The dark wives by Ann Cleeves

The Dark Wives is the 11th addition to the familiar Book and TV Vera Stanhope series. As always Ann Cleeves’ wonderful writing had me compulsively reading to the end - and not guessing who dunnit! A young man’s body is found outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens. Josh has been working at the home and didn’t show up the previous night. A fourteen-year-old girl, Chloe Spence, has also disappeared from the home. Chloe’s parents have died and she has refused to live with her grandparents and Vera knows she must find her. Is she connected to the murder? With Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, Vera is soon involved following clues to Chloe’s where-abouts. When another body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the Northumberland countryside and it is connected to Josh’s murder and Chloe’s disappearance, dark secrets begin to emerge and Vera and her team are in a race to uncover the identity of the murderer.

This is a well plotted mystery and shows Vera in a new light. She is grieving and is trying to be more sensitive to the needs of her team. She has a new DC, Rosie who is a city girl but is keen to get on the right side of Vera, who does keep her thoughts about the case from her team. This frustrating for Joe and Rosie, but Vera’s experience and intuition comes to the fore with a surprising conclusion to the book that I didn’t see coming. It was good to see the quiet Charlie play a pivotal role in the expose of the villain. The background of how children end up in care homes, the lack of funding for social workers and private industry trying to make a profit adds another dimension to the story.

I really enjoy the Vera Stanhope books and look forward to more books in the series. They are easy to read, have in-depth backgrounds and familiar characters, a wonderful combination for lovers of mysteries.

Themes: Murder, Children's homes.

Pat Pledger