Thanks to NetGallery and Minotaur books for the ebook arc of this.


I thought the book was alright Definitely not a favorite I've read.

The Dark Wives are three large stones on a hillside in Northumberland where every year there is a wild witch hunt. This folktale intertwines with a missing teen who is missing. She is either a witness to a murder or a murderer and Vera is set to find out. As she digs deeper, she finds ties to drugs and care home corruption. She visits the village where the Stanhope Arms resides and has to reflect on her responsibility in the death of her sergeant, Holly, and her new sergeant, Rose, and as always back to the legacy of her father.
A deeply moving story with Vera moving through loss and acceptance all the while maintaining her bravado, intelligence and hard-headedness.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this DRC.
#TheDarkWives #NetGalley

Eleven books into DCI Vera Stanhope and one might think the stories will get old... but there is nothing old about Vera and her team! There is a murder, of course, and Vera and her team set off to find the killer. It is a bit of a race, because there is also a missing teenager who could be in danger.

The pacing is very good and I love working through the mystery with Vera's team... I did not guess who "did it" and, yes, I was surprised!

If you already love Vera, you will love book eleven in the series. If you are new to Vera and this is your introduction, you might feel lost on a few things... but that is okay, because going back to catch up will be an enjoyable journey!

I highly recommend The Dark Wives (and the entire series!)

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for the digital copy of this book! It will be published August 27, 2024.

When an author gets to a certain number of titles in a series, the stories often get stale and the character development stalls. Not so with the latest entry in Ann Cleeves’ Vera series. Here we find Vera and the team trying to recover from the horrific ending of the previous book, with vera thinking more about her future and the people in it. In past stories, Vera is often portrayed as a hard, unyielding, no-nonsense detective who can turn empathy and sympathy on and off when needed. In Dark Wives, we see a softer side of Vera as she encounters a murder outside a carehome for teens and gets an insight into that world.

As usual, the mystery is well paced and well-developed, with great characters, narrative, and dialog. Cleeves truly is one of the best writers of her generation. We see a softer, humbled Vera here who is grappling with grief she never expected, and that underlayment to the story drives everything forward to a very satisfying end.

Well done.

If you haven’t yet read Ann Cleeves’ The Rising Tide, you might want to pick it up before reading The Dark Wives. This eleventh in the series is a major spoiler for the previous one. In fact, there is a point in my review that may spoil the previous one, so don’t read the review if you want to read the Vera Stanhope books in consecutive order.

When a young man’s body is found outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope’s team is brought in. Josh Woodburn was a counselor at the home who was supposed to have worked overnight. Although it’s a murder investigation, it quickly becomes much more. Chloe Spencer, a fourteen-year-old, is missing from Rosebank. Is Chloe a killer, a runaway, or a terrified witness?

While Vera sees Chloe as a terrified witness, her team doesn’t necessarily feel the same way. Joe is inclined to see her as a killer. Rosie Bell, the newest member of the team, has wanted to work for, and learn from, Vera for quite some time. Although Vera tries to include everyone in her decisions, she still is close-mouthed, and tends to keep her own confidences.

Just before another resident of Rosebank is found dead, the investigation shifts to the wild Northumberland countryside, and the location of the legendary Three Dark Wives, standing stones that are the center of a community’s eerie post-Halloween celebration. This time, when the town’s lights go out, will the team find Chloe or her body?

Although the ending and solution seems a little abrupt, readers who are looking for Cleeves’ interesting characters will be satisfied with the latest in the series.

As always, I loved the characters and their interactions. I was pleased with the addition of Rosie as an officer; she was full of life and has a lot of potential for some dynamic story lines in the future. I did feel like there were a lot of people to keep track of, but the author helped with reminders throughout the book. The end was satisfying, but it was frustrating that, because Vera keeps so much to herself, some elements seemed to come out of the blue.

"The Dark Wives" takes place a few weeks (I think, don't want to go back and look) after the murder/death of Holly. Vera is determined to be a better boss and when she gets assigned a new woman named Rosie. Rosie is unlike Holly, but Vera and even Joe are unsure if she has enough to stick with the team. A murder takes place and a young girl flees and Vera and her team are unsure if the young girl is the killer or if she is hiding from someone else.

This was very uneven. I don't know if it was the new character of Rosie or what. But nothing really fit well as I was reading through the pages. I thought that the murder of Josh was initially okay, but then it felt like the book is floundering. And I have to say, that I was beyond annoyed that apparently Vera realizes who did it and there's zero clue to this and we just get an exposition dump in the end. I think Cleeves's wanted to say something about children's homes in England (good) but the the storytelling wasn't top notch and honestly wasn't believable. And I didn't really like Vera or Joe much in this one. And Rosie was a little too all over the place for me.

“The Dark Wives” by Ann Cleeves it's the 11th instalment in the Vera Stanhope Mystery Series. I love the Vera Mystery series and this instalment did not disappoint. 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, after the death of team member Holly. Vera is trying to communicate more with the team and new member Rosie, as Vera blames herself for Hollys death.

We had lots of suspects but I did sort of guess one of the suspects just before it was revealed.

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.

Ann Cleeves delivers again with a great murder mystery thriller. Great character development and
a few twists at the end!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan for this eArc!

Written by a favorite talented author, this book is a cannot put down page turner. Vera is back...Vera to the rescue...the protagonist is realistic and she, along with the other characters, keep this story moving quickly. Do not try to determine the ending too soon. It is not readily accomplished. Mystery and intrigue...family and friends...who is the good guy? The not so good? What happened and why? Spend an afternoon with the characters in this book...will make a great movie. I cannot wait to read the next book by Cleeves. Thanks Netgalley.

Ann Cleeves is my absolute favorite author, she can do no wrong and this one did not disappoint! I recommend her to everyone!

Ann Cleeves' The Dark Wives (Minotaur Books 2024), Book 11 in the Vera Stanhope series, starts as a pretty straight forward murder, but--no surprise for a Vera Stanhope mystery--gets more complicated with each clue Vera and her team uncover. A worker at a residential care facility for troubled teens is murdered and one of the residents disappears the same day. Conventional wisdom says Chloe fled the scene of her crime, but to Vera--as is often the case--the dots don't line up like they should to make this troubled teenager a killer. First, why would she kill the one worker who seemed to befriend her? And then, how did she manage it? When another resident is found dead in an area familiar to Chloe, some think she might have killed both, but Vera again thinks the clues tell a different story. Adding to the complexity is that Vera is still struggling to come to terms with the work-related death of Holly, one of Vera's team members, and getting a replacement so soon afterwards isn't helping. The new girl is clever, energetic, and seemingly oblivious to the big footsteps she is filling. As in all Vera Stanhope novels, it seems to take forever to resolve anything, but still seems crazy busy.

I’m a huge fan of both the Vera TV show and the books. They follow each other pretty well with just a few differences I adapt to. I give this an enthusiastic 5/5 and do recommend interested readers start at the beginning to get the entire convoluted background on Vera, her team, the area, and everything else. It'll help to make sense of the story.

"The Dark Wives," is Ann Cleeves 11th installment in the Vera Stanhope mystery series. This latest narrative centers around the disappearance of a young girl from a care home, coinciding with the discovery of a murder. Vera is aided by her stalwart Lieutenant Joe and Rosie, an agressive new team member who replaces Holly a recently deceased colleague. Joe is loyal to Vera, almost to a fault and now begins to feel challenged by Rosie. As they embark on a frantic search for the missing girl, they must grapple with the unsettling question of whether she is a victim or possibly the perpetrator of the murder. The Dark Wives refers to three standing stones that form part of the historical landscape of the brooding Northumberland Hills. The story is set in late Autumn, post Halloween and after Guy Fawkes Day (Nov 5) . Much of the narrative builds up to a Witch Hunt in the hills that takes place in total darkness lending a palpable gothic atmosphere to the final thrilling conclusion.
True to her style, Cleeves creates both principal and secondary characters who are believable. despite their flaws . She possesses a gift for crafting intricately layered and complex plots. For American readers there is sometimes the challenge of local dialect but this adds flavor and authenticity to the story. Trying to second guess Vera in solving crimes proves to be a near-impossible feat for readers. "The Dark Wives" a compelling addition to the series.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGallet for the eARC of this book. The Dark Wives is the 11th in the successful Vera Stanhope series.

A young man, Josh, is found dead outside a private care home specializing in troubled teens. Turns out Josh was employed by this care home and now a young fourteen year old girl, Chloe, is missing. Everything Vera learns about Josh and Sophie, she just can't believe Sophie is guilty of murder. If not guilty then she most likely saw or heard something that's put her at risk. Then another young man's body turns up out in the countryside, very near the National Park, in a spot only known to Sophie and her family. The race is on to find Sophie and to bring a murderer in.

There's a lot going on in the book. In addition to solving the murder. Vera and her team are still reeling from the death of their colleague, Holly, in the previous novel. A new team member, Rosie, has been added to replace her. The introduction of Rosie, the murders, and the missing vulnerable teen all add up to a heart stopping read. 5 Stars from me.

I love all three series that Ann Cleeves writes, and The Dark Wives is as good as any of them. It begins with a diary entry from a missing girl, but immediately Vera is thrown into a challenging case. The girl's mother is in a nursing home and her father has gone off to Dubai, so she's in a residential home run by a for-profit corporation. Now that she's missing, Vera is in a race to find her. Did she kill the counselor who she had come to trust? Or did she witness his murder?

I love the way that recent books have forced Vera to confront her past and her family. She meets a man who was mentored by her father, and hangs out at a pub called the Stanhope Arms. She's also haunted by a recent death, and struggling to help a new team member fit in. Overall a great book and a great mystery.

The Dark Wives is part of a police procedural series by Ann Cleaves. This is the first book in the series I have read and was able to catch on quickly. I usually stay away from books as part of a series as I feel like they are churned out by a formula but I did enjoy this one. The book is set mainly on the coast of Northumberland which is like a character itself in the novel. The plot was ok but the character development was good. I would recommend this book.

If there are any better characters than the ones that Ann Cleeves has given us, I don’t know them. Vera is my favorite one. The BritBox series follows the books and this one was a winner!

A young man’s body is found by a dog walker in a park outside of a troubled children’s home. He is a staff member named Josh and has only been working a short time.

DI Stanhope is called out and other than one of the teenagers missing, Chloe, there is little to go on and everyone is telling half truths.
Could a fourteen year old girl have done this? And why?

The team is out in full force with Joe and Vera leading the search. When another body is found by the Three Dark Wives monument, superstition becomes fact to some.

While they work to find Chloe, they have to suss out who Josh really was and why he was killed.

There are so many suspicious people in here, it was hard to settle on just one!

Always a pleasure


NetGalley/ St. Martin’s / August 27, 2024

I love Ann Cleeves's books no matter what, but this was actually a surprisingly good installment, with a few new conventions and characters that really made it fun!

Scrubbed pine table count: A pub-full! (plus one more)

I think this is her best book so far. Her Vera series is a little uneven and fat phobic, but this book was very solid, and had the best parts of Vera on showcase. Vera is best when she’s caring for the vulnerable. we had a missing girl who needed Vera and the teams help and they all shown. I like the introduction of the new detective. She seems very capable and adds a lot to the team. I look forward to the next book or even a spin off if she decides to retire Vera. The mystery was very entertaining and I love the location.

I love Ann Cleeves she writes in her usual stellar manner . She is a master with plot and setting and you got to love Vera .
Another winner for this author