Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope, 2)

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Not too much to say about this one. It was fine. I was bored though for the first 1/3 until we get Vera interacting with characters. Any time Cleeves is away from her I found myself bored. The ending was very good though and a surprise. I liked how it was wrapped up. Before she committed suicide, Jeanie Long was imprisoned for ten years for the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. She protested that she was innocent, and finally, killed herself when probation was denied again. Her death came just before a witness came forward to exonerate her. To the small community of Elvet, that means the killer might still be alive, and might be there.

For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries. The MacMillan audio edition of Telling Tales, read by Julia Franklin, was shortlisted for an 'Audie' Award for best Mystery. One of my favorite characters is Vera Stanhope. I met her first in a book written by Anne Cleeves, but then I saw the most wonderful TV series about Vera Stanhope starring Brenda Blethyn. This is my favorite series, and I have seen every police/procedural starting with Morse. I didn't expect the final reveal. Those cleverly disguised dead ends had me completely fooled, which is just the way I like it. But I was sorry to say goodbye."— Crime Fiction Lover Ten-years-ago when Emma Winter moved to the village of Elvet, East Yorkshire and her early days were filled by her sole friendship, with the vibrant and ethereal beauty of best friend, fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. Both misfits in their own way, Emma longed for escape to the Old Chalet and Abigail’s glamorous lifestyle with her widowed and charismatic father, Keith. Within six-months of moving to Elvet, Emma’s life was blighted by the discovery of her friends body, strangled to death. The much younger girlfriend of Keith, Jeanie Long, was sentenced to life imprisonment, unable to offer a corroborated alibi and given her fractious relationship with Abigail and Keith asking her to move out of the home she had spent three-months living at. However, ten years later and turned down for parole, Jeanie Long’s suicide prior to a new witness coming forward sees DI Vera Stanhope casting fresh eyes over an investigation that the neighbouring force of Yorkshire originally presided over. It doesn’t take Vera too long to unsettle villagers and enthuse Elvet with her mischievous energy and get to grips with the very ferocity of human emotions and the lengths that it can drive people to.From Ann Cleeves— New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes Telling Tales. As the story opens, we meet Emma, who is married and the mother of a young baby. We soon learn that ten years earlier, at the age of fifteen, Emma discovered the murdered body of her best friend, Abigail Mantel, lying in a field. Abigail’s father’s girlfriend Jeanie Long was convicted of the murder and recently committed suicide when she was denied parole. As if that wasn’t enough to stir up grim recollections for the residents of the tiny village of Elvet, it turns out that a witness has come forward and exonerated Jeanie just days after her death—which can only mean that Abigail’s killer is still at large. Ann Cleeves is the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels. In 2017 she was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA 'Diamond Dagger'. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV's Vera, BBC One's Shetland and ITV's The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide. 2022 marks 30 years of publishing with Pan Macmillan. Ann is very good at presenting people's thoughts and reactions. Vera is not a handsome woman and seems to appear when least expected. The interplay in interviews is always interesting and well reported through the thoughts of those involved on top of their conversations. Who are you?” Emma demanded. Then, before the woman could answer, remembering Dan’s earlier warning, “Are you a reporter?”

Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite writers. I have read several of her Shetland Island series and now have started the Vera Stanhope series. I wish the Vera series was shown on the PBS in my area. She is a layered writer where as each chapter progresses, the reader know more about the characters. A young teenage girl was murdered 10 years ago and someone was imprisoned for the crime. Now it is proven that the girl who went to jail was innocent but it is too late for that girl. Vera is sent to reopen the case and solve the murder from the past. In this book, a woman is found to be innocent if a crime if which she was convicted. The citizens of Elvet are in an uproar, and we wonder is their own guilt or the fact that old memories will once again come to the fore. DCI Vera Stamhope is called in to give this case a new view, and in her own inimitable way, she plows ahead. Vera does not play around, she looks for the clues, and she builds her case. Her years of experience give her the edge, and she uses every little bit that she can. The ending seemed a little rushed to me, after spending much of the book with character development and putting all of Stanhope's wit to finding the answers. This book is well written and plotted. I didn’t like it as much as I like Ms. Cleeves’ Shetland series, but this is the first Vera novel I have read, so I’ll suspend judgment on it. I liked Vera. She strikes me as a good investigator and although she has her doubts about herself, she is both tenacious and stubborn in her search for the killer. She had imagined nothing of the sort. Not tonight. When she had first met him she had dreamed of him out on the dark sea. Somehow now, the romance had gone out of it. Cleeves' portrayal of rural life is as far removed from chocolate box as you could hope for. The natural world here is all-powerful, striking rather than pretty and relationships in the community as bitter as the winds that scour the coast. Whether detailing the domestic world, life with a small baby or the work of the pilots on the ships, Cleeves has an accomplished eye. An excellent psychological thriller."

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Cleeves offers up evocative settings and flawed characters with depth, making her mysteries wonderfully addictive. Her latest is no exception.”— Library Journal (starred) James shook his head. ‘I’ve come off a Latvian container. Hull to sign off, then I drove straight home.’

I don’t suppose it’ll make much difference to Em. Not after all this time. I mean it’s not as if she knew Jeanie, not so much. She was very young when all that was going on.’ The identity of the murderer – for there is only one – comes as a complete surprise; at least to me it did. Of course a couple of the main characters were so creepy, I should have figured it out before I was told.It has been ten years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie’s innocence. Abigail’s killer is still at large. She wanted to shout at him, Of course I know. I know more about this case than you ever could. But she just looked at him. There was no mention of Jeanie Long in the sermon and Emma thought perhaps the vicar had not heard about the suicide, but her name was there, along with Elsie Hepworth and Albert Smith, in the prayers for the deceased. Sitting with Matthew on her lap, looking down on the bent heads of the congregation who were kneeling, she tried to conjure up an image of Jeanie.