The Dark Wives: A Vera Stanhope Novel 11

By: Ann Cleeves

Narrated by: Janine Birkett

Vera Stanhope, star of ITV's Vera, returns in the eleventh novel in Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller Ann Cleeves' acclaimed series.

The man's body is found in the early-morning light by a local dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up.

DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death. Her only clue is the disappearance of one of the home's residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera can't bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can't dismiss the possibility.

Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell are soon embroiled in the case; and, when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumbrian countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact.

Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, but it seems that the dark secrets in their community may be far more dangerous that she could ever have believed possible.

Not one of her best

The narration was patchy. Vera’s voice was clear and as expected, but the accents for the others were quite odd at times. In terms of the story, I’ve recently listened to the inspector Ramsay series and this felt more like one of them - where everything is kept to the end and it finishes quite abruptly. The Vera stories used not to be like that. I’ll read the next one when it comes out, but I’m hoping a bit more thought goes into it.