These friends have been reuniting at Holy Island for 50 years and one of them died 5 years ago by the rising tide. Now it’s the first time they are getting back together since only to find out another friend in the group has died but this time of an alleged hanging. Was this accidental or was it murder? Dundunduuuuun. That is where detective Vera is called in to figure out this mystery!

I did not know this was part of a series before reading. I didn’t feel like I missed anything; could definitely be a standalone novel.

It’s your classic detective/whodunit story. Nothing too new or groundbreaking.

The author does a good job developing the characters and handling the multiple POVs. It was easy to keep everyone and their story straight.

I would recommend if you wanted an easy read but nothing too special here. Then again, this book has such a high rating so I could very well just be missing something or have my expectations way too high.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I’m a huge Vera fan but on the screen. This is the first time I have read one of her books. The book was just as wonderful as the show. If your a fan of this series and want more I would suggest the tv show. They are very close together. Highly recommended.

Book: The Rising Tide
Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: DI Verna Stanhope #10
Audiobook Narrator: Janice Birkett
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: British Mystery
Pub Date: September 6, 2022
Rating: 3.6 rounded up Stars

School friends met fifty years ago on Holy Island (Lindisfarne) for a bonding experience. It was so successful many of them continue to meet every five years. They cannot help but remember the first time as Isabel Hall tragically died. This year another member journalist Rick Kelsall is found hanging from a vaulted ceiling.
Vera Stanhope is called to investigate, she is suspicious that his death it not suicide but murder.
Information is discovered about Rick including allegations of harassment.
Investigation is interesting is this somehow connected to what happened 50 years ago????

Since I have read other Detective Vera Stanhope stories, I knew the plot just might be a bit complicated!
Yep! Ann Cleeves did not disappoint.

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 6, 2022

The selection of the perfect narrator makes all the difference in the world. Ann Cleeves never disappoints with crusty, super Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope and her team. As a fan of the British drama Vera, the key to enjoying the audiobooks is the narrator. I felt like I was listening to Brenda Blethyn tell the story. which was engagin an twisty leaving you guessing to the end.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope books are always a cause for celebration, and this one is no different. The plot is taut, and though you *might* guess the ending/whodunnit (Cleeves certainly has a formula, and I, for one, feel like I'm starting to catch on) there are enough distractions in the plot to keep you off balance.

45 years ago, at the first reunion of the students who attended a new "retreat" for their grade in junior high called "Only Connect," Isabel Hall died in her car after getting caught on the causeway of Holy Island at high tide. Now, after meeting every 5 years to reunite, another of this group of old friends will die under suspicious circumstances. Is it a suicide? Vera doesn't think so, and she sets out to solve which of the friends from that original weekend retreat is responsible (if any).

As usual, Janine Birkett is sublime, embodying Vera and turning her hand to numerous UK accents with apparent ease.

Cleeves has several series, but this one is by far my favorite. Gonna take me a little while to recover from this one! IYKYK

A group of friends has been meeting for reunions on Holy island, where that had their first trip there for school. While the group has stayed in touch throughout their lives, it is a diverse group with very different lives. A reverend. A famous tv personality. A cook. One ends up murdered during their most recent stay. Who would do this? The story was interesting with unique characters. I did feel it took a bit long to get to the resolution. Overall a good read.
*** huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ann Cleeves reaffirms why she is the doyenne of British mystery crime writing with this 10th installment in the Vera Stanhope series. This Brit Box subscriber was (once again) captivated.

Five schoolmates attended a team building event fifty years ago and have be reuniting at the site every five years since. Murders in the past and present have Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope and her trusty colleagues unraveling 5 decades worth of secrets, culminating in an another classic and highly satisfying ending.

The atmospheric Holy Island in Northumberland is the novel’s idyllic setting and I was happily transported to the streets and lanes, tea shops and guest cottages. Providing the perfect counterbalance is the ominous coastal tide, which conceals and exposes both the shoreline and the mystery - with deadly consequences.

A blend of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club and Jane Harper’s crime fiction, I encourage other readers to try this as a stand alone or dive into the series.
Expected publication: 9/6/22

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I am late to the party of reading the Vera Stanhope series (not just watching the wonderful tv series). I’m loving the more in-depth experience that a book allows.
The story involves a group of older friends. They’ve been meeting every five years for fifty years at Holy Island, the site of a school trip. The same place where one of the group died at the first reunion. Cleeves takes the time to introduce us to each of the friends and the death doesn’t occur for several chapters. The death initially looks like a suicide, but Vera quickly cottons to it being a murder. There are numerous suspects and I never did cotton to the actual one. I did find a few loose ends that I wish had been cleared up.
Cleeves excels in character development. There are multiple POVs, including each of the team and some of the suspects. The almost rivalry between Joe and Holly works well and I like that this team isn’t the seamless group that other series have. The ending really caught me off guard.
I have not read all of this series and each book can definitely be read as a stand-alone.
I must be getting used to Janine Birkett’s voice because it didn’t bother me as much with this book.
My thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio/St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

Every five years, for almost fifty years, a group of friends comes to Holy Island, a quiet place off Northumberland's coast, frequently cut off from the mainland because of the tides, for a weekend full of memories, good food, and drinking. They agree with the phrase "60 is the new 40" and subconsciously still see each other the way they were at school, where they met many years ago. Philip, Annie, Rick, and Luisa took very different paths in life, choosing TV fame, family life, or religion. Every one of them had their share of tragedies and joys, yet the reunions seemed to rejuvenate them continually. This time, however, the good times are brutally interrupted by a murder, and Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is called upon to solve the case, which is almost a "locked-room mystery" because of the island's tidal isolation.

Well, there is a mystery to solve, but it's not just one mystery. The relationships inside the group are complicated and not easy to define. This is not just one happy bunch of people enjoying their time together. Unexplained death in the group at their first reunion casts yet another shadow on the events. Everything is enveloped in a dense fog, just like the island, and Vera has to possess the ability to look through the mist.

"The Rising Tide" is my first Vera series mystery, and I was impressed by its quality. I particularly liked the main character – she is a brilliant woman and, despite her rough exterior, a warm, sensitive one. She has a gift of understanding people well, perhaps because she is far from ideal. She prefers comfortable clothes – has been mistakenly taken for a cleaning lady – likes having a pint in a bar, values professionalism in her work, and knows how to utilize her team's strengths. We also learn that she is not a fan of the exercise, although she can spring into action with impressive stamina when necessary.

I also became enamored by the book's location. Holy Island is a mysterious and charming place where you can go bird watching in the morning and have a beer at the local pub later. If you aim at the time frame when the tide washes over the island causeway and the island becomes inaccessible, you can get stuck there forever. And it might not be a bad idea.

I was listening to the audiobook version, so I should mention the narrator. Janine Birkett did an outstanding job. I like her take on accents and different voices. They are distinct but not over the top.

The Rising Tide
A Vera Stanhope Novel
by Ann Cleeves
Narrated by Janine Birkett
4 stars for the story 2.5 stars for the narrator
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the early listen. Interesting story, interesting people. I did enjoy the story but the narrator made it a bit difficult to follow all the different characters. Didn't have a voice for all the characters. I would recommend reading over listening with this book.

Vera Stanhope book ten. I have read and enjoyed this entire series and I only have one complaint about this one. I cannot say what happened at the end that I did not like because it was a shock to me and would be a big spoiler.
Otherwise it was well written as usual and the audiobook was excellent. Janine Birkett is a very good narrator.
This was a slightly sad story with crib death, aging, and dementia and that event at the end but it was still very good.
I do think this is a series you need to read from the beginning to understand the characters and why they are the way they are. If not, you do a disservice to the series, the author and yourself.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves in exchange for an honest review. I have loved the show Vera for years and watched it with my mom. She loved the books as well and read everything by Ann Cleeves, but I hadn't tried anything. She died four months ago and I felt the need to be closer to her through books. I got the advance copy of this book and have listened to the whole thing in one day. I understand why my mom loved these books so much and it gives me a greater appreciation of Vera, I really like her character and feel such a kinship with her.

I haven’t read the rest of the books. I just dived straight into this installment and I felt like the author did a wonderful job in starting a book where a reader can just pick up and feel like they know the main character, Vera.
I thought the premise was interesting but the story dragged a bit for me. There’s a flurry of characters that Vera was investigating and I liked how they were also following leads for a previous death that happened on the island. I enjoyed the descriptions of the island as well.
The narrator, Janine Birkett narrates the book. I wasn’t a fan of the high pitched voice she would use. But I felt like she used a range of tones and inflections that portrayed a variety of emotions very well.
Overall, I enjoyed the story as the author gave us a bit of a shock there at the end and I feel a bit of a hangover. I hope to start at the beginning to get a better idea of Vera’s beginning.

Special thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the ALC.

Friends have been meeting for fifty years on Holy Island to celebrating how they met and the friends they lost five years after. But today, one of the friends just died and Vera is set to solve the case. But the more she digs, the more she finds that the friends have secrets... Can she find who did it before someone else dies?
This is book 10 in the Vera Stahope series, but the very first I read by this author. It is a detective novel, and I have to say, I did not really enjoy it. I listened to it as an audio book, and though the narration was good, it just could not hold my attention. Although this book can be read without having read the first nine in the series as the investigation opens at the beginning and is finished at the end, I'm definitely interested in diving back into the first book of the series to get some character background and development. I will give the physical copy a chance!
I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and MacMillan Audio, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Vera got me again. She is a master at keeping me on edge throughout this book! I didn’t figure it out, although I was brought into her confidence many times! Her deductive reasoning is acute in this tome and her grief is raw, So raw I’m not sure how she will recover. As she intends to grieve and howl to contend her heart she will carry these events into her next cases.

Beautiful narration making the complex details come alive. Read/listen to it you will love how Vera’s story continues on!

I really, really loved listening to this audiobook! It hooked me from the very beginning and really kept me on my toes the entire time! Such a thrilling conclusion!

Penultimate detective Vera Stanhope is called in when a school reunion ends in murder. A group of school friends has been meeting for fifty years to reminisce and remember the classmate who drowned on the causeway five years earlier. Now, another of the friends is dead, found hanged following a disturbing accusation at work led to a dismissal. Vera believes both deaths were murders, made to look like an accident and a suicide and know the answer lies with the remaining friends, now she just has to get them to talk. Fans never tire of Vera, the detective many choose to dismiss because of her gender and appearance, much to their peril