I have loved these Vera Stanhope books from the very beginning and they continue to deliver to this day. After losing one of my favorite characters in the last book, I was pleased with the new character Cleeves has written to replace the missing character.

Setting is one of the elements that Cleeves does so well! Between the slang of the area and beautiful descriptions of the surroundings, to the cozy descriptions of Vera at home, all these elements combine to create an exceptional sense of place.

The mystery element was very clever and tricky, I didn't guess it; I wasn't even close!

I listened to the Macmillan audio version of this book and the narrator for this series is brilliant! She does Vera's accent perfectly and flawlessly does appropriate voices and accents for all the characters in the story. For sure, the narrator brings the story to life and makes it entirely enjoyable!

I love this author and this series, and I hope she writes many more!

TW for the foster system being garbage (no sexual assault), and drug abuse (barely mentioned).

This was a great read with a relatively happy ending that I'd recommend to anyone who likes a more traditional mystery over a cozy one.

The characters are engaging, especially one we barely hear from but intrigues with every entry. I did find this plot a bit hard to follow at times, but I think that was mainly because there were several characters we jump between and that isn't always as clear when listening to an audiobook version. Overall a great book and one I'm happy I read.

Chloe, a fourteen-year-old resident of a care home for troubled teens, is a suspect in the murder of one of the staff members of the care home. But DI Vera Stanhope quickly deduces that Chloe isn't a suspect; rather, she is in grave danger. Chloe must be found in order to figure out what is going on before she and others get hurt.

I received an audiobook copy of this ARC on Netgalley from Ann Cleeves and Macmillan Audio. All thoughts and opinions here are mine and mine alone.

I enjoyed the elements of the police force and those politics, but the mystery surrounding the murderers was rather disappointing. I think I knew that it would be a political and money-focused wrap-up, but it still disappointed me. I also found it difficult to follow who was who purely because this was an audiobook. Having the physical book in my hands and being able to visualize the characters better would have made it easier to follow.

The narrator did a great job of changing her voice for the characters, but she did speak quite slowly. I prefer a narrator that chugs along with the book and does not try to speak slowly. It just made the story drag on a bit too long. I was ready for the book to wrap up around hour 7.

Posting tomorrow: 8/8/2024
Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the ALC.
My thoughts:
The Dark Wives starts out strong with a lot of action and interesting topics such as a resident home for troubled teens, and how kids that live in these types of homes are prejudged. When a lot of times they are victims. The other factors that play a role in the death of the staff member are greed and secrets. Then there’s the second murder that happens shortly after Josh is found. That was just as interesting, and I still couldn’t figure out who was responsible. Which was a good thing. The only issue I had was the middle was quite slow and I was having a hard time staying interested.
My favorite parts of this listen were learning about Josh and Chloe and learning about the sketchy adults that pretending to care about the kids, and the outcome.

No surprise, I always love an Ann Cleeves novel. Of course, our library will buy it and of course our patrons will check it out in various formats. Vera is such a difficult but lovable character!

This is installment 11 in the popular Vera Stanhope series, but the first that I have read. I am a fan of the TV show, so I was happy to have a chance to read this novel and see how it stacks up to the TV series. I found the writing and characterizations just as engaging as the show. The plot moves along on a steady space and the author makes the reader work to solve the mystery. I recommend this novel for fans of Vera or British crime mysteries in general.

A few years back I read a ton of Vera Stanhope mysteries and binge-watched the first season of the TV series. But life intervened and I fell behind, so The Dark Wives picked up several books after the spot where I left off. I’m happy to report that the 11th installment in the series is up to Ann Cleeves’ usual standards–so much so that I listened to the entire audiobook in a single day, mostly while on a long hike. It was easy to pick up with the story again, even though I had missed several books in between.

The plot begins with the murder of Josh, a young night-shift worker at a home for troubled teens. Josh’s brutal death coincides with the disappearance of Chloe, a 14-year-old bookish loner who believed she might be in love with Rosebank’s newest employee. Could such a young girl have killed him? She was disturbed and her institutionalized mother did suffer from delusions . . . still, Vera and her team find it hard to believe she committed murder. But neither can they locate Chloe. Could she be dead as well? As the mystery deepens, Vera becomes more and more entangled in Northumberland’s local folklore and strange ancient ceremonies.

Aside from the engrossing story, I liked the way Cleeves begins to develop Rosie Bell’s character. Rosie is new to the team and her character is flawed and complex, as are the shifting dynamics between the team as try to adjust to the ambitious young woman who has replaced their fallen colleague. I also loved the way Cleeves weaves in the story of the "three dark wives" and the remote northern setting. As for the plot, it was fine. I did think there was rather a lot of explaining at the end, maybe a little more so than in earlier novels, but I didn’t come close to figuring out the killer’s motivation until the very end. Finally, Janine Birkett does a superb job capturing Vera’s accent and emotional core, not to mention the other characters.

Much thanks to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ann Cleeves’ dedication grasped my fancy right away: “This book is dedicated to teens everywhere and especially to the dark wives, upitty young women with minds of their own struggling to find their place in a difficult world.”

While this was my first Vera Stanhope novel, it won’t be my last. Cleeves’ astute characterization is charming, witty, and at times cheeky while Janine Birkett’s deft narration breathes life into the novel and its characters.

According to the author, the book is a work of fiction inspired by an investigative report on private children’s care homes aired on BBC radio. The story is cleverly woven into a Stanhope mystery with a dash of social commentary.

With a sense of community and uniqueness of character reminiscent of Louise Penny, the novel’s stubborn protagonist Vera Stanhope rivals Jessica Fletcher.

I loved the metaphorical Dark Wives, “an ancient monument” that spawned the stories of “three uppity women turned into stone by a giant to stop them nagging their husbands”.

My only critique is this is not a mystery I could try to figure out - or even guess the culprit. Though Vera knew the killer’s identity before anyone else, she kept any breadcrumbs from her team as well as the reader.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing an advanced review copy of the audio version of this title for an honest review.

I’m so thankful to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for having given me opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

At first I wasn’t used to the more direct northern prose of Ann Cleeves, but after a chapter I grew very fond of Vera Stanhope and the masterful interpretation of Janine Birkett. What a delight to find out that I’m listening to the 11th book featuring Vera, so now I can go back to the first book and work my way to the three dark wives.

If you enjoy mysteries with plot twists and unexpected endings, you’re in for a treat here. I don’t know how Janine Birkett manages to enact so many characters and accents, but I do know she is excellent at it. The combination of Cleeves’s dialogues and Birkett’s voice make the book come alive in an impossibly tangible way. I’ll be looking to follow both of these incredible women.

Funnily enough, when I saw the cover of the book I imagined the plot to be more mystical, maybe supernatural. The book is nothing of the sort, it rather a peak into the world of private sector sinking its teeth into basic public infrastructure and how devastating can consequences can be. Having worked within the UK’s social work universe, I must concede that Cleeves has an accurate picture of overworked staff and extremely vulnerable youth depending on a rather fragile system. Don’t let the grimness of this topic deter you from this work though, since there’s plenty of action throughout the book.

Another wonderful book in the Vera Stanhope series. Ann Cleeves is amazing writer and picks the perfect person to read her books. One can just picture Vera as she is read by the reader. Highly recommend.

I haven’t read any other book in this series and was surprised to learn it was a book #11. There wasn’t anything about it that suggested it was part of a series. It was a true stand alone.

That said, the book was too long and “slow burn” for me. I eventually tired of it and stopped caring whether I finished or not. I’m not sure if I actually got to 100 percent or quit a tiny bit early once all was revealed.

Speaking of the reveal, it was a disappointment after waiting so long for it.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves in exchange for an honest review. After reading this book, I have decided I'm going to have to go back and reread the whole series. I'm a little confused as I watch the show too. Different characters and timelines, both are so good, which is rare. Love them both and Ann Cleeves writing.

I received a free audiobook copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Amazingly, this is the first Vera Stanhope book I’ve read! I know, right? I’ve religiously read Ann Cleeves’ mysteries for years, but never a Vera book. What a way to start!
Vera and her team are called to investigate the murder of a young staff member of a children’s home, with one of the female residents missing. Is she the killer, or has she been kidnapped? Has she run away, knowing the killer’s identity? In any case, Vera needs to find the young girl before more people die.
So this long running series seems pretty fresh to me. The plot is modern and timely, and the characters are fully fleshed out and interesting. My only complaint is that Vera keeps her ideas and suspicions to herself, and therefore keeps the reader in the dark. But otherwise, a great mystery!

I've read other series by Ann Cleeves and have watched at least six seasons of Vera but, until now, I had never read any of the books in the Vera Stanhope series. As in the shows, this is a complex mystery with different threads to pull until the case can be unwound and the murderer(s) identified.
In this one, Rosie Bell is a young DC trying hard to impress Vera to earn a spot on her team. And Rosie's way with families is needed because not only is there a dead body by the Rosebank Children's Home, but one of its residents, a 14-year-old girl named Chloe, is missing. There's also an important message about the problems inherent in allowing for-profit enterprises to provide social services.
In the TV series, Vera is always calling people "love" or "pet" and she does in the novel as well. In the book she is more of a curmudgeon and occasionally sharpish with her team, adding some acid behind the endearments. Quite a character! I plan to read others in the series, having enjoyed this immensely.
My thanks to the author, publisher, audiobook producer, and #NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review #TheDarkWives in advance of its publication date, Aug. 27, 2024.

This one is clearly not for me. I tried a few different times to listen to the narrator and get in the story. She clearly is a great author and people enjoy her work.

How I love Ann Cleaves and a Vera Stanhope novel. True pleasure.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think even if Cleeves wanted to retire Vera Stanhope, her readers wouldn’t stand for it. In her latest escapade, Vera and her new colleague, Rosie, are investigating murder most foul in Northumberland. The inclusion of local superstition and folklore adds another layer of mystery to the story

Vera's back along with a new young member on her team. She, Joe and Rosie are called to a troubled children's group home to investigate the murder of a new employee. Will one murder turn into more? A missing young teen has the detectives on the hunt to find her and the party responsible for the death of the young man. Loved it. Ann Cleeves does it again.

Everything moves at a quick pace, as the detectives, particularly Joe and Rosie, collect information that tells us more about Chloe and where she might be hiding. Then, around the 75% point, Vera has a hunch. Up to this stage, we, the readers have been privy to the main characters’ thoughts—sometimes following Joe’s POV, sometimes following Rosie’s POV, and sometimes following Vera’s POV. But Vera’s hunch isn’t shared with readers. So the denouement comes out of the blue. And this is the misstep that occurs near the ending. In an attempt to conceal the true murderer, the author hid important information from readers—changed the trajectory we were following—to bring the story to a quick close.

Book: The Dark Wives
Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: DI Verna Stanhope #11
Format: 🎧
Narrator: Janice Birkett
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: British Mystery
Pub Date: August 27, 2024
Rating: 3.5
Pages: 384

Story starts when Vera goes to Rosebank- a home for troubled teens, to investigate the murder of Josh Woodburn, a university student and volunteer at the home. Additionally, fourteen year- old Chloe Spencer a resident has disappeared. Vera finds it hard to believe this particular teenager could be responsible, Vera wonders if she was a witness or perhaps another victim. When searching In for Chloe discovers another death a teenage boy also from Rosebank is discovered near the three ancient standing stones known as the Three Wives.

Since I have read other Detective Vera Stanhope stories, I knew the plot just might be a bit complicated!
Ann Cleeves did not disappoint.

This story introduces Rosie – I am wondering if she will be a recurring character- or if there might be a Rosie Bell #2???

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio early audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 27, 2024.