Book Review - The Long Call; Ann Cleeves

 

                                                              The Long Call; Ann Cleeves

                                                                       Minotaur - 2019

In this new series, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn is a 40-something, gay man who returns to North Devon and the strict evangelical community where he grew up.  Matthew has been estranged from his parents, disagreeing with their fanatical religious views.  His father has just died and Matthew is now happily married to Jonathan, a kind man who manages the Woodyard, an arts center that also runs a day program for developmentally disabled adults.

Matthew's first murder case here involves a body of a young man that has been found along the beach. The man later identified as Simon Walden was stabbed but, the reason that he was killed is a mystery. As Matthew and his partner Jen Rafferty begin to investigate Simon's murder, they learn he has struggled with alcohol issues and killed a young child while driving drunk. As the case develops this and a few other crimes that develop seem to have ties to The Woodyard which puts Matthew in a awkward position since his husband Jonathan is a manager there. 

This is Book 1 of the Two River Series.  I was pleased with this book and I liked the soft spoken Matthew character, he's introspective, a little unsure of himself but, has keen observation skills.  His partner Jen is a single parent who has left an abusive relationship. She is quite different from Matthew yet, I think they will work well together. I'm curious to see if Jen matures a bit more along the way. There are several other characters which added a nice element to this crime mystery, including Lucy, a developmentally disabled young woman with a very protective father. There were also two other women like Lucy, Chrissie and Rosa who play into the mystery here. I love the writing style and all the little details about places and people that made the story a treat to read.  I did think the story started out slow but I do understand how that was necessary in order to learn about some back stories, introduce new characters, and to understand possible motivations of characters and suspects.  I just started to read Book 2, The Heron's Cry, which released on 9/7/2021 in the US.

Rating - 4/5 stars

I borrowed the print edition of this book from my local library.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Dead By Dawn; Paul Doiron

 

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. 

Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read.  This week I selected a mystery that was just released last month.

                                                                Dead By Dawn; Paul Doiron

                                                                   Minotaur Books - 2021

1

The hill is steep here, and there is no guardrail above the river. I think I am being careful, keeping a light touch on the wheel, feathering the brakes. But then I come around the curve and see the spiked objects scattered across the asphalt in my headlights.  They look like barbaric versions of children's jacks. Or medieval caltrops laid on battlefields to maim horses--that these hunks of metal have been welded from box nails and placed here for the malign purpose of blowing out automobile tires.

The front wheels of the Jeep run over the first of them before I can react, and the sound is like two muskets being fired in tandem. The wolf dog in his enormous crate in the rear lets loose a strangled yelp. And now the back tires are bursting, too, and the steering wheel tugs one way, then the other, and when I pump the brake pedal nothing happens because I'm going too fast. I am over the edge before I can exhale.

What do you think, read more or pass?   This is book #12 of the mystery series featuring Mike Bowditch, a Maine Game Warden.  I've read only a few of the books in this series and enjoyed them a lot. What I liked was you really don't need to read the series in order to enjoy the stories.

Book Review - The Darkest Evening; Ann Cleeves

 

TITLE/AUTHOR:  The Darkest Evening; Ann Cleeves

PUBLISHER: Minotaur

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2020

GENRE: Fiction / Crime Procedural / Mystery

FORMAT:  print /LENGTH: 373 pp.

SOURCE: Library

SETTING(s):  UK - Nortumberland

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:  A young mother's body is found dead in the snow at a remote country estate while party-goers gather indoors.

BRIEF REVIEW:  During a blizzard, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope misses a turn and finds herself on an unfamiliar road. Off on the side of the road is a car with its door left open so she pulls over to see if someone is in trouble.  She finds the car abandoned but, an infant strapped in its car seat.  She leaves a note and takes the infant with her and drives a short distance to Brockburn House,  a grand but now rundown estate where Vera's father had grown up.  Inside a party is going on which includes some distant family of members of hers that she has not seen in years.

Outside the body of a young woman is discovered in the snow.  Who is the woman? Is there a connection to her and the infant and is there a killer still on the grounds? 

From this point on, Vera moves into full Inspector Stanhope mode complete with her assistants Joe and Holly.  Vera is a unique character, abrasive at times and a bit of a bully. I enjoyed getting to know her and her inner-most thoughts.  The story moved along at a nice pace and, although this was #9 of the Vera Stanhope series, it was a first experience for me. I felt it worked fine as a standalone.  This wasn't a typical mystery.  It almost felt more literary.  Written from the third person POV, I loved the writing style, the strong  characters (there are a lot of them) and the setting was wonderful as well.  I never suspected the killer which is always a good sign of a well-written police procedural.  I definitely plan to read more books by this author.

RATING: 4.5/5 stars

a few more quick reviews - Stone Mothers; Erin Kelly and Restoration Heights; Wil Medearis

TITLE: Stone Mothers
AUTHOR:  Erin Kelly

PUBLISHER:  Minotaur

PUB. YEAR: 2019

SETTING: Outside of London
FORMAT:  - ARC

RATING - 3.5/5

Marianne Thackeray has built a good life for herself with her husband Sam and daughter, Honor.  She also has a darker side that she has done a good job of keeping hidden from her family. Her dark secrets are from 30 years earlier (1988) in Nusstead (outside of London) when she was just 17. She moved out of that area long ago and thought her secret and body she and her boyfriend, Jesse had buried would never be brought up again.

Now Marianne's mother is suffering from dementia and Sam wanted to make things easier for his wife so he purchased a second home at Park Royal Manor, a luxury apartment complex located in a former mental hospital, a place Marianne would prefer to forget.

This story has (3) different timelines (1958), (1988) and (2018) and is told mainly from (3) POVS, Marianne, her daughter Honor and a woman named Helen Greenlaw who also had her secrets surrounding Stone Mothers, the victorian mental asylum.

I started this book on audio and had trouble following the multiple POVs and the fact the book was divided into 4 parts, so I switched to the print version which worked out much better.  I loved that much of this story had a Gothic feel. The first part was awfully slow and I felt frustrated but as the story progressed it began to make sense.  The images of life at the old asylum were very chilling and just awful to read about, but I liked the way it drew me into the story.  If you like books with a Gothic feel or reading about mental asylums of days gone by, you might want to try this one.

TITLE: Restoration Heights
AUTHOR:  Wil Medearis

PUBLISHER:  Hanover Square Press

PUB. YEAR: 2019

SETTING: NY
FORMAT:  - ARC

RATING - 3.5/5

Reddick is a 30 something artist who works as an art handler in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a black neighborhood undergoing gentrification. One day he notices a beautiful blond woman, who seems out of place, stagger into one of the apartments. She appears drunk.

The next day, coincidentally, when Reddick arrives at the apartment of a client, the Seward family, a wealthy family in the city, he overhears a conversation and realizes that the young woman he saw is named Hannah and was the fiancee of his client. Oddly, he's pulled into the girl's disappearance by yet another wealthy family who wants answers. What has happened to Hannah and why does one family not want the police involved yet another family is wanting answers?

This is a debut novel that I'd have to say was part mystery, part psych thriller.  I thought the whole plot line setup was a bit too convenient, but yet, it's the kind of story that would make for a lively group discussion.  I do think it could have benefited from some deeper character development - overall an okay read.

The Bone Orchard; Paul Doiron

The Bone Orchard; Paul Doiron

Minotaur/McMillian Audio - 2014

In this crime mystery thriller former game warden, Mike Bowditch, now works as a fishing guide in Down East Maine after a few incidents and personal tragedy shook things up in his life. Just a few months after his job change he learns that his old supervisor Kathy Frost is under investigation after shooting and killing a suicidal war veteran.  Feeling for his former mentor he decides to visit her and offer his support, but has no idea what he is in for.

Kathy is shot, possibly and her sniper at-large. Mike, despite the fact he is no longer holds an official position in law enforcement, decides to pursue his own investigation to track down the shooter. As he dig deeper and deeper, he uncovers some new revelations about his friend Kathy. As the list of suspects grow, things escalate and quickly get a bit out of control.

I liked this crime mystery well enough, but I realized well into the story that this is the 5th book of a series which begins with, The Poacher's Son.....darn. So for me, there were some characters and some back history that would have made this a more enjoyable experience if I had read the other books first.  I loved the backwoods Maine setting, which played out so well in this story. I also liked the way the suspense grew gradually, but I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. Not sure whether I'll go back to read the first (4) books in the series at this point, but I still enjoyed the audiobook experience -- great narrator as well -- Henry Levya.

3.5/5 stars

(library audio book)