Review: The Raging Storm

Having recently-ish realized how much I enjoy reading mysteries, particularly of the crime variety, I jumped at the chance to start reading Ann Cleeves’ Two Rivers series when it started with The Long Call. I enjoyed the first book (review here), the second a little less so (review here), but I was still interested in reading The Raging Storm, book three and published in early September. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations and, sadly, I don’t know if I’ll continue with the series.

Here’s the book’s description:

When Jem Rosco - sailor, adventurer and legend - blows in to the local pub, The Maiden's Prayer, in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone are delighted.
The whole place has a strange, unreal quality, the village that time forgot. Backed by a worked-out quarry, with a shingle beach and a north-facing quay, there's little to recommend it to tourists.
When Rosco disappears again, they think nothing of it; that's the sort of man he is. Until the lifeboat is launched to a hoax call-out and his body is found in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own.
This is an uncomfortable case for Venn. Greystone is a stronghold of the Barum Brethren and he came here as a child. Faith and superstition mix as another body is found in Scully, and Matthew finds his judgement clouded.
The wind continues to howl, and he realizes that his own life is in danger.

The mystery - paired with the descriptions of the town where the murder took place - was what kept me reading The Raging Storm. I was intrigued and wanted to know how Rosco ended up dead and Cleeves was spinning a tale that kept me guessing. There was just enough tension to keep me on my toes without being too intense (I read mysteries, not thrillers, for a reason!).

Even though I read mysteries for the, well, mystery, I still like to feel invested in the characters. With this one, it honestly could have been any nameless, faceless cops who were solving the case. The three officers who were investigating could have been anyone and felt so incredibly two-dimensional, and that includes Matthew Venn, who’s the anchor of this series. It’s hard to criticize Venn sometimes since he seems to have some well-hidden and well-managed anxiety, past trauma, or something similar that keeps him from connecting with people. Unfortunately, in writing, he comes across as standoffish and it’s hard to care about a character like that. Not that we need to care about the characters but I think that’s a hope of Cleeves, that we’ll be so invested in Venn and the mysteries he solves that we’ll keep coming back for more.

Honestly, I don’t have much more to say about The Raging Storm. I wanted to like the latest novel from Ann Cleeves but it came up short in many ways. Maybe someday I’ll try another of her books but, for now, I’ll take a pass on any further Matthew Venn novels.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the Canadian distributor of this novel, Publishers Group Canada, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own*

Review: The Heron's Cry

It was just about a year ago when I finally realized that I like mystery novels. I'm not sure why it took me so long, perhaps it was because of the bombardment of psychological/domestic thrillers that exploded in bookstores everywhere in recent years. Ann Cleeves' novel The Long Call was one that helped me have that lightbulb moment. It was the first in a new series and book two, The Heron's Cry, is out in the world today. 

Here's the book's description:

North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder--Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter's broken vases.
Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though, to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.
Then another body is found--killed in a similar way. Matthew soon finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home.

From the start I found the writing to be a bit choppy with quick sentences and the like. There was something else niggling at me and I realized partway through what it was: it was reading more like a screenplay than a novel. And not in a good way. You know when you read a book and can perfectly picture it as a movie? That's fine. But with this one, it was like it was being written with the intention of becoming a show. And guess what? It is going to be a new series, just like Cleeves' other works (Shetland and Vera). I just went down a rabbit hole of searching the actors in the show and Venn actually looks pretty much exactly like I pictured - but isn't necessarily what was described (there's no grey hair, for example). Anyway. I feel like the hope was always for it to be a film or tv show and that's how it was written and that, apparently, is a bother to me. But will I watch it? Oh, 100%. 

But back to the second novel. It's told in third person with most of the story coming from Matthew's perspective. His officers, Jen and Ross, also have their own storylines, both within and outside of the case. Jen's made the most sense since she had seen the first victim at a party the night before he was killed. Ross's side storyline didn't seem to fit at all - it was just like Cleeves wanted to make sure the reader knew he had a life outside of work but it felt shoehorned into the story. Having them each work on the case gave the reader the chance to try to puzzle out the clues with each police officer. All three of them work in different ways, which is so interesting from both a character and a work ethic perspective.

Speaking of working out the clues - the reader isn't given the full insight into Jen's suspicions at the end. Which I kind of loved! I had absolutely no idea what she had connected and couldn't wait to see everything fall together at the end. The end was a little bit of an "evil villain wants to talk all about their accomplishments" scenario, which I don't find super realistic, but I was still reeling from finding out who the murderer was. 

The pace of the mystery was good. I never felt like things were being slowed down or that unnecessary details were thrown in. Even when seemingly unrelated information was brought up, I could see how, maybe, it might tie into the murder investigation. I definitely wanted to keep reading, and quickly, to see how it all ended.

I love the setting of this series too. It takes place in North Devon, somewhere I've never been and likely never will get to visit. But I love the English-ness of it. Perhaps even more so these days as I've been stuck in basically one region of my province for a year. Bring on the armchair travel! Even with a side of murder! (Not real murder, please and thank you.) 

The Heron's Cry didn't necessarily wow me but I was still super invested in Ann Cleeves' latest novel. Crime mysteries are so interesting to read, for me personally and in moderation, and I'll definitely be picking up the third book in the Two Rivers series as soon as it's released.

My review of The Long Call is here.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the Canadian distributor, Publishers Group Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*