'One of Britain's best crime writers' - Daily Express
A LOCAL MYTH. A DEADLY THREAT. Vera Stanhope, star of ITV’s Vera, returns in the eleventh novel in Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller Ann Cleeves’s acclaimed series.
A body is found by an early morning dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who never showed up to work.
DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate. Her only clue is the disappearance of fourteen-year-old resident Chloe. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.
Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie are soon embroiled in the case, but when a second body is found near the Three Dark Wives standing stones in the wilds of the Northumbrian countryside, folklore and fact begin to collide.
Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, but it seems that the dark secrets in their community may be far more dangerous than she could ever have believed . . .
'Like Rendell and James before her, like McDermid and Rankin today, Ann Cleeves is one of our secret chroniclers, charting – under cover of a series of expertly plotted and mesmerising crime novels – how we live now' - Mick Herron, author of Slow Horses
"A thoroughly engrossing thriller" - The Mail on Sunday
"Cleeves’s Northumberland novels are strong on atmosphere, combining old-fashioned detective work with a modern take on class" - The Sunday Times
"Who doesn’t love ‘large and shabby’ Vera Stanhope, the blunt detective in Ann Cleeves’s Northumberland police procedurals? She is already one of the genre immortals. Cleeves delivers some choice Vera moments in The Darkest Evening" - The New York Times
"Cleeves portrays Rosebank’s kids and its staffers with compassion and respect, even as she spotlights the pitfalls of a for-profit approach to child welfare. Multiple narrators and a core cast of keenly rendered characters lend the tale dimension while furthering the series arc. Cleeves’s fans will be well satisfied" - Publisher's Weekly
