Skip to main content
Out on 24 May 2029

The Long Call

Synopsis

Meet Detective Matthew Venn.


From Ann Cleeves, the Sunday Times bestselling creator of Vera Stanhope and Shetland’s Jimmy Perez, The Long Call is the number-one bestselling first novel in the Two Rivers series. Now a major ITV series.

North Devon.
Where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family, too.

Now he’s back, not just to mourn his father at a distance but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region, a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.

A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew’s new home: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.

Finding the killer is Venn’s only focus, and his team’s investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind – and the deadly secrets that lurk there.

‘Stunning’ – David Baldacci, author of The 6:20 Man

‘One of Britain’s best crime writers’ – Daily Express

The Long Call is the first instalment in the Two Rivers series. Continue the mysteries with The Heron’s Cry.

Details

24 May 2029
400 pages
9781035095650
Imprint: Pan

Reviews

As a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high expectations for Cleeves’ latest. She easily exceeded those expectations with The Long Call. Matthew Venn is a keeper. A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crime fighterDavid Baldacci, author of The 6:20 Man
Clever, compassionate and atmospheric, with a great cast of new characters to love. I am already a Matthew Venn fanElly Griffiths, author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries
Brilliant, thoughtful and deeply engagingSara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author of the V.I. Warshawski series
Brilliant – a page-turning and sensitively told tale, with a vividly evoked North Devon setting, a powerful emotional heft and a new detective hero in Matthew Venn, who you will want to follow for book after book. Wonderful!Chris Ewan, bestselling author of Safe House