Cleeves’s 4th Detective Matthew Venn novel opens during a heat wave in North Devon, an area Cleeves know well, having grown puu there, and she puts this sense of local knowledge to great use in her setting.
Venn’s new case starts off with the body of young woman found floating in the pool of MP Paul Armstrong’s vacation home. The dead girl, Lottie Caldwell, is friends with Hannah Armstrong, who appears to be missing. With the girls arriving before the family at the end of their exams, they’ve had a few days alone to celebrate, and also it will be revealed to create a particular brand of disquiet in the small town of Millscombe.
The Armstrong parents and two young brothers arrived to find Lottie’s body and Hannah missing. Could this be a kidnap gone wrong? Until tragedy strikes again, and suddenly Venn and his closeknit team have a double murder to solve. With a local folk festival in the area over the past weekend, a nearby farmer’s family who Hannah’s grown close to, and the local pub owners involved with the girls first days home, the suspect pool quickly widens.
There is a sense of claustrophobia in the setup of the local area, with everyone knowing everyone else’s business, and their gossip pervades every aspect of Venn’s investigation. It doesn’t help matters that he’s struggling with his husband Jonathan’s decision to find his birth mother.
The book has a terrific atmospheric sense of setting that buttresses the vivid characters, all finely drawn, distinctive and individual. Introspective and at times unsure of himself, Venn is Vera Stanhope’s direct opposite, yet just as worthy a detective with his own way of pursuing an investigation, and his belief that his leads will come from learning about the victim’s lives and of those around them. How we are perceived can vary greatly, as can what will be said about people when they are alive versus when they are dead. The secrets these characters keep must also be prised open to get to the heart of the matter.
Intriguingly plotted, at times the reader feels as Matthew Venn must, that the elusive truth is just hidden around the next corner, a wisp of reality waiting to be seen. And when the shocking ending occurs, it must be said that it was there all the time in our view and yet remained unseen.
The author of the popular Vera and and Shetland series does not disappoint. This is terrific writing and stands up with the best Cleeves has written. Highly recommended.
