An Evening with Ann Cleeves

Matthew Venn is called to investigate when the body of a young woman is found in the swimming pool of a luxurious North Devon holiday home. The girl's best friend has disappeared and the property belongs to rising political star Paul Armstrong, leading to intense media scrutiny.

As a scorching heatwave rages and further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team question a community full of secrets. The dead girl and her friend had been spotted at a music festival the previous day, an event which brought locals and outsiders together – some of whom may have been more connected with the Armstrongs than first thought.

Caught between a powerful family's secrets and a powder keg of local tensions, Venn must navigate a treacherous path – knowing that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silence that they keep . . .

Ann will be having a conversation with Tim Rideout at this event.

'Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible' Richard Osman

'Ann Cleeves is a stone-cold genius' Marian Keyes

Ann Cleeves is the author of forty critically acclaimed novels and was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is behind the popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV's Vera, BBC One's Shetland and ITV's The Long Call. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide.

Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She also spends her time advocating for reading to improve health and wellbeing and supporting access to books. In 2021, her Reading for Wellbeing project launched with local authorities across the North East. In 2022, she was awarded an OBE for her services to reading and libraries.

Dr Timothy (Tim) Rideout is known for his work in Gothic studies and for engaging authors and audiences at literary festivals and events, where he regularly chairs panels and conducts in-depth interviews with writers. Tim's academic work explores how modern fiction engages with cultural anxieties and social precarity.