The Rising Tide

Ann Cleeves

01 September 2022
9781509889617
384 pages

Synopsis

Vera Stanhope, star of ITV’s Vera, returns in the tenth novel in number one bestseller Ann Cleeves’ acclaimed series.

Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island, forging a bond that has lasted a lifetime. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship, and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway at the first reunion.

Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . .

But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible . . .

Ann Cleeves is on top form in this atmospheric mystery that gradually expands to include more shifty characters on the mainland, and, on her tenth outing, you feel the pain beneath Vera’s blowsy bravado. The Rising Tide is exactly the sort of novel she likes — it provides escape and 'the joy of loose ends tied up'.
A thoroughly engrossing thriller
Who doesn’t love ‘large and shabby’ Vera Stanhope, the blunt detective in Ann Cleeves’s Northumberland police procedurals? She is already one of the genre immortals. Cleeves delivers some choice Vera moments in The Darkest Evening