Synopsis:

From Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes the stunning new Vera Stanhope novel.

On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in the back seat.

Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s also where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.

As the blizzard traps the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past.

I almost held on to this book until closer to winter, but my guilt for reading my advance copies on time won out. Thankfully, the dark, wintry setting this novel paints is realistic enough to provide the reader with ample room for the imagination to run wild.

“It was dark and freezing and Vera was starting to panic.”

Ann Cleeves, The Darkest Evening

I don’t read many mysteries, but something about the synopsis for The Darkest Evening spoke to me, and I couldn’t resist requesting it on Netgalley. I’m happy I tried something new because I discovered I’m a fan. Despite The Darkest Evening being the ninth book in the Vera Stanhope series, (I did my research prior to requesting and made sure it could be read as a standalone) I never felt lost or confused about the characters. While I could tell there were other stories that had been told, the characters still stood on their own. And in fact, the hints at those other stories just made me want to pick them up. 

I didn’t know when I started it how I would feel about the story being told from so many points of view, but it was easy to follow, and I quickly realized it’s necessary to the mystery being told.