Ann Cleeves is known for her two mystery series, which have both been turned into successful crime dramas: the Vera Stanhope books, which became the show Vera, and the Shetland mysteries, featuring Detective Jimmy Perez in Shetland. Cleeves excels at creating believable, flawed characters in dramatic settings.
The Long Call is the initial book in a third series, set on the Devonshire coast. Fans of Jimmy and Vera are sure to love Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Matthew is a newlywed, happy, but still uptight, and trying to become more relaxed, like his husband, Jonathan, who runs a successful town project called the Woodyard Centre. The Woodyard provides services for the needy and the mentally handicapped, and is the focus for the arts in their small town.
Partly because of his job, however, and partly because of his upbringing in a puritanical sect called the Brethren, Matthew remains formal and reserved. He is observing his father's funeral from afar, not welcome to attend, when he gets a call that a body has been found on the Devon beach, a scant distance from his and Jonathan's home. When the dead man is discovered to have ties to the Woodyard, possibly implicating members of the staff, Matthew has to let down his own guard and allow his team to help him catch a killer in a case that strikes far too close to home. Moody and tense, The Long Call will more than satisfy Cleeves's many existing fans and new readers alike. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.