Ann Cleeves

‘The best living evoker of landscape’ –  The Guardian

Ann Cleeves, one of Britain’s most successful crime writers, is the author of 33 novels that are loved both in print and on screen: the Vera Stanhope and Shetland series are major TV adaptations starring Brenda Blethyn  and Douglas Henshall respectively. Famous for her evocative landscape writing, the Shetland series was launched to critical acclaim in 2006 when the first book in the series, Raven Black, won the prestigious Book of the Year at the annual Crime Writer’s Association Daggers awards. This autumn, with her latest novel The Long Call, Ann leaves the wilds of Shetland behind to launch a brand new series and detective set in her childhood home county of Devon. In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, 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 into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide. An astonishing new novel told with compassion and searing insight, The Long Call will captivate fans of Vera and Shetland, as well as new readers. Join us at the bookshop to celebrate one of our most successful, and most loved, crime-writers as Ann Cleeves shares the secrets behind her craft.