The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves, creator of the popular detectives’ Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez, is the second novel in her latest Two Rivers series featuring Detective Matthew Venn. It follows her Sunday Times bestseller, The Long Call. These are soon to become a major TV series.
During a hot summer in North Devon, Detective Matthew Venn is called to a crime scene in one of the art workshops on a property owned by economist Francis Ley.
Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed by a shard of glass from a vase made by his daughter, Eve, who had found his body. Dr Yeo is a well-liked public servant, heading the North Devon Patients Together organisation.
Who would want to kill him?
Along with his Detective Sergeant, Liverpudlian Jen Rafferty, and his sidekick, Ross May, Matthew tries to piece together the events leading up to the murder.
Then, while attempting to discover the whereabouts of persons connected to the workshops and adjoining farm at the time of the stabbing, another body is found – killed in a similar fashion.
Matthew soon discovers that the local community is not as united as it seems and he needs to work meticulously to sift the truth from the lies.
He is also disturbed to discover that Eve is a good friend of his husband, Jonathan.
After the highly acclaimed “Vera” and “Shetland” series of books, leading to equally popular TV series, Ann Cleeves continues to thrill with her second Matthew Venn novel.
The plot twists and turns like the coastal paths of Devon and each of the characters are finely crafted. After the careful sorting and reconstruction of information, the drama escalates into a fast and furious, edge of the seat finale.
Another must-read from this well-loved and highly regarded author.
ISBN: 9781509889686
The Heron’s Cry is available in hardback, paperback and e-book
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
About Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves is the author of over thirty critically acclaimed novels. In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for her novel Raven Black. In 2017 she was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. Her down to earth creations, Detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez, can now be found on television in ITV’s Vera and BBC one’s Shetland.
Ann was born in Herefordshire and brought up in north Devon where she attended Barnstaple Grammar School; she studied English at the University of Sussex but dropped out and then took up various jobs including cook at the Fair Isle bird observatory, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer.
She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. She lives in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, near where the Vera books are set, and is widowed with two daughters.
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