The Seagull

Vera Stanhope, Book 8

By: Ann Cleeves

Narrated by: Janine Birkett

A body, a nightclub – and long-buried memories. Set in Northumberland, The Seagull is the eighth book in Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series – now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera.

Obsession never dies . . .

When prison inmate and former police officer John Brace says he’s willing to give up information about the location of a dead body in return for protection for his family, Vera knows that she has to look into his claims.

But opening up this cold case strikes much closer to home than Vera anticipates as her investigation takes her back in time to The Seagull, a once-decadent and now-derelict nightclub where her deceased father and his friends used to congregate.

As Vera’s past collides dangerously with the present, she will have to confront her unwanted memories and face the possibility that her father was involved in what happened. The truth is about to come out, but is Vera ready for what it will reveal?

'Another jewel in her crown' – Mick Herron, author of Slow Horses

The Seagull is the eighth crime novel in the Vera Stanhope series. Enjoy more of Vera's investigations with book nine, The Darkest Evening.

Critic reviews

Another jewel in her crown (Mick Herron, author of Slow Horses)

A thoroughly engrossing thriller (The Mail on Sunday, on The Rising Tide)

Cleeves’s Northumberland novels are strong on atmosphere, combining old-fashioned detective work with a modern take on class

Who doesn’t love ‘large and shabby’ Vera Stanhope, the blunt detective in Ann Cleeves’s Northumberland police procedurals? She is already one of the genre immortals (The New York Times, on The Darkest Evening)

If you’re a fan of ITV’s crime drama Vera, you’ll love the books that inspired the series

not as good as her others. unfortunate performance

I have listened to all of Ann cleeves audible titles. They make for a pleasant listening.
The narrator’s choice was unfortunate. Her voice is quite up to it. However, the freedom she takes in acting out the ‘spirit’ of the text is jarring. She chooses to manifest a different character to each person. Somehow, most of them -male & female- get a high-pitched shrieking squeak, and worse, outrageously peculiar accents.

This actually makes listening annoying.
In this book the writer tried a different kind of mystery. It involves murders that took place 20 years previously. This can be a success. But here ann cleeves did not master this genre, and I found myself rather indifferent to these old bones---