This latest episode in the Vera Stanhope series introduces a new team member to replace the lost Holly and a seemingly more introspective Vera, adjusting to that loss, her role as Holly’s boss, and thoughts about her own vulnerabilities. It’s impossible not to see and hear Brenda Blethyn throughout my reading.

The case is sad and topical: Josh, a young college student, working part time at a home for troubled teens, is murdered. One of the teens, 14 year old Chloe Spence, also goes missing the same night. Is she a witness, a victim, an innocent, an at risk runaway?

Vera, Joe Ashworth, and Rosie Bell, new team member, begin the hard task of interviewing everyone who knew Josh and Chloe, learning about the privately run care home that appears so run down and sad to the police as outsiders, and learning more about the community into which Chloe seems to have disappeared.

I found this an excellent outing in a loved series. Cleeves introduced a more thoughtful Vera who recognizes her affect on the officers who she leads—though she doesn’t necessarily change her methods. Her self awareness is more obvious as is her knowledge that she will someday no longer be part of the police family after she retires. As always, I do recommend reading Cleeves books. It might be nice to read one or two others in this series before The Dark Wives to enjoy the subtleties of the team relationships.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

When Ann Cleeves releases a new Vera Stanhope mystery, I clear my calendar. I know that I will be caught up with Vera and her team until the last page is read. The Dark Wives is built around the murder of Josh Woodbury, a worker at a children’s home, and the disappearance of Chloe, a fourteen year old resident. The question is whether she is responsible for the death or is she a witness? Vera and her team are called to the facility which housed four troubled teens. Chloe was a student at a private school where her goth appearance was frowned upon. Her mother was hospitalized for a mental breakdown. Her father worked out of the country and her grandparents disapproved of her appearance. Her happiest time was visiting the bothy (cottage) on her grandparents former farm. When Vera visits the bothy she discovers the body of one of the other teans from the home. Brad Russell was a small time drug dealer and a user but evidence points to his murder. A dark car was parked outside the home before Josh’s death and spotted in the village near the bothy, leading Vera to stress the danger to Chloe and the need to find her before the murderer does.

Cleeves provides a complex police procedural and a look at the role of Social Services. It also introduces a new member of Vera’s team. They are still mourning the death of their colleague Holly and Rosie will have to prove herself to Vera and the team. The story takes place in Northumberland in the autumn, a time of the annual Witch Hunt that takes place near the standing stones that legend says were crones turned to stone by a giant. They are known as the Dark Wives. It is here that Vera and the team will find Chloe and the solution to the two murders. While Vera keeps her theories regarding the murders to herself, she wraps up the investigation with a summary of motives and events leading to the two murders and the evidence to convince the guilty. This is another fascinating mystery from Cleeves that is sure to please her fans. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for providing this book.

Thank you St. Martin's Press: Minotaur Books for allowing me to read and review Dark Wives, A Vera Stanhope Novel, by Ann Cleeves on NetGalley.

Published: 08/27/24

Stars: 2.5

As a fan of Vera on Masterpiece Theatre I was skeptically excited to read an actual book. The experience was fabulous. I was off to a great start and was thinking the story was so relatable to the series. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier equally enamored me with written and visual material. Could Vera be another? Could I have a series of books to read at a nursing home? The answer is no. Out of no where Cleeves drops F words, and not just once. She quickly went from class to trash.

Chloe Spence is on the run. And since she’s only 14, she is literally running. She had been living at a home for troubled teens, and now she’s disappeared. And Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope needs to find her. A local dogwalker had discovered the body of Josh in a local park, and it’s up to Vera and her team to find out what had happened. Josh Woodburn had worked at the care home where Chloe had been staying, and he was a good friend to her. Now she’s missing.

That means that Chloe is on the run because she is in danger, or because she is a killer.

Chloe was in the care home because her father had left, and her mother had a depressive episode that she had to be hospitalized for. Chloe was hoping to find someone who could help her, but instead she was just put into the home. The workers there do they best they can, but they have limited resources. It’s a privately run home, but there is still only so much in the budget. Chloe left behind her journal, so Vera could get a glimpse into the teen’s mind, but there are no clues as to who could have killed Josh.

Vera knows this case will be more difficult than usual. First, she’s just hired a new officer to join the team, Rosie, and Vera is trying to be conscientious about making her feel at home. And because the private care homes for teens have been in the news, since a lot of the citizens of Northumberland were against privatizing them. So Vera is also having to balance working the case and keeping her boss informed on what the team is learning.

Meanwhile, they’re trying to track down Chloe, and they’re getting close. But Chloe is smart, and she moves on just before they get to her. In one of those spots, they find the body of another young man. On the surface, it looks like an overdose, but Vera and her team are skeptical and not find of a coincidence. And they know that it’s that much more urgent that they find Chloe.

It all comes to a head the night of the Gillstead Witch Hunt, where one of the adults dresses up like a witch and hides in the hills. Kids are sent out to try to find her, first the younger kids and after dark, the older ones. People drive from all over to join in the witch hunt, and Vera thinks that Chloe will use the witch hunt as cover. But if she’s there, then the killer will be also, and they may have only one chance to get Chloe back home safe and sound.

The Dark Wives is book eleven in the popular Vera Stanhope series from Ann Cleeves. Between the books and the television show, Vera is such an iconic character, and this story stands up to her reputation. It’s told from alternating viewpoints of Vera and her second-in-command Joe and new recruit Rosie, so you get the chance to see what different members of the team are doing and thinking, which is fun since Vera is apt to play her cards very close to her chest and not give anything away.

I listened to the audio book, narrated by Janine Birkett, who did an amazing job with those varying British accents. She gave each character a distinctive voice, and added so much texture and interest to the story. I loved this audio book so much, but I also got drawn into the story and maybe sped it up to get to the end. I would love to listen to it again knowing what’s going to happen, so I can just let myself get caught up in the story and relax into it. I think it says a lot that when you want to read a book again after you’ve just read it, so that is high praise indeed. Fans of Vera won’t want to miss this The Dark Wives.

Egalleys for The Dark Wives were provided by Minotaur Books, and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.

This Vera Stanhope series caught my attention and I've read quite a few of the books. Ann Cleeves has been able to keep my interest with each one.

Description:
The man’s body is found in the early morning light by a local dog walker in the park outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up.

DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death, with her only clue being the disappearance of one of the home's residents, fourteen year old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.

Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, are soon embroiled in the case, and when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever believed possible.

My Thoughts:
Vera Stanhope is an interesting character. She is rough around the edges and brusque with her interactions. Tact is not her strong suit to put it mildly. Yet her instincts are good and have served her well as a detective. She is well respected in her community. This murder investigation unfolds slowly as clues are followed and a search for a missing child who might know something about the murder proceeds. There is a new member of the team, Rosie, who is a good character and seems to fit well with the team. There are some surprise twists and turns as the investigation unfolds. Any mystery lover would enjoy this book as well as the entire series.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books through Netgalley for an advance copy.

THE DARK WIVES by Ann Cleeves is a Vera Stanhope novel. This story focuses around a care home for troubled teens. A college student who is employed at the home is murdered, and one of the residents is missing. Vera and her team must do their best to uncover evidence and determine what happened. An additional layer present in the story is that Vera and her team are still processing the recent death of a colleague, and a new hire must navigate the dynamics.

This is my third installment in the prolific series; I didn't begin with the first mystery, so while my interest is whetted for earlier titles in the series, readers can be assured that the story is self-contained enough to allow someone to jump in at any point and I don't feel disadvantaged for not having started at the beginning.

(Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)

When the body of Josh Woodburn, a care worker at Rosebank, a home for teens with issues or without a place to call home is found dead on the grounds, DI Vera Stanhope is assigned to the case. First thing she discovers is that a 14 year old girl, Chloe Spence, is missing. Is she responsible for the death? Along with Sergeant Joe Ashworth and new team member, Rosie Bell, the investigation seems to be going nowhere. When a second body shows up, the pressure from above rises but the investigation seems to be going nowhere fast. While their main goal is finding Chloe, the team has plenty of false leads and dead ends in solving the murders. The state of institutional care for minors in England forms a framework that becomes interwoven with the search that ultimately winds up in the Nothumbrian countryside in the midst of a an annual Witch Hunt, a dark celebration of local folklore.

This is the 11th book in Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope series (which also are the books upon which the popular BBC series, Vera, are based). The story sort of creeps along, with lots of characters each of whom add to the building storyline (but at times are confusing trying to keep them all straight). The tension builds throughout towards an ending that ties up all the loose ends. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

Oops, I did it again. When I picked up this title, I had no idea that it was the eleventh book in a series! I can safely say that this worked as a standalone, but it did make me want to check out some of the other titles in this series.

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope has a new case. A man is found dead near a school for wayward teenagers, where a young female student happens to be missing. Vera and her team must unravel what's going on with both cases. When another body is found at the standing stones called the Three Wives, she really has some work to do to solve these cases. Things do seem to be centered around Rosebank, the facility for the troubled children.

I like reading authors who give me a story with a new perspective, or interesting setting, or anything that makes me feel transported to a new place. I felt that with this novel. I don't know much about UK crime processing, but I feel like I know more about the process and the people who undertake these sorts of cases, especially when there are cultural elements to what is happening on page. There's a great atmosphere to this story that I loved which gave the story a strong anchor and kept me invested in the story. I liked these characters and this left me interested in learning more about their respective journeys. The addition of a new member of the team brought some conflicts outside of the immediate criminal case.

Overall, I liked this and will look for more Vera in the earlier books in the series.

The Dark Wives, Ann Cleeves’ latest installment in her Vera Stanhope series is just as engaging as her first book in the series. Ms. Cleeves manages to keep Vera assuredly the same and yet fresh. Vera might be getting closer to retirement age, but she still manages to stay ahead of her team on each case.

Her right-hand-man, Joe, continues on Vera’s team, and there is a new addition of Rosie Bell, who brings a younger outlook to the team along with her admiration of Vera. The Northumberland countryside with its standing stones and local folklore adds to the stark eerie feeling in the book. The plot is well paced, and the dialogue feels organic.

Ms. Cleeves makes her police procedurals more interesting with the addition of personal insight into her officers’ life outside of work. I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters as well as the engrossing storyline.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
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Review: this was my first Vera Stanhope novel (I believe there are more than 10) but this can definitely be read as a standalone.

I love books with a strong female lead, and Vera was just that. She’s a veteran cops with a strong team around her and I loved her interactions around town, especially when she called people “pet.”

Th book starts off strong. A worker is murdered at a children’s home and one of the children is missing. It’s up to Vera’s team to figure it out. The are a lot of clues and connections moving the book forward. My favorite was when the investigation let the team to Gillstead and The Dark Wives, where the setting was fantastic.

The middle was a little slow and repetitive with the team finding clues but not really revealing them to the reader. It had a lot of police procedural account, so if you are into that, you will really love this book. It’s not as much thriller.

Overall, it was interesting and had great characters moving the story along. If you love detective and police books- you will definitely want to pick this up!

This book came out on August 27th! Thanks to st. Martins press and netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We have a murder to solve and I definitely felt like I was part of the team in this book. I think the story was really good and I was definitely shocked at the end and the build up was great.

I always enjoy Cleeves' Vera series, but her latest, THE DARK WIVES, might be my favorite. Vera Stanhope has aged during the series as her curmudgeonly ways have become familiar to readers. In this 11th book, Vera has reacted to events from the previous book, THE RISING TIDE, by looking inward and developing a more generous spirit. Sensitivity hasn't been a strong suit for Vera in the past, but as she investigates the death of a young social worker and the disappearance of a teenager in his care, she reflects upon the needs of children in care and how poorly the system sometimes meets those needs. At the same time, a new member of her team, a young woman quite unlike any she's known previously, forces her to confront the need for more flexibility in dealing with her staff. Vera even imagines expanding her world by making friends with a character in the book, something she hasn't done in any of the prior ten books in the series. Although Cleeves continues to define her main character by her social reclusiveness, she is giving her a bit more scope to grow, a development that adds depth to Vera's character and allows the reader to see her more sympathetically.

At the start of the book, a young man working at a privately owned home for disenfranchised teens is murdered. A girl from the home is missing, and it is not known if she is another victim or the murderer. As Vera's team searches for fourteen-year-old Chloe, their investigation moves from the seaside setting of the home to the wilds of rural England closer to Vera's cottage, and more deaths occur. The final scenes take place during a dark festival during which all the children of the town head out into the unlit fields to search for a witch. The witch is found, as is much else.

The complex plot had me hooked from the start, and the settings – both seaside and rural – were so well written I can still see them in my mind days after finishing the book. Vera is not the only character who comes alive on the pages. Cleeves has a terrific skill in developing characters that seem to walk right off the page into the readers' lives. THE DARK WIVES has me chomping at the bit for the next book in the Vera series.

Murder and a conundrum!

There’s a mountain of circumstances on Vera’s plate and it’s not adding up.
A body has turned up linked to a children’s home that’s part of a paying conglomerate across the country. A home for troubled teenagers very much at a cost to taxpayers. A young girl, an inmate is missing. She’s not “troubled” but when her mother was committed to a psychiatric ward there was no where else to go.
It seems the home/school has quite draconian rules. Vera’s not impressed.
Then a second body appears.
It’s the time of the Gillstead Witch Hunt. A event that traditionally takes place near to the standing stone formation called the Dark Wives, the three crones. Dark happenings are looming.
Vera finds herself swept up in a case close to home.
Two dead bodies, a missing girl, and a new team member are just the beginning.

A St Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Eleventh in this excellent series. ,I’ve enjoyed each book in the series.Ann Cleeves writing always drew me in her characters come alive and ther is always surprising twists and turns.#netgalley #st.martins
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Fans of Vera will rejoice at her return in this eleventh installment of Cleeves’ series. This time the book focuses on the for-profit group homes for children “industry, highlighting the vulnerability of teens who find themselves either as carers for a single parent who is temporarily or permanently unable to care for themselves or as orphans. Two murders and the disappearance of a vulnerable teen give Vera’s team plenty to do, including breaking Rosie, a new member of the team, replacing Holly, who was killed in the line of duty and whose death weighs on Vera’s conscience. Long-time readers of the series will be keen to see if Vera is meeting the goals of better communications and transparency she set for herself after Holly’s death and all readers will be caught up in this intriguing procedural novel that features several voices. The Dark Wives doesn’t quite measure up to the best of the best mystery novels, but it’s a first-rate read.

This is my first Vera Stanhope novel and I had no issues reading it as a standalone book. Vera and her team are investigating the death of a man found outside a home for troubled teens. A 14 year old is missing too and could be a suspect but it doesn’t really make sense.

They are deep into the case when a second body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument. They wade through superstition and folklore to try and find out the truth, but it’s much darker than they expected.

I enjoyed this book - it is a solid police procedural story. I liked how the mystery unfolded and how local folklore was woven into the story. There are some twists I didn’t expect. This does dive into some of the darker sides of group homes for children.

I found Vera to be really smart and a little eccentric. She has worked with Joe and Charlie for a while and newcomer Rosie causes some tension in the team. While I guessed a few things along the way, overall I was surprised until the big reveal at the end!

Murder and mystery involving a care home for troubled teens.

This is the 11th book in the series but the first I have read. I've also not seen the television show, so all of this was new to me. Set in the coastal northeastern village of Longwater, DI Vera Stanhope and her team investigate the death of a staff member, Josh, who is found murdered right outside of Rosebank, a care home for teenagers. In addition, one of the residents at the home, Chloe Spence, has disappeared. Is she a victim or a suspect?

Vera's team begins the tedious task of following up. Her subordinates include DS Joe Ashworth and DC Charlie as well as a new member, DC Rosie Bell. The story also refers to a previous member of the team, Holly, now apparently deceased and often mentioned but no details about what happened. I think this made coming into the series with this installment a bit confusing so probably best to read in order. I could tell that the team understands each other and knows strength and weakness of their colleagues but difficult to assess character development. Vera is strong, independent, opinionated, keeps things close to the chest, and happily single.

One of my gripes about this police procedural is how completely the reader is left in the dark when Vera and the team have the pieces to solve the case, including the names of suspects, but those details are not given.

The plot had merits but I found the process and all of the interviews quite slow moving. Lots of characters to keep straight. Not sure if I liked well enough to begin the series with the first installment but I might read another in the future.

I was able to listen to the audiobook while following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. The narrator did a great job voicing the characters and all the accents but without the text in front of me I think it would have been difficult to identify who was speaking at times. It definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the story as the production was well done.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Well, it IS Vera Stanhope, so OF COURSE there is an unexplained death. It starts in November with a diary entry by Chloe, a girl who has been sent to live in a home for "troubled" children. She is not really troubled, but her mother has been committed, again, to a psychiatriic clinic and her father lives in Dubai and doesn't want her. Her grandparents, her father's parents, don't know what to do with her. So she is living in Rosebank Home and trying to maintain some semblance of normal. She is still attending her school, Salvation Academy, but she is very alone. There IS one person at Rosebank who pays attention to her, and she has a bit of a crush on him, so when she hears his car drive up, she goes out to meet him.

The next morning a dog walker finds a man dead in the parking lot at Rosebank. And no one has seen Chloe since the previous night.

So Vera and her team are called in to investigate the murder. Did Chloe kill Josh? Was she a witness and taken to keep her quiet? WHERE IS CHLOE??

Vera is trying to get used to a new team member, Rosie Bell, who is replacing Holly, killed on a previous case. Neither Vera nor Joe Ashworth, her longtime sergeant, quite know what to do with Rosie, who is so very different from Holly, who they still miss. Vera, especially, feels somewhat guilty for what happened to Holly. But Holly is gone and Rosie is here, so the work must go on. They try to follow any leads, but most are dead ends.

The Dark Wives of the title are three gigantic rock slabs atop a hill outside Gillstead, the village where Chloe's grandparents used to live and which she loved as a child. And outside of which a second body, that of another resident at Rosebank was found. The Wivesserve as the background for the climactic ending.

This was a great read, but then these always are. Vera and Joe seem like old friends and Rosie is a good addition to the team.

This is the eleventh installment in the Vera Stanhope series – another enjoyable visit with the pragmatic, no-nonsense detective.

The body of Josh Woodburn is found on the grounds of Rosebank, a private home for troubled teens where he volunteered part-time. At the same time, 14-year-old Chloe Spence, one of the home’s residents, goes missing. Is she Josh’s killer, a witness, or just a runaway? Vera and her team, Joe Ashworth and new member Rosie Bell, come to investigate the death and to find Chloe. Their search takes them to the Northumberland countryside with which Chloe was familiar only to discover a second body. Tension rises as Vera fears Chloe may be in danger.

Vera is still the same Vera we have come to know and love but a softer, more vulnerable side is revealed. The tragedy at the end of the previous book, The Rising Tide, has left her grieving and feeling regret. Vera knows she made mistakes and remembers “clever quips and unthinking words of criticism” and resolves to be more collaborative and more open in communicating with team members. Though she tries to watch her words and to use a more inclusive approach, in the end she reverts to old behaviour and keeps her theory from Joe and Rosie until the end.

The case has Vera revisiting the Stanhope Arms, a pub frequented by her father Hector so we see Vera confronting her past. A conversation with the local doctor causes her to reconsider her father’s legacy. I also like that Vera has an opportunity to make a new friend, one whom Joe describes as “a social services version of Vera, though definitely better dressed.”

The addition of Rosie is also a nice touch. Intelligent, energetic, and ambitious, she wants to impress Vera but she is also not afraid to question Vera’s investigative methods. Her arrival changes the team’s dynamics: Joe finds himself working with two strong women and because he feels “a competitive streak and a tinge of jealousy,” he thinks he has to prove to Vera that he is “still her right-hand officer.”

I love the title. It refers to a trio of monumental stones in the Northumberland countryside. Local legend tells the story of three wives who talked too much and so were turned to stone as a punishment. The book is even dedicated to dark wives, “uppity young women with minds of their own.” There are more than a few candidates for the position of dark wife. The three teens who place friendship and loyalty above all else certainly fit the description, but so does the demanding and impatient Vera.

The complex plot certainly had me guessing until the end. I did take issue with the information dump at the end; like Joe and Rosie, the reader is left in the dark. There are lots of red herrings but perhaps a paucity of clues pointing to the right direction. Everything makes sense, though I did find the motivation of one character to be rather weak.

Besides being an entertaining police procedural, the book makes a statement about the need to reform privately owned care homes which are more concerned with profit than the needs of those in their care. Rosebank, a rather run-down and unappealing facility, is short-staffed and under-funded so the resources needed by its residents are unavailable. The author in an opening note acknowledges being inspired “by an investigative piece about private children’s homes on BBC Radio” and has Vera arguing that “’they’re a breeding ground of crime and antisocial behaviour. If we’re putting an emphasis on prevention, I wonder if we should be making a case for bringing them back into local authority control.’”

As with all the books in the series, I recommend a reader poke his/her neb into this one.

This is a solid and engaging mystery. Vera is an interesting and well-developed character, albeit a bit rough around the edges. Fans of the television series may want to check out these books. This storyline contain lots of little pieces, but the author does a great job of tying of all the loose ends. While it is part of a long-standing series (#11), it could be read as a standalone. However, it may benefit the reader to read them in order.