“I absolutely loved The Long Call. In this new mystery, Ann Cleeves introduces us to Inspector Matthew Venn, who embodies his diagram namesake as a character caught between his past and his future. A murder on a beach in Venn’s hometown on the English coast leads to a kidnapping, and as the pacing picks up, the suspects get ever closer to Venn’s personal life. An expertly plotted mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final pages.”
— Keith Vient, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
“Ann Cleeves made up for ending the Shetland series by introducing us to a new series starring Detective Matthew Venn. I immediately fell in love with the area of North Devon and with Matthew, his husband Jonathan, and his fellow police officers. The Long Call is a terrific police procedural that deals with lots of sensitive issues in a straightforward, matter-of-fact manner. I can’t wait to learn more about Matthew and his earlier life as well as get to know Jonathan and the other people of the village.”
— Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC
From Ann Cleeves--bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows--comes the first in a gripping new series.
"Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers."--Louise Penny In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father's funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he'd left behind. From Ann Cleeves, bestselling author of Vera and Shetland, beloved by readers and TV viewers alike, comes a spectacular new series, told with deep compassion and searing insight.