Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope, 2)

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There was a moment of silence. Emma wondered what Dan could know about all that. Had the two men discussed her on other occasions when she hadn’t been watching? Telling Tales is the second book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series - which is now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera .

As the story opens, we meet Emma, who is married and the mother of a young baby. We soon learn that ten years earlier, at the age of fifteen, Emma discovered the murdered body of her best friend, Abigail Mantel, lying in a field. Abigail’s father’s girlfriend Jeanie Long was convicted of the murder and recently committed suicide when she was denied parole. As if that wasn’t enough to stir up grim recollections for the residents of the tiny village of Elvet, it turns out that a witness has come forward and exonerated Jeanie just days after her death—which can only mean that Abigail’s killer is still at large. I have to say that for a murder that happened ten years in the past, there were more zigs and zags than I could have imagined. Vera not only has to resolve the killing of Abigail Mantel but she also takes up the cause of discovering why the original investigation went so very wrong.These novels, except for The Glass Room, have been dramatized in the television series Vera on ITV, which stars Brenda Blethyn in the title role. The programme premiered in May 2011. A nice mixture, in the British tradition, of social comedy and detective work. More Vera, please." — Booklist (starred review)

Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown Exciting, right? That is not even the best news yet! The spectacular news is that Seagull, the eighth book in the series, will be on shelves this September, and it is the first of the series to be released in the USA and the UK simultaneously. So I get to read it at exactly the same time as my friends in Belfast! Because a new witness had just come forward. It seems Jeanie Long couldn’t have murdered that lass.’ He paused. Emma watched him rub his forehead with his broad, stubby fingers. It was as if he was trying to rub away the exhaustion. She wondered why he cared so deeply about a ten-year-old murder case. She could tell that he did care, that he had lain awake worrying about it. But he hadn’t even been living in the village then. He dropped his hands from his face. No traces of clay were left on his skin. He must have washed his hands before leaving the forge. ‘Shame no one bothered to tell Jeanie, huh?’ he said. ‘Or she might still be alive.’ Was everything all right this evening?’ she asked to soften the rejection. ‘It’s been so windy. I imagine you out there in the dark, the waves so high.’The woman was in a shapeless Crimplene dress covered with small purple flowers and a fluffy purple cardigan. Despite the cold, on her feet she wore flat leather sandals. On hearing the news, Emma Bennett is haunted once more by memories of her vibrant best friend, Abigail, and by the thought that her killer is still at large. Then, Emma notices a large woman in the church, a stranger, and wonders who she is. By the description, we readers know immediately. But Jeanie commits suicide in her prison cell, unable to face the people who had believed her capable of killing a child. James shook his head. ‘I’ve come off a Latvian container. Hull to sign off, then I drove straight home.’