Telling Tales
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Review
"'Cleeves again excels in her sense of place... A cleverly plotted psychological thriller', The Times; 'Puts Ms Cleeves in the Rendell class' Peterborough Evening Telegraph"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The second book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Put your feet up and enjoy,
By
This review is from: Telling Tales (Paperback)
Ann Cleeves is an excellent writer, "Telling Tales" fits the usual quality. A young girl has been murdered, and her supposed killer convicted and sent to prison. As the novel opens the killer who has always protested her innocence commits suicide. Then as a "cold case" Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope moves in, every character in the book comes under suspicion, is cleared and comes under suspicion again. It's a strange skill possessed by Cleeves, but the more she makes the character of the detective unlovable, the more you are drawn to her. Criticisms? Yes and it's a pet hate of mine with female writers and that is the use of first names for characters when such use jars. The lead character Emma Bennett's parents are referred to by their first names even when it's Emma thinking about them, it just doesn't feel right. If you like detective fiction you will enjoy this book, so buy it, curl your feet up, pour yourself a glass of scotch (and another for Vera Stanhope) and enjoy an evening in.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Corruption or conspiracy?,
By
This review is from: Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope 2) (Paperback)
Nobody was sorry when Jeanie Long killed herself in prison - not even her dad. It was ten years since she'd murdered teenager Abigail Mantel in an act of spiteful revenge following the breakup of a relationship with Abigail's father. Then a missing witness comes forward with reliable evidence that Jeanie was innocent, as she had always claimed.
Enter Vera Stanhope, on loan from Northumbria CID, with the task of reopening the investigation and, potentially, uncovering police corruption. The second Vera Stanhope novel is more at ease with itself than the first (The Crow Trap). The story is well constructed and moves forward at a pace that is brisk, but not hurried. One of the real strengths of Cleeves' writing is the way in which she allows the reader to turn detective. As a reader, you follow the unfolding police investigation, but also have privileged access to the back stories and inner thoughts of the principal characters, enabling you to form your own theories. The main weakness for me, as in the previous book, is the solution. If Jeanie Long, the child killer driven by sexual jealousy, was a tabloid editor's dream, then (without wishing to give anything away) so is the real murderer.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cleeves' unerring sense of human frailty,
By Blue in Washington "Barry Ballow" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope 2) (Paperback)
"Telling Tales" is a first rate police procedural featuring the intrepid North England Police Inspector Vera Stanhope. In this story, Stanhope is assigned to open an old murder case when new evidence exonerates the young woman convicted of the crime ten years before. The exoneration comes too late for the woman who has just killed herself after being denied probation. As Inspector Stanhope begins the reinvestigation of the original crime, it's clear that many in the small town where the murder was committed have a lot of personal secrets and wounds connected to the crime. What is especially strong about this novel is author Cleeves' ability to present in persuasive detail the perspectives of the dozen or so main characters in the story. These are all rather complex actors with a host of mixed qualities--many of them firmly founded on the seven deadly sins. The protagonist, Vera Stanhope, of course has her own hangups and issues which are flawlessly conveyed throughout the story. With her own complicated emotional life, Stanhope becomes a kind of "seer" when dealing with the suspects and persons of interest connected to the procedural. To the reader's happy frustration, as the Inspector moves closer to resolving the crime through the dogged pursuit of interviews and evidence sorting, the ultimate resolution remains deftly concealed from the reader until the last few pages of the book. This is an exceptionally good mystery story, told with intelligence and insight into the problems of family dysfunction and small town living. At the end there is the possibility of redemption and of renewal to balance the saga of human tragedy that underlies the book. iRecommended.
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