Apparently I’m the last person in the Western Hemisphere to learn who Vera is. Truly.

That is because I watch so little television, and television is the main way in which Americans know Vera. But this post is about a series of novels by Ann Cleeves, not the (apparently well-known) TV show based on them. Unfortunately I can’t say a lot about the series, since I’ve read only one of the novels — the ninth of eleven — and seen none of the television episodes.

Normally I prefer to start a series at the beginning, but in this case I’m more than happy just to tell you about #9, The Darkest Evening, because that’s what I just recently finished reading. Hmmm…darkest evening, rural area, snow…you’re probably thinking about Robert Frost right now. That’s exactly the right thing to do, though you’ll have to move back and forth between Vermont and the north of England. But that’s not as far to go as you might think.

Before I keep rambling, let me focus briefly on characters and setting. I’ll quote from an Amazon reviewer, Barry Ballow:

As always, there are great characters and interactions constructed in artful and knowing detail. Author Cleeves is again interested in human foibles and flawed relationships that lead to emotional traps, but also passages out and exits from those traps. This is an author who often ends her novels with a redemptive flourish.

An excellent read that regular fans of the series will be pleased with. Newcomers to the author’s work will be impressed as well. The novel works well as a standalone story.

I couldn’t have said it better.

The setting is similarly masterful. The reader is convincingly placed in a combination of abandoned coal mines and tenant farming, with Scotland lying just across the way and requiring peeks into the dictionary every ten pages or so. I’m ready for next novel in the series. What comes after 9? Probably 1.

Categories: Books