AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
**
From Ann Cleeves**--New York Times bestselling and award-winning
author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV
shows--comes the stunning new Vera Stanhope novel, The Darkest
Evening.
**
Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers.--Louise Penny**
As a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had
high expectations for Cleeves' latest. . . . A stunning debut for
Cleeves' latest crimefighter.--David Baldacci on The Long Call
On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope
sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she
misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has
skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she
stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the
owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is
strapped in the back seat.
Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives at a place she knows
well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the wilds of Northumberland,
now a little shabby and run down. It's also where her father, Hector,
grew up. Inside, there's a party in full swing: music, Christmas lights
and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in
the snow.
As the blizzard traps the group deep in the freezing Northumberland
countryside, Brockburn begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs
deeper into her investigation, she also begins to uncover her family's
complicated past.
