Monday, October 16, 2023

The Raging Storm

Title: The Raging Storm
Author: Ann Cleeves
Published: September 5, 2023 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover 383 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Two Rivers #3

First Sentence: The man blew into Greystone at the height of a September gale.

Blurb: When Jem Rosco—sailor, adventurer, and legend—blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own.

This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Venn finds his judgment clouded.

As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one, including himself, is safe from Scully Cove’s storm of dark secrets.(GoodReads)

My Opinion: Sometimes I wonder if I am smart enough to read an Ann Cleeves novel since I seem to be the last to the party.

It could be that because I am rewatching the Vera television series, but part of this book seemed familiar but also different at the same time. Matthew Venn is not Vera Stanhope, but they both approach the “dead body in the boat” the same way, and as their investigations broaden, other secrets come to life.

There is no way that I would have been able to guess the ultimate person responsible for the murder of the local celebrity, but I’m not sure that is what Ann Cleeves wanted. By the time I finished, I thought Greystone was the main character in the book and the body was secondary. The dark, gloomy, superstitious town of rumors and side-eye is what carried the novel through.

Of course, I will continue with Matthew Venn since his story is still coming to light, and one day, I hope to, not exactly be a step ahead, but at least not a football field behind.

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