The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves

Fans of the popular TV series Vera and Shetland are already familiar with their talented author/creator, Ann Cleeves. Now this New York Times Bestselling Author is once again giving us another stellar series featuring the quietly brilliant Detective Matthew Venn. The Heron’s Cry is the second in her Two Rivers Series.

It’s summer in North Devon. Matthew Venn has been called out to a local artisan commune to investigate a heinous crime – a prominent doctor fatally stabbed with a shard of glass. This serious mystery unfolds around the residents of the small, close knit commune hiding secrets of the past and the present.

Detective Venn wonders if the doctor was brutally silenced over something he knew or overheard. Could this possibly have something to do with the doctor’s investigation into the suicide of a young man?

As you follow along with the staunch and methodical Detective Venn, you’ll start wondering if the wealthy and eccentric economist who is renting out his land for the commune, knows more than he’s admitting. You’ll begin to wonder about the farmer’s wife who slipped out of a party during the time of the murder. You’ll be suspicious of a tainted medical executive and his wife.

Even Detective Venn’s husband, Jonathan, is linked to the victim’s daughter…putting even more pressure on the detective. And then another man is found murdered in the same way.

The characters are solidly portrayed and Ms. Cleeves takes her time unraveling them one by one – exposing their flaws and hidden agendas. Detective Venn and his crack team of police find themselves digging into the backgrounds of the commune residents and into the staff of a questionable hospital.

There are no clearcut suspects. Like a deathly quiet Bayou swamp at dusk, it’s eerily still – The Heron’s Cry casts a sense of foreboding as dark and sinister actions start seeping into the plot. How it intricately all ties together is one of Ann Cleeves specialties – and this one is no exception.

The Heron’s Cry is a followup to The Long Call (the first in this new series). Mystery aficionados will definitely want to add this outstanding mystery to their reading list.

The Heron’s Cry is published in the U.S. by Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group who provided the cover photo.