S&S Book Club: Ann Cleeves’ The Rising Tide
Lida, Tina, and Jen chat about Carol’s pick: Ann Cleeves’ The Rising Tide
Our website is supported by you, our readers. We sometimes earn a commission when you click through the affiliate links on our website. We appreciate your support.
Why Carol Picked It
When I was recovering from a knee replacement last year, a friend came to stay with me for a month. In preparation for something for us to do while I was stuck in bed, I went to the library and checked out DVDs of the TV adaptation of Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera. We both fell in love with the character and proceeded to watch all 10 seasons. Since then, I’ve read every book in the Vera series and can’t wait for the next one.
Vera is a force unto herself. She’s a middle-aged, overweight woman with few people skills but with a passion, talent, and laser focus for solving crime. She has a big heart but rarely allows anyone in—although she privately considers her sergeant, Joe Ashworth, the son she never had. Vera’s troubled childhood has given her an empathy for many of the victims she encounters. Vera Stanhope is a wonderfully flawed but real character.
The Rising Tide (#10) finds Vera investigating a hanging on Holy Island, also known as Lindisfarne, off the north east coast of England. Fifty years ago a group of teenagers spent a retreat weekend on the island and, since then, hold a reunion every five years to celebrate their friendship. Hardly a year goes by that they don’t remember a friend who drowned in the rising tide in the causeway that connects the island to the mainland.
The dead man is Rick Kelsall, celebrity TV journalist, recently fired for suspected sexual abuse. Apparently unbothered by the charges, his ex-wife, still close to the victim, explains away the allegations, saying he should have stayed with her because she understood him. His lifelong friends tell Vera that Rick was obsessed with death and terrified of dying. As Vera and her team dive deep into the case, the investigation unearths secret connections. Is this homicide—and the one that follows—rooted in the past or did the ever-changing relationships among the friends lead to murder?
What Tina Thought
I love how Ann Cleeves handles the evolution of relationships in The Rising Tide. This is an emotionally complex tale with interesting, flawed characters.
I most enjoyed how this book focuses on an older group of friends, not the usual 30-somethings. Cleeves has already won me over with Vera Stanhope – a woman of a certain age who doesn’t care how she looks and relies on her wits. Vera feels real in a way that most protagonists in modern books, TV and film are not.
It is not quite a locked room mystery, but in many ways, it has a similar feel – the claustrophobia of being in close quarters while wondering if the murderer is a close friend sitting next to you at dinner.
I found the story had a pleasant pace that allowed me to indulge in getting to know the characters. Despite being the tenth book in the series, it works beautifully as a stand-alone. Ann Cleeves has another fan.
What Lida Thought
This was my first Vera book and I was astonished at how well developed the characters were, and how I fell right into the plot without having to read the other books in the series. Descriptions were deft and I so enjoyed the way Cleeves skillfully unfolded details about Vera’s personality through the eyes of the other characters.
The mystery is complex and the pacing moves at just the right speed to keep the reader intrigued. Every part of the story seems real, but there’s a tone of sadness throughout that made me unsure about reading more books in this series, despite the skill and clever plotting by the author.
What Jen Thought
Vera is a new detective to me and it was refreshing to meet a hero who breaks the traditional detective mode. Every novelist says her books stand alone and that’s certainly true with Cleeves’ The Rising Tide. I could tell there was a lot more at play in the police dynamics that I would learn about if I read the earlier books.
This case centers on the suspects’ lives fifty years ago, and I’m always struck when reading mysteries like this, where the past seems to be the key to the present, how well the characters can recall conversations and incidents from so long ago. Ask me about my friends in high school and my memory is vague at best. Is it that there was no tragedy to cement that time in my head, or is my memory for detail weak?
