The Dark Wives

June 10, 2024
The murder of an employee at a home for troubled youth triggers a search for a missing girl in bestseller Cleeves’s forceful 11th Vera Stanhope mystery (after The Rising Tide). When 14-year-old Rosebank Home resident Chloe Spence vanishes the same night that somebody kills Rosebank employee Josh Woodburn, Det. Insp. Stanhope and her Northumbria Police colleagues suspect a connection. The facility houses particularly troubled teens, so some of Stanhope’s colleagues believe Chloe attacked Josh and fled. However, Chloe’s diary indicates she adored Josh; it also mentions someone “pervy” loitering outside the facility, suggesting to police that Chloe was more likely a frightened witness to Josh’s killing. Vera and her team start digging, hoping to find a clue that will lead them to Chloe. Instead, they discover a second corpse in nearby Northumberland that raises even more questions. 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.

June 1, 2024

When Josh Woodburn's body is found outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope's team is sent to investigate the staff member's death; Josh was supposed to work a shift at Rosebank the night before. The murder investigation quickly expands into a search for 14-year-old Chloe Spence, who disappeared from Rosebank the same night as Jonathan's death. Is Chloe a killer, another victim, or a terrified witness? Frantic to find the missing girl, Vera expands the search northward to the wilds of Northumberland, an area that Chloe is known to love. When the body of a different Rosebank resident is found there, Vera knows that Chloe is in danger. The ongoing search coincides with the legendary stories of the area's standing stones, called the Three Dark Wives, and the annual ceremonial witch hunt in the community. Although the event is meant as a treat for local children and a draw for tourists, Vera knows that when the lights go out in town, she has to be prepared to find a killer--or another body. She just hopes that the next victim won't be Chloe Spence. VERDICT The conclusion to this novel feels abrupt, but fans of Cleeve's complex, character-driven Vera series will be pleased with this latest installment, the sequel to The Rising Tide.--Lesa Holstine

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2024
On the same night Josh, a supervisor in an at-risk teen shelter, is murdered, Chloe, a 14-year-old resident, goes missing. Is she a suspect or a victim? Such is the investigatory challenge facing detective Vera Stanhope and her team, including a new member, Rosie Bell. The case grows more complicated when Brad, another teen resident, is also found dead in an area where Stanhope's crew is searching for Chloe. The Northumberland district is known for its unforgiving countryside, dominated by three stone monuments called "The Dark Wives," and for its annual pageant celebrating witches. Although sinister folklore, a tight-knit community, troubled teens, and a corrupt business enterprise give the detectives multiple avenues to pursue, Stanhope feels a personal connection to the wayward Chloe, whose discovered diaries reveal a scared, sensitive soul. A taut police procedural enhanced by relevant social consciousness, the eleventh book in Cleeves' popular Vera Stanhope series is dedicated to "teens everywhere, and especially to . . . uppity young women with minds of their own, struggling to find a place in a difficult world."

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August 1, 2024
In the north of England, DI Vera Stanhope and her team labor to uncover the connection between a teen missing from a children's care home and a pair of murders. When Chloe Spence disappears shortly after Josh Woodburn, a staffer at the Rosebank Home, is killed, she has to be considered a suspect. Chloe is a bright 14-year-old whose father left the family and mother is in a psychiatric hospital, and after Vera reads her diary, she thinks her innocent. The system that cares for troubled children is falling apart, and the private companies that run much of it don't much care. Vera, who's earned a reputation for solving weird cases, feels guilty over the recent death of a member of her team, leaving her to work with the proven DS Joe Ashworth and the ambitious new DC Rosie Bell. Chloe had been attending the well-regarded Salvation Academy, but her diary makes clear that plenty of problems were being pasted over to maintain the school's good name. The staff at the home say only that Chloe was a loner who had a crush on Josh, a university student from a well-heeled family who took the job to impress the girl he loved, a save-the-world type. The next to die is another resident of the home, an older boy who sells drugs. It looks like an overdose to everyone but Vera, who smells more murder. Her biggest concern is finding Chloe--who's deeply afraid of trusting anyone--before the killer does. An excellent character-driven entry that highlights major problems in Britain's child welfare system.

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