Creator of Vera marks milestone with island death
A SCHOOL reunion on Holy Island that takes a deadly twist against the backdrop of a rising tide will see Northumberland’s best known detective tasked with one of her biggest cases yet.
Vera creator Ann Cleeves has written the 10th book in the series which inspired the hit ITV drama and fans are being promised a cracker to mark the big anniversary. The new novel, The Rising Tide, is described as one of the award-winning author’s “most gripping and explosive stories to date”.
In it Vera travels to Holy Island to investigate a murder among a group of lifelong friends who return there for a reunion every five years to both celebrate their friendship and remember a pal they lost during their first visit as teenagers 50 years earlier, when the tide came in on the causeway.
The wily detective is called in when one of the group is found hanged and she is determined to unearth some secrets – and more about the tragedy half a century earlier – when she discovers the dead man had been recently fired after misconduct allegations. And, as the tide rises around them, Vera and her team are also placed in serious danger.
Cleeves’ 10th novel in her awardwinning Vera Stanhope series is due to be released in September and this year also sees the Whitley Bay-based writer celebrate 30 years with her publisher Pan Macmillan. Her remarkable career, which includes her award of an OBE this year for her services to reading and libraries, takes in more than 35 acclaimed novels and her work is read by millions worldwide.
Besides Vera, who is brought to vivid life on screen by Brenda Blethyn, Cleeves has created the memorable detectives Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn who also have made the transition to TV, in BBC1’S Shetland and ITV’S The Long Call respectively.
The writer has previously told how Blethyn’s view of her famous character tallies closely with her own, adding: “But Brenda is much more glamorous than my character. Mine had trouble with eczema on her legs and always wore dreadful stockings and things.” Together the author and actress have created TV magic, with the latest series securing huge viewing figures.
Before becoming a writer, Cleeves worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and an auxiliary coastguard and life experience feeds into her books. She was awarded the Crime Writing Award’s Diamond Dagger – its highest accolade – in 2017, and is also a member of Murder Squad, a group working with other northern writers to promote crime fiction.
She is also known as a proud supporter of libraries and last year launched her Reading for Wellbeing project, aimed at improving health, with local authorities. Fans will be keeping fingers crossed that her new book will, in due course, be translated on to the screen. Lindisfarne is already used as the location of the exterior scenes of Vera’s TV home. The Rising Tide will be published on September 1 and will also be available in ebook and audio.