Solid mystery. Not much of a psychological thriller (my preference) but a great “whodunit” to snuggle up with in the Winter. Extremely descriptive & well written!

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

I haven't read any "cozy" books for quite a time now. So not sure if that would fit into that category.

It was a good story, but it did take a bit of time getting used to the cast of characters. It didn't spill the beans until the end. I think I would say it is "Miss Marple meets Columbo."

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read an advance copy of Ann Cleeves latest book to feature the indomitable police Inspector Vera Stanhope.

The eBook I received had some formatting issues, so I can't be sure it was the final version, The version I downloaded had mispellings, flawed paragraph and sentence structures, sentences each on their own paragraphs etc. However, I assume the story in the final publication will be substantially the same as what I was [barely] able to read, since it had a complete feel. Still, because there may be some revisions, I'll keep this review brief and not reference text which might change.

In the last Vera book, her home was burned. In this, we learn it's been repaired [more or less] and she's back on the job, facing danger and doggedly in pursuit of truth and justice. The Darkest Evening explores the concept of home in many contexts, as the stately if crumbly ancestral Stanhope country home is featured. as well as Vera's lonely cottage home. We learn about her background and extended family and background, as well as her more real office family and of course, the families affected by murder most foul. Ah, the secrets people keep and lies they tell themselves and others out of misplaced self preservation.

A young mother is killed on the Stanhope property in the dead of a winter storm on this Darkest Night, her young child left in a car with the door open. We are treated to Vera's intrepid detecting skills despite the complications of family loyalty and disloyaty. It's all in the very best tradition of Cleeves detective books, but this time, unusual for a Vera story, much of the intrigue takes place in a stately country home, in the best tradition of British detective stories where secrets are held, crimes are hidden and clues send us off on tangents before being cleverly solved. There might even be another murder or two to complicate things.

The Robert Frost poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening provides a prominant place in this story, including the title, cleverly interwoven into the frigid wintry atmosphere and choices characters make.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DI Vera Stanhope takes a wrong turn going home during a snowstorm and discovers an abandoned car with a baby inside. Later the young mother is found murdered on the grounds of Vera’s estranged family’s estate. Speculation about the baby’s father is rampant in the small village and leads to several suspects.

The book is #9 in the series but works well as a stand-alone, character-driven mystery. It kept me guessing till the end and I will definitely read more by the author.

If you want a great mystery ann Cleeves is who you need to check out. This book had all the twist and turns you could ever want!

I have read and enjoyed all of the previous Vera Stanhope novels, and this 9th book in the series does not disappoint.

Vera is returning home in a blizzard, and after taking the wrong turn, she comes across a car that has slid off the road. She approaches the car, and finds the drivers door open, and a small child in a car seat in the back. She takes the child, leaves a note saying who she is, and as she drives further down the road she comes across Brockburn house, where she stops to phone for help.

Brockburn is the house that her father, Hector, grew up in, and where her relatives still live. A party has just started, and is interrupted when a local farmer reports finding a woman dead in the snow behind the house.

We follow Vera as she investigates - driven by a personal connection to the house and some of the potential suspects. Holly, one of Vera's colleagues, seems to come into her own a little more in this novel. Vera has to face up to aspects of her life - is she close to retirement, how unfit she is as she has to climb up the steep hills and trails in the dark, how alone she really is and what does family mean.

The author did a wonderful job of painting the scenes for us - detailed enough but without long descriptions - so that I felt I was really there, and cold!

The plot was convoluted, with lots of possible suspects and Vera, Holly and Joe have to dig in to discover what really happened. I finally had an idea of the culprit only a page or so before they were revealed.

This was a great read, and I'm now really looking forward to the next in the series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St.Martins Press for this compelling ARC

I have been a huge fan of both Vera and Shetland TV series on PBS. This was my first opportunity to read a Vera mystery by Ann Cleeves. It was wonderful.

Set during a blizzard on the winter solstice in Northumberland, England on the the Brockburn Estate, home to Vera’s distant family, in fact it is where her father, Hector, was raised. Longtime fans will relish learning more about Vera and her family. The Darkest Evening grabs the reader from the first chapter and keeps them guessing until the very end.

Vera Stanhope is a flawed human being (aren’t we all), but she is a gifted detective. The beauty of the book compared to the TV series, is that the reader is treated to the inner-dialogue of Vera and her two closest colleagues, Joe and Holly. This insight into the minds of the main characters helped me get to know them much better, I absolutely loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur books for the eARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

The latest in the series about detective Vera Stanhope, this winter mystery revolves around the death of a young woman who happens to be found on the estate of Vera's estranged extended family. After becoming lost while driving through a blizzard, Vera happens upon an abandoned car that has gone off the road and subsequently discovers an abandoned toddler in the car as well. This leads her to the manor belonging to her late father's cousins, and the dynamics of her family as well as all of the residents of the estate and the investigating team are what make this murder mystery somewhat interesting. There is never any doubt about an eventual resolution, but the path to reach it is enjoyable.

This is the ninth book in the Vera Stanhope series but it reads like a stand alone. Indeed, I haven't read Vera for a number of years--soon to be corrected--or seen any of the television shows and I didn't feel I had missed anything.

Lost in a blizzard, Vera stumbles upon an abandoned car with a baby in it. Assuming the driver has gone for help, Vera takes the baby and continues to try to find her way She eventually comes across a familiar house.with a fancy party in full swing. It turns out that this isn't just any house, it's Vera's ancestral home. Not only that, but a woman's body is soon discovered on the grounds shortly after her arrival. Is it the mother of the baby?

While there is a murder to be solved, this book is mainly about families, mostly of the dysfunctional kind. We're given a peek into Vera's family background and how her father, the black sheep of the family, was ostracized and Vera cut off from this branch of her family.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was everything I've come to expect from Ann Cleeves: twisty plot, great characters and excellent writing. Best of all is Vera herself .Her interactions with her family, the suspects and her detective team make for a great read. I look forward to reading the Vera Stanhope books I've missed.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for the Advanced Reader Copy provided for an honest review.

The astute and eccentric DCI Vera Stanhope finds herself revisiting her familial past when she finds a toddler in an abandoned car in the midst of a winter storm near her estranged family estate. The story is primarily narrated by Vera, though various other detectives under her supervision lend another point of view and even temper her assumptions as necessary. Narrators also include Vera’s cousin, Juliet, who lives on the Stanhope family estate of Brockburn with an opiniated mother and theater-preoccupied husband.

When a body is found after Vera’s unannounced arrival with the child at the mansion during a dinner party, there were plenty of uniquely blended characters from which to choose a perpetrator. Family, servants, dinner guests, tenant farmers and various other neighbors from their small community are revealed to have tangled relationships with the deceased.

Vera’s kinship to the family at the center of the scene of the crime lends a personal connection to the story as she and her detectives investigate and examine the various possible motives for the murder. The descriptions of the Northumberland countryside and weather were cold, beautiful and melancholy lending a macabre atmosphere for the perfect setting of a murder mystery. Not to mention the title is from one of my favorite poems from which the descriptive words and concepts entwine with both this story and the characters.

Haven’t read the earlier books in this series? Not a problem, I hadn’t either. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Just jump right in. Recommended for both murder mystery aficionados and lovers of strong female characters.

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for home during a snow storm and becomes disoriented on where she is. Vera discovers an abandoned car on the road. There doesn't seem to have been an accident, the driver’s side door is open, and there is a baby in the back seat. Finally able to determine where she is, she takes the baby to Brockburn, home of her wealthy and estranged family set in the wilds of Northumberland to call in the accident. What Vera discovers is while her family was entertaining guests a woman was brutally murdered outside. Vera will have to uncover family secrets in order to solve the case.

The Darkest Evening is the ninth book in the Vera Stanhope series. Ann Cleeves is a "new to me" author and I had not read the previous Vera Stanhope books before starting this one. The plot seemed rather intriguing and the author made it easy to slip into this series with no previous knowledge of the characters. Although the book was entertaining, I didn't really care for any of the characters which made it kind of difficult for me to get into the story. I definitely think many readers will love this novel it just wasn't a good fit for me. That being said I thought the novel was very well written and I am going to check out some of her other novels outside of this series. This novel was a suspenseful mystery with some skeletons in the family closet.

This is the first book I've read in the Vera Stanhope series. I didn't feel like I was missing anything starting with the 9th book.

Vera is lost in a winter storm when she comes upon an abandoned car and inside is a toddler. She carries it to the first home she sees which happens to be her ancestral home, Brockburn. A body of a young woman is found outside in the snow and the mystery starts. I wouldn't call this a thriller but definitely a mystery. Vera, her two assistants, Joe and Holley, put together a bunch of clues. The ending was good, not heart stopping but satisfactory.

I liked Vera. She seemed to be happy in her skin, knew how to handle her crew and was steadfast with a good sense of humor. I look forward to going back and starting the series in the beginning to learn more about her.

Any book by Ann Cleeves is a gift to the reader. Expect a mystery, a police procedural and a character study. The plot is full of twists, turns and red herrings. The characters are vivid and full of life. The Darkest Evening, Cleeves’ new Vera Stanhope mystery, is no exception. A 5 star read.

Vera Stanhope is driving home in a blizzard when she avoids a car that has spun out in the storm. The driver’s door is open. She stops to help and discovers a toddler abandoned in the back seat. She frees the baby and sets out to the nearest house. That house is owned by relatives of Vera’s, her cousin Juliet and husband Mark. They are in the middle of a Christmas party planned as a fundraiser for Mark’s local theater project. Within hours, a local farmer discovers the body of a young woman near the Stanhope house. The body has just been identified as Lorna Falstone when Constance Browne, the retired teacher who owned the car Louise was driving, disappears and is found dead. Vera and her team begin a painstaking investigation. What did Constance Browne know? Who is the father of Lorna’s baby? Who was she visiting regularly in a nearby town? And what do the drawings in her sketch book represent? There are many suspects and good reasons for all of them to have either fathered Lorna’s baby or murdered her or Constance. One suspect does not want his identity to be revealed and Vera barely escapes his plan to silence her.

The Darkest Evening refers to a line from Robert Frost’s Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. It perfectly captures the dark of Northumberland’s snowy winter nights. Descriptive and moody, this is a welcome addition to the Vera Stanhope Series and also a satisfying standalone read.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and especially to Ann Cleeves for this ARC.

THE DARKEST EVENING
BY ANN CLEEVES

This is the 9th book in the Vera Stanhope Series but works out perfectly fine as a standalone novel. This takes place in the UK and features Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope who is refreshing because she is older and wise with experience. It's nice to read a crime mystery featuring an older strong female protagonist. This is a TV series also so it is intriguing to read a whole novel that fills in the gaps that a television version can only accommodate approximately partially edited scenes. Ann Cleeves does a superb job with her characterizations so this novel is really a treat. It is richly atmospheric with brilliant descriptions of the setting of the English countryside. The winter with its snowy and freezing temperatures add a sinister feeling of isolation.

Vera is driving home and it is snowing harder than she thought making the roads treacherous and menacing and suddenly Vera happens upon a car that is parked on the side of the road with a door open. This occurs in the first few pages instantly pulling me into the story. Vera stops and discovers a very young toddler left alone in the car. She doesn't see anybody around so she leaves a note with her name and contact information in case the driver comes back and panics seeing the child missing. She takes the child in her land rover and drives to the nearest house.

The estate that she drives up to has lights on so she goes up to the door and finds a Christmas party in full swing. She also realizes that this house are relatives of hers on her father's side of the family who was the scapegoated black sheep. She reluctantly knocks on the door and she uses the phone to call her team. Meanwhile a man driving a tractor comes in saying he saw the body of a young woman in the snow with his lights. He has come to pick up his daughter's who were acting as waitresses at the party. Who is the young woman dead outside? Who would have a motive to harm her?

Their is soon another body discovered and how are the two dead bodies connected? Thus begins the mystery for Vera and her team to unravel. There will be discoveries of family secrets. Her father's side of the family act like they are a higher class than Vera. Ann Cleeves is an accomplished and talented writer throwing in enough red herrings to keep me guessing which is a good thing. The first part of the book was slower than the second half so once I reached that point I kept on reading straight through. Fans of the genre will enjoy this one and it is okay to read this without the background of the first eight in the series. Now I must go back and read them in order eagerly anticipating number 10 in about a year from now.

Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Thank you to Net Galley, Ann Cleeves and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheDarkestEvening #AnnCleeves #StMartinsPressMinotaurBooksPublishing #NetGalley
THE DARKEST EVENING
BY ANN CLEEVES

This is the 9th book in the Vera Stanhope Series but works out perfectly fine as a standalone novel. This takes place in the UK and features Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope who is refreshing because she is older and wise with experience. It's nice to read a crime mystery featuring an older strong female protagonist. This is a TV series also so it is intriguing to read a whole novel that fills in the gaps that a television version can only accommodate approximately partially edited scenes. Ann Cleeves does a superb job with her characterizations so this novel is really a treat. It is richly atmospheric with brilliant descriptions of the setting of the English countryside. The winter with its snowy and freezing temperatures add a sinister feeling of isolation.

Vera is driving home and it is snowing harder than she thought making the roads treacherous and menacing and suddenly Vera happens upon a car that is parked on the side of the road with a door open. This occurs in the first few pages instantly pulling me into the story. Vera stops and discovers a very young toddler left alone in the car. She doesn't see anybody around so she leaves a note with her name and contact information in case the driver comes back and panics seeing the child missing. She takes the child in her land rover and drives to the nearest house.

The estate that she drives up to has lights on so she goes up to the door and finds a Christmas party in full swing. She also realizes that this house are relatives of hers on her father's side of the family who was the scapegoated black sheep. She reluctantly knocks on the door and she uses the phone to call her team. Meanwhile a man driving a tractor comes in saying he saw the body of a young woman in the snow with his lights. He has come to pick up his daughter's who were acting as waitresses at the party. Who is the young woman dead outside? Who would have a motive to harm her?

Their is soon another body discovered and how are the two dead bodies connected? Thus begins the mystery for Vera and her team to unravel. There will be discoveries of family secrets. Her father's side of the family act like they are a higher class than Vera. Ann Cleeves is an accomplished and talented writer throwing in enough red herrings to keep me guessing which is a good thing. The first part of the book was slower than the second half so once I reached that point I kept on reading straight through. Fans of the genre will enjoy this one and it is okay to read this without the background of the first eight in the series. Now I must go back and read them in order eagerly anticipating number 10 in about a year from now.

Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Thank you to Net Galley, Ann Cleeves and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheDarkestEvening #AnnCleeves #StMartinsPressMinotaurBooksPublishing #NetGalley

I have been a fan of the Vera television series for years, but I had never read any of Ann Cleeves novels. I was excited, therefore, to have the have the opportunity to read one, The Darkest Evening.
Being a fan, I could easily visualize Vera and her fellow detectives as they searched for the murderer of a young woman, Lorna. Vera has a personal understanding of the landscape, the small town, and some of the people who lived there because she is related to the members of the Stanhope family, who are prime suspects In the murder. The story follows Vera and her team’s efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding Lorna’s murder and the murder of another woman, a retired teacher. So many people seem to be guilty and the murder is not solved easily as the plot twists and turns in so many different directions.
Ann Cleeves describes the actions and the settings thoroughly. In fact, when Vera investigates, it feels like the reader is participating and seeing exactly what Vera saw. Perhaps that is why I really enjoyed reading this novel.
I now plan to read more of Ann Cleeves’ novels. I know other fans of Vera will enjoy it as much as I did, and I know people who are meeting her for the first time will equally like it. It is a very good introduction to this character. I highly recommend it.

My rating: 4 stars! This is my first outing with this author. She was recommended by one of my two favorite authors, Louise Penny and David Baldacci! I find Cleeves's writing is very similar to Penny’s, so once I delved into the first couple of chapters, I knew what I was getting in to! Cleeves kept me guessing right up to the end who did it and why! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed an older, frumpy and somewhat out of shape lead character. The murder almost takes second stage to the background description of the characters and their daily lives ….about the surrounding woods and farms ….even to describing the winter chill! I felt it all! As much as this is a stand alone book, coming into the 9th book, I felt like I have missed a lot of background information and buildup of character. I would definitely be looking into the beginning of the series to do some catch up reading!

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest and unbiased review

The contemporary thrillers I'm used to reading are paced like stallions cantering from the first page to the last. The Darkest Evening is paced like a lovely Clydesdale, trotting across each page so that readers can take in the view.

Vera, the lead character of this detective novel, is older, wiser, and a foodie, which I loved. The setting and dialect of the country characters sometimes gave the book the feel of a historical novel; and then a well placed phrase, action, or object would bring me back to present day. Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for offering an ARC for review.

This was an enjoyable murder mystery. DI Vera Stanhope was driving home in a bad winter storm when she noticed a car on the side of the road with the driver's side door open. The driver was missing, but in the backseat was a baby. The nearest residence was Brockburn, the manor house that was home to relatives of Vera's, although her father (now deceased) was estranged from the family, so she had had little contact with these relatives over the years. Vera takes the baby there, interrupting a fundraising party being held by her cousin Juliet and her husband Mark, who has grand aspirations of turning the rundown manor house into a rural theatre. Vera discovers the car belongs to an older lady, Constance Browne, who lives in the nearby village and who sometimes lends it to her neighbor, Lorna Falstone, who has an infant son. However, while trying to learn more about Lorna, Vera is interrupted by Neil Heslop, a tenant farmer on the Stanhope's land, who has come to pick up his daughters, who were working as waitresses at the party. Driving his tractor to Brockburn, he had come across the body of a woman in the snow; the mystery woman was Lorna.

The identity of the father of Lorna's son is a secret. The efforts to determine the identity of the father and of Lorna's killer, who may or may not be the same person, require Vera and her team to investigate her distant relatives, their family friends, the tenant farming families in the area, and some of the residents of the local village. A number of secrets are exposed and lives are altered, some irrevocably. I liked that the focus was on a relatively small group of people and that while some of the secrets were not really secret from many of the locals, there were a number of individuals who had managed to keep things hidden. I also liked that some of the characters were connected in unexpected ways. The author does a good job of keeping up the suspense regarding the father of Lorna's son and her killer, providing clues as to the possible father and/or killer, only to have the investigation reveal false trails or innocuous connections between certain characters.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Vera Stanhope returns in the ninth story of this English detective. On her way home on a dark, snowy night, she misses her turn and comes upon a car with an open door. She stops to check in the driver, but nobody is nearby. Just before leaving, she hears the cry of a very small child in the backseat. Vera picks up the baby and drives her down the road to the nearest house, called Brockburn. It just so happens that the people living there are relatives, but nobody really likes to acknowledge that. As Vera explains what happened, someone comes to the door and says there is a dead woman right outside.
This is the beginning of a story about murder, police work, and family. The characters are well-developed, and the story keeps you guessing.

Ages ago I was introduced to Ann Cleeves' series Shetland and I enjoyed the few books I read. But this series about Vera Stanhope has completely captured my attention. If you like British police procedurals and an uncoventional detective you are in for a treat.

The setting is Northumbria near the Cumbrian border in December, just before Christmas.

Detective Vera Stanhope is on her way home from work when she is caught in a blizzard. She ought to have waited until the storm passed but being a stubborn woman, set off anyway. After a wrong turn she comes upon a car pulled off, the door open and a toddler strapped in a car seat in the back. No sign of any adult. Vera takes the little boy through the blizzard to shelter at a nearby estate. This manor home is a known to her as it's in the Stanhope family. Her father Hector took her there when she was a child but she never developed relationships with this distant family as Hector was the black sheep of the clan.

After calling the station to get assistance and report a missing woman (Vera assumes it's a woman and most likely the child's mother), a body is discovered near the estate. It is indeed the child's mother and she was most definitely murdered. There are a number of possible suspects, any of which may have motive. This one keeps you guessing and I certainly thought I had it figured out early. Nope! I was wrong. What an ending!

I enjoyed this book very much. As it’s book number nine in the series and I’ve only read book one previously, I obviously missed some character development. There is a detective named Holly who seems to want Vera's approval and I sensed reading she is either a new character to the series or I've missed important developments. No matter, it was a smooth read and I never felt like I ought to put it down and start at the beginning of the series.
Foodie Stuff


Wine and mince pies, tea and thin sandwiches, meringues, roasted pheasant cooked slowly in with red wine and shallots, vegetable casseroles for the veggies and vegans, roast potatoes, sprouts and parsnips.
Bread and soup
Eggs Benedict, avocado on sourdough toast

I’m loving the series so plan to make it my goal for the remainder of the year to catch up. I’m on a Vera mission! Much thanks to Netgalley for the advanced complimentary copy. I was not compensated for this review and throughly enjoyed this book.

Publication date is September 8, 2020. Genre is mystery and thriller.