- The Darkest Evening, by Anne Cleeves. Macmillan. $32.99.
Anne Cleeves has written over 30 crime novels and is the creator of both Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez, the detectives in the popular TV series, Vera and Shetland.
Cleeves was awarded the highest accolade in British crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger, in 2017. Presenting the award, Martin Edwards, Chair of the CWA, said: "It's a lifetime achievement award, and above all it recognises excellence in writing. But it also recognises a significant contribution to the crime writing world. And nobody can deny that Ann Cleeves' contribution has been magnificent."
The Darkest Evening is the latest novel about Vera Stanhope and her murder unit, set in the North East of England. It's December, approaching the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and Vera, driving home in a blizzard in the dark, is panicking.
"Halfway home, she's known the journey was a mistake. She should have listened to the team and spent the night in Kimmerston, waiting for the storm to blow over but she thought she knew better."
Vera misses the turn for home and, disoriented, almost drives into the back of a car that has slewed off the road. The driver's door is open and, in the back, Vera finds a small child strapped into a seat. She takes the child and drives towards distance lights shining from Brockburn House, the run-down ancestral home of the Stanhopes. Hector, Vera's father, had been the black sheep of the family.
Vera interrupts a Christmas party inside but outside, Lorna, the young mother of the abandoned child is found murdered in the snow. Why had she driven to the Stanhope estate in a blizzard and why had she abandoned her child?
Vera, as a teenager, had loved reading traditional detective stories, "Agatha Christie . . . country houses, vicars, butlers and wills". She believes this case could be a contemporary classic country house mystery. The challenge for Vera and her team is to find the connection between Lorna and the Stanhopes.
Cleeves has said that she created Vera because she was "so cross with even feminist writers writing female central characters who were young, fit and beautiful. Vera isn't any of those things". Rather, she is "large and shabby". When she arrives at Brockburn House she is wearing Wellingtons and a knitted hat. She resembles "the homeless people . . . outside Newcastle Central station, wrapped in threadbare blankets, begging". However she is also clever, indomitable and a force of nature.
The Darkest Evening is a chilling story, both literally and figuratively, about families, inheritance and obsessive behaviour. As the weather warms here and restrictions continue, it's the perfect time to lose yourself with Vera in the snow.
