Indomitable Inspector Vera Stanhope, whose lonely youth with a lawless father has given her a unique approach to crime and punishment, returns in a heartbreaking case. On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England, the past drives the present. A small group of old school friends have been meeting there, at Pilgrims' House, every five years for half a century. They first came to the island on a school trip organized by a young teacher hoping to "challenge their preconceptions" on "a kind of secular retreat." They bonded on that first trip, but what may have really brought them together was the death of Isobel, one of their number, at their first reunion five years later. At that time, Annie and Daniel were married and mourning the loss of a baby. Since then, Lou and Ken have also married, and now Ken has dementia. Rick has become a famous television personality, and Philip, a priest. Now, after a night of drinking and reliving the past, Annie, long divorced from Daniel, finds Rick's body hanging in his room. The fact that Rick was recently fired from his job over allegations of sexual impropriety does not convince Annie that her notably vain friend would commit suicide and leave himself to be found naked. Soon after Vera and her crew are called in, she confirms that Rick was smothered and hanged. The Holy Island is an island only when the tide covers the causeway; indeed, trying to drive through the water caused Isobel's death all those years ago. Although there are certainly present-day reasons why someone might have killed Rick, Vera and her team do a deep dive into the past and find an unexpected motive. A character-driven puzzler that ends in a painful denouement. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The gray seascape of Northern England, the air like the wind off an iceberg; a gathering of buttoned-up people who have known one another since school days; a body hanging from a beam, made to look like a suicide; a somewhat frumpy, middle-age detective observing that "everything important to this case had happened years ago"--this is Ann Cleeves territory, and Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is on the case, "playing the role of a slightly disoriented older woman." Forty-five years previously, a young woman drove onto a storm-lashed causeway and was drowned. Unlike others in her group, she did not live to think herself a failure. One man, a failed TV celebrity, is trying to redeem himself by writing a novel that will tell the truth about this group. A woman, once a celebrated actress, is banking on a yoga studio to recover. Cleeves' fans will not be put off in the least by the slow pace of the narrative, though they might wish for more Vera and less of her eager associate, Holly.

In bestseller Cleeves's melancholy 10th Vera Stanhope novel (after 2020's The Darkest Evening), sexagenarians Rick Kelsall, Annie Laidler, and two other old friends reunite at the tidal island convent-turned-guesthouse where they met as teens during a school retreat. When Annie finds Rick's body hanging from a rafter, Det. Insp. Stanhope and her Northumbria Police colleagues cross the island's causeway to investigate. Rick may have lost his BBC hosting gig over sexual misconduct allegations, but he recently signed a lucrative book deal and didn't leave a suicide note. After an autopsy reveals someone smothered Rick before stringing him up, Vera and company uncover myriad viable suspects; not only was Rick's BBC departure more contentious than reported, but he was writing a roman à clef in which he planned to expose his oldest pals' darkest secrets. Cleeves crafts a clever central puzzle, then confers remarkable emotional complexity using her keenly drawn characters' advancing age, wistful nostalgia, and thorny shared history. A pinwheeling third-person narrative drives the pace, while Vera's candor tempers the plot's darker elements. Fair-play mystery fans will delight. Agent: Sarah Menguc, Sarah Menguc Literary (U.K.). (Sept.)

Northumberland detective Vera Stanhope is in a reflective mood in Cleeves's haunting sequel to The Darkest Evening. It begins with a small group of friends who have come to northern England's Holy Island since they were 16. Now, 50 years later, they still return every five years despite the tragic death at their first reunion. Rick, the journalist in their group, announces he's about to write a tell-all novel. When one of the women finds him hanging in his room the day after his revelation, she calls the police. Vera and her small Northumberland team respond. As usual, Vera does things her own way, keeping the group together for a few days so they can be questioned. She latches on to that death 45 years earlier, when a young woman was swept away with the tide. She asks her team to probe into the past, looking for secrets in the lives of an Anglican priest, a deli owner, and two teachers, along with several others who once ran with the group. But before she can identify the killer, Vera's own team is threatened. VERDICT Flawed characters take center stage in an intense novel with a shocking conclusion.--Lesa Holstine