The Seagull

July 31, 2017
A prison outreach leads to a meeting between Vera Stanhope and John Brace, a now-incarcerated corrupt former police superintendent, in Diamond Dagger Award–winner Cleeves’s engrossing eighth mystery featuring the Northumbrian detective inspector (after 2016’s The Moth Catcher). Brace, part of the criminal Gang of Four led by Vera’s father, Hector, asks her to help his troubled daughter, Patty, and in return promises to disclose the burial site of another Gang of Four member who’s been missing for two decades. When Vera’s team investigates, they find a second skeleton—that of a young woman who might be Patty’s birth mother. Their search for her identity reaches back to the 1990s, when an elegant club called the Seagull dominated the waterfront in northern Whitley Bay, England, and the Gang of Four graduated from the illegal animal trade to human trafficking and murder. Details about Hector’s crimes and dismissiveness toward his daughter provide insight into Vera’s formative years. This nuanced, adroitly paced tale should satisfy both series fans and new readers. Agent: Sarah Menguc, Sarah Menguc Literary Agent (U.K.).

September 1, 2017

In her eighth outing (after The Moth Catcher), DI Vera Stanhope investigates a cold case linked to her father based on information provided by John Brace, a now incarcerated ex-detective superintendent. Vera must face her own prejudices and unwelcome memories to solve the investigation.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
Vera Stanhope's associates, though they adore her, speak of her as a nosy old bat, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing for a detective inspector in the Northumbria police to be. Cleeves is generous with eccentricities for her heroine. Stanhope hauls around a shopping bag rather than a briefcase and drinks beer to help see things more clearly. But she does catch criminals, often by understanding the emotional bonds among the residents of this cold, rain-soaked North Sea community. The story begins when a bent cop whom Vera helped put away tells her where the corpse of his old partner in crime is to be found. In return, she must check in on the cop's daughter. The girl's heroin-addicted mother is one of a number of shadowy presences throughout the narrative. Readers coming fresh to this celebrated series might find the pace a bit lethargic, but eventually it becomes clear that those slow-developing relationships are at the heart of the story. With patience, perhapsand a look at the popular ITV spin-off series VeraStanhope will become the barmy-but-brilliant auntie we all wish we had.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)