Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves Series: Two Rivers #3
Published by Minotaur Books on September 5, 2023
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Fierce winds, dark secrets, deadly intentions.
When Jem Rosco—sailor, adventurer, and legend—blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own.
This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Matthew finds his judgment clouded. As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one, including himself, is safe from Scully Cove’s storm of dark secrets.
The Two Rivers continues with the base of characters remaining the same. The head of the team in Matthew, and his husband, Jonathon runs an art centre. There’s Jen who is a single parent of two teens. There’s Ross who is a favorite of Matthew’s boss, and is bucking to move up, but needs more skills; he thinks he’s better than he is. Vicky does a lot of computer research and camera review work.
In The Raging Storm, the team is away to a small seaside village where a minor celebrity has died. They end up staying in the area some nights because of the storms and to have more time to work on the case. Jen goes home more than the others because she has children. She is an excellent interviewer of witnesses.
Ross is much more of a jerk than I remembered. He also contributes less than Jen but his assignments are sometimes less central. He tends to be so impatient and not listen well to the witnesses. I can understand Matthew’s frustration with him.
The case was complex with lots of connections to the past. The worst attitudes of people from 30 years ago are out along with their egos about how their lives have ended up and what they they deserve. I loved following along the evidence and trying to see the truth and who might benefit. The trigger for the bodies which piled up was heartbreaking and the losses were just sad because they weren’t going to really provide any benefit.
I’m really enjoying this series and look forward to see how the characters change and deal with their realities.
About Ann Cleeves
Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs – child care officer, women’s refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard – before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.
While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person’s not heavily into birds – and Ann isn’t – there’s not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.
In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.
For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival’s first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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I have this one too so I’m happy to see you enjoyed it. It sounds like a good crime/police procedural! Wonderful review, Anne!
Thank you Rachel. This whole series is different with the cultural aspects and the unique characters. The team investigating a crime in a small town ups the quirky level almost beyond me and the “cult” Matthew grew up in is based there as well. I hope you enjoy it.
I absolutely love the cover of this one! I’m glad the story inside is equally good.
Yes I enjoyed it.
I keep getting Ann Cleeves books in my recommendation feeds. One of these days I should pick one up. Sounds like an interesting detecting team.
This series has a really odd group of characters. I have yet to read her other series but I want to read it. I think it has a tv show of some sort.
The connections to the past and the unraveling of the case’s intricacies sound like they make for a compelling read. It’s always satisfying when a series keeps you looking forward to how the characters evolve. Enjoy the rest of the series!
Thank you Ethan. I look forward to more in the series because I really hope to learn more about these odd characters.
I love when mysteries are complex, so this sounds like my kind of story.
yes I enjoy the complex plots with layers and also the layers of professional, personal and the setting. I also appreciate stories set in other states and countries so it’s like traveling.
I really enjoyed the first book in this series but I don’t think I’ve read the next two books. I need to read the next two books. This one sounds really interesting.
I’m enjoying them. I also like British police procedurals but the small towns and odd characters here make it more appealing.
Hopefully the next is good!
So far they have all been good. They are a bit quirky but I like them.