fans of Cleeves lamenting the end of the 'Shetland' series will find much to love in her new characters and setting.'- Library Journal (starred)

'The plotting is complex and intriguing, the location comes alive, and the resolution satisfies. 'Cleeves' acclaimed Shetland series may be history, but her newest detective-buttoned-up, gay, married, ex-evangelical Matthew Venn-is a righteous successor.'- People 'Cleeves's true strength lies in her descriptions of the natural world, gorgeously captured.'- New York Times Book Review The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.Ī St. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crimefighter.'-David Baldacci “In Matthew Venn, Ann has created a complex, daring, subtle character.” -Louise Penny The Long Call from Ann Cleeves-bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows-introduces the first in a gripping new series, told with deep compassion and searing insight.

NOW A BRITBOX SERIOUS STARRING BEN ALDRIDGE AND PEARL MACKIE Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC I can’t wait to learn more about Matthew and his earlier life as well as get to know Jonathan and the other people of the village.” The Long Call is a terrific police procedural that deals with lots of sensitive issues in a straightforward, matter-of-fact manner. I immediately fell in love with the area of North Devon and with Matthew, his husband Jonathan, and his fellow police officers.

“Ann Cleeves made up for ending the Shetland series by introducing us to a new series starring Detective Matthew Venn. Keith Vient, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC Winter 2020 Reading Group Indie Next List An expertly plotted mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final pages.”

A murder on a beach in Venn’s hometown on the English coast leads to a kidnapping, and as the pacing picks up, the suspects get ever closer to Venn’s personal life. In this new mystery, Ann Cleeves introduces us to Inspector Matthew Venn, who embodies his diagram namesake as a character caught between his past and his future.

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