A group of grammar school friends called Only Connect has met every five years since they were teenagers, catching up and spilling and withholding secrets. Now they are 60 somethings on Holy Island and the death of one of their own leaves them aghast and wondering who and why. Is it linked with the death of Isobel decades earlier at their first retreat? The characters are intricately woven and described so well they are easy to visualize. We all probably know at least one of them!

Though a close group, each friend has a past. Some are privy to bits of information others are not. They seem loyal, but are they really?. Along with marvellous atmosphere, this creates the tension readers love. Realistic aging and dementia play important roles. Vera's job is to piece the bits together along with her team. But the friends are not the only ones with a history. Jealousy, tension, suspense and mysteries abound in spades.

Ann Cleeves is consistently adept at skillfully developing characters with a beautiful insightfulness. I like that those in The Rising Tide lose inhibitions as they age and are naturally wiser than in their youth while maintaining individualism. The mix of likeable and unlikeable personalities is superb.

Those who enjoy excellent whodunits ought to read this series. But The Rising Tide can be read alone, too, as background details are described cleverly. The target audience is a wide one as the book wonderfully incorporates the past as young people, snippets about their middle age and then later in their retirement phase.

My sincere thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this captivating and enjoyable book. Ann Cleeves does my heart good...when I see something new by her, it it not even necessary to read the blurb.

As dependable a treat as the coldest, sweetest, ice-cream on a summer day, any book by Ann Cleeves, including this hot-off-the-press installment (#10) in the glorious #Vera series, will not disappoint.

Vera, back with all the brash, brave, headstrong (and unabashedly offensively-leaning) determination she brings to any crime-solving venture, has her hands full with this murder spree on a remote causeway, which is closed off from the mainland for large portions of each day by the predictably-moody advance of the swirling tides. Known locally as “Holy Island”, this austere setting hosts an equally-austere former convent, “Pilgrim House”, home to the five-year reunions of a group of former school chums, now fifty-years into their recurring visits.

Secrets held for decades struggle to be contained as our cast of characters (many of them now in various stages of decline as they face life in their early sixties), assembles, the past reigniting “the tensions and stresses of the present’.

And what a fascinating cast it is - including (but not limited to):

A priest now nearing retirement; a duo of beautiful sisters (one mysteriously deceased); a twice-divorced journalist ostracized and shamed (but not prosecuted) for being “too free with his hands”; a dementia sufferer and his practical, steely-willed wife; a timid deli-owner and her charismatic Heathcliff-ian (and recently moneyed) ex husband.

As the plot (amidst the ever-present backdrop of the tide) ebbs and flows, and bodies begin to accumulate, puzzling and increasingly maddening to Vera and her crime-solving team, the author strikes a contemplative tone - touching on themes including the poignancy of aging, loss, grief, loneliness and the hidden shame of secrets and lies.

As Vera (unusually vulnerable as we observe her envy of the elderly group of suspects in their closeness, camaraderie and connection), is driven to her own musings and emotional memories, it’s impossible not to feel, with her and for her, a wistfulness and a sense of impending foreboding - of aging and “time slipping by” - as it seeps out over the rising tide, leaving her (and the bookish observer), inevitably “stranded, and alone”.

Not to be missed, a satisfying and delectable addition to an already wonderful series, I loved this book, leaving me looking forward to more and more of Vera and her team, and quite literally, any work by this author (one of my absolute favorites).

A great big thank you to #NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this novel. All thoughts presented are my own.

I received this ebooks via NetGalley and I am grateful for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have watched every episode of Vera on tv and I have read several of her books. This one show that Ann Cleeves never wavers when it comes to her writing. Another murder mystery with plenty of suspects and always that twist at the end.

The characters are realistic and easy to like. They compliment Vera’s stodgy behaviour and the all have deep respect for her and for each other. Each book shows us a bit more about them and what makes them tick. This book had me reading to the wee hours, not wanting to put it down. You are constantly changing your mind on who “dunnit” and while you want to know how this story ends you almost don’t want it with as you have intertwined these characters and yourself together. A fabulous book written about one of the best police officers in book or on tv.