By Ann Cleeves https://anncleeves.com/ @AnnCleeves
Narrated by Janine Birkett @JangleB
Published by Pan MacMillan, MacMillan UK Audio https://www.panmacmillan.com/ @panmacmillan
432 pages (11 hours 58 minutes) ISBN 9781035012725
Publication date 1 January 2024 (audiobook). First published in 2005.
Telling Tales is the second novel in the Vera Stanhope series.
I was allowed access to an audio review copy on Net Galley https://www.netgalley.com/ @NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. I would like to thank Net Galley, the author and publisher for granting this access.
The Cover
Moody. Early morning mist across open farmland. The story is set in East Yorkshire, so this is a perfect portrayal of spring or autumn.
The narration
Initially I was a little bit surprised because I was expecting the narrator to have a Northeast accent as that is where Vera originates. The standard narration is rather neutral, but as soon as Vera’s surname was pronounced Stan-up I knew things would be just fine regarding Vera. The action is set in East Yorkshire (where I was born, bred and still live) and she manage to pull off a decent local accent which isn’t that easy. Excellent range of voices too, so a great job all round.
My thoughts
This is not a new story for me, I read it shortly after publication, but it is largely one that has slipped from my memory, which is a bit of a surprise seeing as it is set in my locality. If you live outside the major cities, I think you have a special interest in novels set in your hometown or city. The familiarity can bring the story to life, making it feel more realistic and almost tangible. There haven’t been too many novels set in Hull and East Yorkshire, or written by local authors, so there still feels a bit of a novelty reading them. So, coming back to this early Vera tale was no hardship.
The story begins with a dramatic turn, Jeanie Long continues to protest her innocence and so has been turned down for parole again. After ten years inside she his getting desperate, being faced with a moral Catch 22; show fake remorse for a crime she didn’t do and possibly get an early release or continue so say she was wrongly convicted and miss out on parole. With a tormented mind she commits suicide.
This is tragic because new evidence has come to light, a witness to support her alibi of being in London at the time. The case was to be reopened pending the possibility of a miscarriage of justice. The news comes just too late for Jeanie.
The case to be reopened is that of the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel whose body was found in a ditch by her best friend Emma. Police scrutiny fell on only one person at the time, Jeanie the lover of Abigail’s father the flamboyant, but scheming, businessman Keith Mantel. So certain were the investigating officers Dan Greenwood and Caroline Fletcher that other possible lines weren’t properly considered.
So, an outsider is needed to clear up this mess, which won’t be easy as Greenwood and Fletcher left the force shortly after the case. Who better to dig around amongst the secrets and lies than the straight-talking no-nonsense DI Vera Stanhope.
The author has a great eye for nature and here she manages to capture the setting to a tee. The plains of Holderness a flat seemingly desolate, farming landscape as far as the eye can see, with big grey skies and early morning mists that permeate the clothes and chill to the bone. So different to what she is used to, as Vera remarks, there’re no hills and if you hang your washing out, they can see it in the next county.
It is not just the setting though, it’s the village life too, the tight, close-knit community that must rub along, burying grudges and secrets temporarily. This is achieved by setting it in fictional village close to Spurn Point (again partly fictionalised in description) with the lifeboatmen and Humber Pilots close by. The lives of the pilots seem to be faithfully portrayed and I’d like to think that if Ruth’s employer had lived in Hull rather than Penzance, Frederick would have been apprenticed as a pilot and not a pirate (Pirates of Penzance.)
The plot centres on keeping dark secrets, arising from human frailty of a sordid nature and the likelihood of actions repeating. At the core are relationships, some inappropriate, whereas others are familial, loyal but at the same time stifling.
There are a cast of interesting characters, and Joe Ashworth does make an appearance, but it is very much a Vera showcase. Interestingly, it takes quite some time for Vera to first appear which has the reader on tenterhooks. Then just like when Orson Wells appears in as Harry Lime in The Third Man, there she is in a corner of the old forge which is now Dan Greenwood’s pottery workshop, rather than a dark doorway in Vienna. This is prime Vera, slightly cantankerous, but wise, observant and inscrutable, like Budda in voluminous blouse and polyester trousers. A woman who people find easy to talk to and underestimate, but all the while takes everything in and can cut through the waffle and ‘crap’. Of course, she gets the best lines and her slightly sarcastic homespun wisdom is there in abundance. In later novels she does appear to mellow a little but here she brooks no nonsense.
Telling Tales can be purchased via the publisher’s website here
The author
ANN CLEEVES is the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV’s The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann also spends her time advocating for reading to improve health and wellbeing and supporting access to books. In 2021 her Reading for Wellbeing project launched with local authorities across the North East, and in 2022 she was awarded an OBE for her services to reading and libraries. She lives in Northumberland where the Vera books are set.
Peter turns the page 