The Raging Storm is the third in the Matt Venn series by Ann Cleeves, I have not read the previous books and felt I could understand the characters and the plot. It starts when Jem Rosco, a local boy made good as a sailing hero returns to his hometown of Greystone. But then, his dead body is found in a dinghy anchored in Scully Cove and Matt and his team are called in to investigate. It’s an uncomfortable situation for Matt as this town is the home of the conservative church that tossed him out. This isn’t a fast paced story. It’s a cerebral police procedural, expecting the reader to pay attention. The author has a way of describing the scenery and the storm that makes you feel like you are there. Her characters are not perfect, but rather perfectly flawed, if that makes sense. The detectives each have their own personal issues and personality flaws, but they are all likeable and extremely good at their jobs.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Ann Cleeves.

So was sent an ARC of this book to review, my first by the author and realize I’m an outlier but I didn’t love it, struggled to finish it and feel I’m being generous with my three stars. Took so much back and forth with weird descriptions to uncover any truth and about 60% of the story was unnecessary to lead to the ending that we finally arrived at. Which was pretty underwhelming. It’s a very developed story, which is why i gave the three stars, she can write—just not my cup of tea. Had to look up several phrases and words, which is odd since I read quite a few English/UK authors.

Thanks to netgalley and St Martins press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Another great one in the Two Rivers series. A great amount of characters/suspects and full of twists. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

Matthew Venn and his team investigate the murder of Jem Rosco; "adventurer, sailor and legend," in the third installment of The Two Rivers series. The Raging Srorm takes place in Greystone at Devon, a setting that builds the mood and suspense with its churning ocean, breathtaking cliffs, and threatening storms. Greystone holds toxic memories for Matthew as he soldiers on and conducts the complicated and very suspenseful murder investigation. Although there are several characters, some reappearing and others new, Ann Cleeves writes like nobodies business. The last several chapters were thrilling and the ending, unpredictable and satisfying. Bring on installment three please!!

This is my first AnnCleeves book. I loved the character of Matthew Venn and I’m anxious to read book one and two of the series. Hope they made into a TV series like they did with vVera Stanhope

This book was really difficult to get into. Most of the time I could not keep up with what was going on with the characters or the storyline, perhaps it was me. Lacking. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to the publisher for a free netgalley.

If you like complex police procedurals, then this is the book for you. Cleeves has a masterful way of writing a story with many pieces that all come into place. I struggle a bit at times with the pace of her stories, as I find they are sometimes a bit bogged down. But the way she is able to tie it all together with a completely satisfying ending is what keeps me coming back to this series.

This is the third of Cleeves' stories featuring Matthew Venn. He is a gay detective who lives in Devon. He was once part of a religious cult, the Barum Brethern, but they essentially drummed him out of their society when he came out as gay. Even his parents turned their back on him. In this book, much of the action revolves around a village, known as Greystone, which has a significant proportion of Barum Brethern living in the area. Some are folks Matthew knew as a boy.

Anyway, a boat is found anchored off the coast in a rather isolated cove. There is a body lying within. The victim was clearly murdered, and then posed in the boat, but how could the body get posed in such a way in the middle of a raging storm and with no other boats about to take care of the people who had set the scene? Also, there's no good way to get back to land from the anchored boat even if the people doing the murder had been able to swim to shore. There's no obvious path up to the bluffs overlooking the scene from the shore. At least, that's what people thought.

Anyway, Matthew has to figure all this out, while also dealing with various people associated with the Barum Brethern. It's a fairly decent story, although I haven't found the Matthew Venn stories as gripping as some of Cleeves' other series, such as the <em>Sheltand</em> or <em>Vera</em> series.


#TheRagingStorm #NetGalley

Thank you to St. Martins Press for gifting me a free copy of this book through netgalley.com. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

These are slow moving mysteries that focus more on the people than the murder. Matthew Venn likes to get history on all involved so investigators dig deep to see if there is any connection to the man found dead.

Raging Storm is set in a small town of mostly Brethren families. Outsiders are looked at with unease. Since Matthew grew up Brethren he has an insiders view into their world and can often block the silence. Ross, one of the detectives is pompous and doesn't like Venn's methodical way of working and he is jealous of his coworker Jen and her relationship with the boss. Jen is balancing being a single mom of two kids and being away when they need her.

You get to know these characters over the different books. I'm sure you could read this as a stand-alone but I think you would miss something in the relationships.

I really like this series and love that you don't have to have fast paced action in order to write a good mystery. Sometimes the people themselves provide you enough entertainment.

Celebrity adventurer and sailor Jem Rosco unexpectedly and mysteriously arrives in a small seaside village in Devon county, England, an area in which he grew up. Rosco’s arrival causes quite a stir among the locals, many of whom knew him in his youth. Rosco soon disappears and is found murdered in a small boat mysteriously anchored in a sea cove which is steeped in superstition and somewhat feared by the villagers. Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and his colleagues arrive to embark on the arduous task of solving Rosco’s murder, with Venn battling his own challenging memories of growing up in the same area as part of the Barum Brethren, a cult-like religious group he loathed and repudiated as he matured.

Author Ann Cleeves does an excellent job of developing both characters and plot, using what seemed to me to be a realistic portrayal of police procedure and Venn’s nearly obsessive desire to learn as much background information as possible, even facts that appear to have little relevance, to methodically walk the reader with the detectives towards the solution of the crime. Unlike many crime mysteries, this story doesn’t take shortcuts or use illogical and unlikely events to unravel the mystery and ultimately solve the crime. Cleeves use the weather and physical environment to great effect, making the bleakness of the village almost much an obstacle to the investigation as the reticence of the residents.

This was the third book in a series. I had not read the first two, but had no trouble following this one and am looking forward to reading those books and other works by Cleeves.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for my review.

Once again, Ann Cleeves delivers! A wild, rocky seaside setting. A fundamentalist Christian cult. A closed room murder in the great outdoors.

Matthew Venn and his team are called to a death in Greystone, a place familiar to him. There is a Barum Brethren meeting hall here to which he was brought by his parents as a child. His memories of the place are complicated. He and his team must discover just how Jeremy Roscoe met his untimely end.

With a storm raging, Matthew's team, Jen Rafferty, and Ross May, find themselves stranded in the local pub, the Maiden's Prayer — utilitarian at best. Greystone is not a tourist town.

As is her wont, Ann Cleeves has written a mystery with larger-than-life characters and a plot full of dizzying twists and turns. Her books are cinematic, creating a movie of the mind. THE RAGING STORM is no exception.

The backstory continues to evolve. Jen Rafferty, sergeant, single mother, ambitious, travels into her past taking her kids to stay with the ex's parents. Ross May is a misogynist trying not to be. He is also ambitious but lacks self-control. Joe Oldham, Ross' mentor, and Matthew's nemesis makes a cursory appearance. He does nothing to advance an investigation but makes demands for a fast solution.

As the plot ravels and unravels, you will be drawn into this mystery where nothing is as it seems. Put on your most comfortable clothes — PJs and that ratty old robe — and grab your beverage of choice. Now you're ready to settle into another tangled tale by the brilliant Ann Cleeves.

The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves Narrator, Jack Holden Matthew Venn/Two Rivers Series.
This is book three in the series and I have read them all. I think you get more out of the book if you have read the two previous books. I have to confess that I like the Vera series best, the Shetland series next best and this one comes in third. Truthfully, if I had read this series first I might have not read any other books by this author. It isn’t that the series is not well written, it's just that the main character is not very sympathetic, plus I am getting a bit tired of his problems related to his religious background. After all that, I would still say this is a well written story and it was a compelling read. The ending was a surprise and it was all tied up very well.

Okay, I love Matthew Venn. He’s so sweet but awkward and ultimately determined to do the right thing. He’s such a lovable character. I didn’t much care for the rivalry between Jen and Ross, though, so that tempered a bit of the enjoyment I got from the characters themselves. They were all excellent written with their own motivations and backstories that make them who they are, but there are just those people you kind of wish would get over an aspect of themselves, and that’s these two.

The setting is gorgeously grey, dark, and desolate. It was the perfect setting for the mystery and really leaned into those aesthetics and expectations. At times, Greystone truly felt like another character. And the people living there fit in beautifully. Small town, almost cult-y vibes from them all carved out the most base emotions while reading. It was easy to be intimidated, irritated, and othered by them as we interviewed them alongside Jen, Ross, and Matthew.

The mystery was also so good! I had ideas about who it could have been, but being in the heads of the officers themselves made clues stand out while driving readers along with the red herrings. This is the first in a long time I hadn’t guessed the murderer and was surprised at the end.

Ann Cleeves did an amazing job at intertwining different aspects to create an engaging plot with characters you can root for with realistic habits and actions that humanize them.

The only thing I wasn’t super fond of, but knew was going to be a key part in the series was the child character’s serious illness. Maybe it’s because I’m not a UK reader, but I spent more time wondering what the illness was and it was hard to sympathize with the parent in the right way to keep myself in the story when it was discussed. I tried to look up the disease, but nothing came up and a friend in the UK couldn’t find anything either. Was this a made up illness??

The Raging Storm is the third in Ann Cleeves Two Rivers series featuring Matthew Venn, set in Devon in the north of England by the sea. In this outing, Venn and his team are called to the small, old village of Greystone to investigate a death, one that carries the hallmarks of murder.

Jem Rosco, a son of the village and a sailor and adventurer, suddenly returned to Greystone, staying in a local cottage, regaling locals with stories nightly in the pub and hinting of an upcoming rendezvous with some unknown person. A couple of weeks into his visit, Jem disappeared. Then an SOS call is received and a body is found in a dinghy off a cove.

Venn’s arrival in Greystone is a return of sorts and brings back mixed memories from childhood visits with his parents for Brethren family events. There is a sizable Brethren church presence here and, while it doesn’t interfere with the management of the case, his break with his parents is constantly on his mind. Investigation reveals hidden facts and possible motives throughout the community and in Jem’s past history, keeping the team very busy searching for more evidence and details. As in all of Cleeves’s novels I’ve read, the characters are well developed at virtually all levels and the landscape becomes another character in the story, sometimes affecting the outcome.

Another recommended mystery with excellent characters, story and atmosphere. But I suggest you begin with The Long Call, the first of the Two Rivers series in order to learn more of the characters’s backstory and watch them develop.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. This review is my own.

I was a little disappointed in this book. Devon is a beautiful place, but the writer made is seem very cold, wet and gloomy.. I liked the detective, he seemed very real and so did the two sargents. Story begins in a ragging storm and the weather only improves a little from that point. The local pub is not a welcoming place and it was hard to like any of the characters.. It was necessary to concentrate on this story because there were so many characters and so much going on. I think it would make a good movie, very atmospheric.

Ann Cleeves astounds once again with "The Raging Storm," the third installment in the Detective Matthew Venn series. Cleeves weaves together an atmospheric narrative filled with fierce winds, dark secrets, and deadly intentions.

Set in the charming town of Greystone, Devon, the story kicks off with the arrival of the legendary adventurer Jem Rosco, a man of mystery and magnetism. As the residents marinate in the presence of this celebrity, his sudden disappearance and subsequent discovery of his lifeless body anchor the suspense in a chilling mystery. The stage is set for Detective Matthew Venn to unravel the secrets lurking within Scully Cove, a place steeped in its own eerie legends.

Detective Matthew Venn, a character whose judgment is clouded by his own connection to Greystone, comes to life as he navigates the murky waters of superstition, rumor, and reality. Readers are drawn into his world, feeling the tension that arises from his deep personal ties to the community.

As the winds howl, Cleeves takes readers on a journey that is as much about self-discovery as it is about solving a mystery. Venn's introspection makes it more than just a whodunit; it's a psychological exploration of the human condition.

Cleeves' writing, as described by The New York Times, evokes a unique sensation akin to ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). It's a delicate balance between the dark and cozy, a fine line where tension thrives but never becomes overwhelming. This approach allows readers to sink comfortably, relishing the spine-tingling moments.

"The Raging Storm" reveals Cleeves' skill in creating an atmospheric setting that becomes a character in itself. Greystone, with its secrets and legends, comes alive, immersing readers in a world where the storm is not just meteorological but also metaphorical. It's a place where the past and present collide, and where the line between truth and legend blurs.

I love the small towns and remote, almost wild locations where Cleeves sets her stories and that here the final resolution isn’t totally sad or seedy. There’s angst, but it’s not of the hidden abuse or sexually deviant kind that so often populates these procedurals. I enjoyed the unraveling of the puzzle here, and didn’t guess the ending. My only complaint is that I can’t stand the personal drama of the detectives. They are all annoying and it became repetitive.

This review is going to start very differently than my others. My mother loves Ann Cleeves. She sings this author's praises left and right. Now, in my case, mom always knows best! She's the one who introduced me to Elizabeth George, Louise Penny, Ann Pachet, and many other incredible authors.

The Raging Storm brings us back to Inspector Matthew Venn who I adore. He's in a bit of a predicament with this his latest case. Jem Rosco, famous world adventurer, has been found murdered in Greystone. Inspector Venn has a history with Greystone. It's a place he visited in his youth, but left due to its often closed-minded ways. As Matthew returns as an adult and authority figure, he's seeing Greystone and its familiar faces with new eyes.

There are many interesting characters crafted by Ann Cleeves in this installment in the series. This was a solid addition to the series and a gripping read. I found it fast-paced and at times, I had to switch between the e-book (courtesy of St. Martin's Press/ Minotaur Books) and the audiobook (courtesy of Macmillan Audio). I listen to audiobooks at 2x speed, but The Raging Storm was a challenge for me. I had to slow it down and often switched to the text to read at my own pace, without missing anything!

If you are a fan of Ann Cleeves, I recommend reading this latest release!

The Raging Storm is the third book in the gripping and entertaining Two Rivers mystery series.

This book is set on the rugged Devon coast, a perfect place for a moody murder mystery. A local adventurer is found dead in a dinghy floating in Scully Cove and Detective Matthew Venn is the detective on the case.

Ann Cleeves is a master at writing her characters. I feel like I know Matthew, Jenn, Ross, and the other characters in the book. This is partly because we get certain chapters from their point of view.

The mystery was complex and difficult to figure out, until it was revealed at the end of the book.

The setting, characters, and well crafted mystery makes this a must read for mystery lovers.

THE RAGING STORM by Ann Cleeves is the latest Matthew Venn novel following The Long Call and The Heron's Cry). As this title indicates, the environment of North Devon (with stormy days and often treacherous tides at the seaside) is once again a key feature in building atmosphere and suspense. Inspector Venn and his colleagues, Ross May and Sergeant Jen Rafferty, are out to investigate the death of around-the-world sailing phenom, Jem Rosco. A local boy made good, Rosco had moved back recently to a small village where its inhabitants (local schoolteacher, taxi driver, magistrate, landowners, tavern keeper and so on) are now suspects in his death. Venn quietly leads the investigation, focusing on the many past relationships (several characters were at school together or romantically linked) along with current tensions and jealousies. With plenty of twists and strong character development, THE RAGING STORM received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly ("Cleeves's fans and newcomers alike will be hungry for the next entry.").