The Darkest Evening, a Vera Stanhope novel takes the dedicated Ann Cleeves reader
on another adventure set in the wilds of Northumberland in the UK. DCI Stanhope
is an interesting character, as those previous readers know. This was my first read not only of a Stanhope
character novel but the first of any of Cleeves’ books. I found the British version of our shared
tongue to be interesting sometimes challenging, and found myself at times
having to revert to the internet to determine what a word meant.
The language issue aside, I found
the character development interesting and the interactions of the various
characters entertaining. This is true
whether the characters were in the village, manor house, or in Vera’s own
office. There seemed to me to be too much discussion of Vera’s body type although
there was little disparaging discussion of her ability to solve cases. Bad weather, distant relations, family issues
from long ago as well as the more normal thing often found in murder
mysteries—love spurned and parenthood denied.
The countryside itself plays a role in the story and if one has ever
visited this part of the United Kingdom it becomes a visceral part of the
story. The cold winter weather near Christmas was almost a character
itself. The reader could feel the cold
both inside and outside.
I know lots of readers really like
the novels by Cleeves but I found myself occasionally struggling to continue
reading. It wasn’t that it was bad or overly boring; hard to put an exact name
to my feeling. As they might say just
“not my cup of tea.” I am glad I
finished the book, both to find out who was the murder culprit but also so I
can have something to offer when discussing these books with avid fans. For me
it is a three star read, but I can see how others who enjoy the whodunit type
of book to be very entertained.
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