THE DARKEST EVENING

 4 stars out of 5

After reading one of this prolific author's

other books - The Long Call - and giving it the highest 5-star rating, I was eager to start this one, the ninth in the Vera Stanhope series. I've not read any of the others, but that wasn't a problem at all. I think perhaps it would have been nice to know more about Vera and her teammates as I read this one, but at no time did I feel disadvantaged because of it.

I will say it had me looking up British words and phrases; I've read quite a few books set in merry old England and surrounding countries, plus our daughter-in-law is from London and still has her beautiful English accent, so I'm well acquainted with "torch," "jumper," "biscuits" and women who "fall pregnant" (that last one always makes me chuckle; I'm familiar with getting "knocked up," but down? Nuh uh). But I encountered quite a few new terms here, although that's certainly not a complaint. It just sent me to Google a few more times than usual. 

Truth be told, though, I never quite warmed up to Vera - maybe because it seemed her co-workers seemed more tolerant of her than loving. But that's okay; I didn't need to love her to thoroughly enjoy the story. It begins as Vera is driving through a hazardous snowstorm in Northumberland and spots a car that's slid off the road. One of the doors is open, so she stops to help and finds a young child in the back seat. Who, she wonders, would leave a child alone in this weather? She grabs the child, leaves a note in the car, and heads for the nearest warm place - which happens to be the estate of her mostly estranged relatives. She hasn't been here in a long time and, understandably, isn't sure who she'll find and how happy they'll be to see her. On the way in, she meets a distraught man on a tractor, who says he just found a woman's body in the snow.

Once in the house, Vera calls in her team to check out the crime scene. Inside, Vera finds the "housekeeper" - a woman who apparently left a promising career to basically clean house and cook for the husband and wife who now own the property and the wife's rather obnoxious mother, who seems to think she runs the place. The night before, they'd hosted a big bash attended by the well-heeled; the husband wants to turn part of the property into a theatre and hit them all up for seed money.

Finally, the body is identified - a troubled young woman who was the baby's mother. From that point on, the goal is to find the killer; unfortunately, there are quite a few who might fit that bill - including Vera's relatives. Then another woman is murdered, raising more questions. But the closer Vera gets to solving the murders, the greater the chance that she might become the next victim. Good book, for which I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review prior to its release.

The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur Books, September 2020); 379 pp.