This is the first Vera book I’ve read, though it’s the 10th in the series. At first I was really enjoying it, but then it did kind of stall a bit and drift along until the end. I’m not sure how much I missed by jumping in late, but as others have said, it was a little jarring having so much mentioned about Vera’s weight and clothing - I’m not sure I even remember descriptions of the other members of her team much, beyond Holly running a lot so presumably being lean and fit. So the repeated mentions of Vera’s size, clothes and eating habits were a little jarring. Hopefully this isn’t as noticeable in the other books and I was just unlucky with this being my introduction.

The mystery itself was decent and I will definitely be reading the other books in the series.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review. Apologies for the delay in providing this.

Another really enjoyable Vera book. A bit far fetched in places and not as well written as some of the others but I enjoyed the scenery, Vera as always was a likeable character with a great brain and wit, and this one had a shocking ending that I thought about for days afterwards.

This is a brilliant crime series. This book starts off slow paced. The setting on an island cut off by a causeway is very atmospheric. There are many reveals and a massive twist at the end

Ann Cleeves - just what you expect from her, just brilliant. Great writing, great storyline. Another winner.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This latest Vera adventure is, as usual, an excellent read. Ann Cleeves manages to make me feel as though I am actually there following in Vera’s footsteps, experiencing what she is experiencing but I never manage to work out the who and the why before she does.

There is sadness in this book with the unexpected death of a character and it struck me how real this felt. One moment we may be chatting to someone with no idea that it is the last ever time we speak. The next we hear they have died. The reaction of characters speaks volumes about the author’s talent in writing believable stories.

Close friends since their schooldays, Annie, Rick, Philip, Ken and Louise have been meeting at Pilgrim’s Retreat on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne every five years since meeting and bonding there for the first time when they were students. During the first reunion, Isobel, one of the original group, was caught off guard by the rising tide along the causeway and died. She’d tried to leave after an argument, didn’t take the tide into consideration and her car had been swept away.

They’d all forged their own lives and careers – Philip was a priest, Rick had been a celebrity journalist before being sacked with a sexual assault complaint hanging over him. Ken is suffering from dementia and is cared for by his wife, Louise. Annie is part owner of a bakery and has taken on the role of looking after everyone.

'The most vivid memory was of the weekend when they’d first come together on the island. Only Connect, the teacher had called it. Part outward bound course, part encounter group, part team-building session. And there had been a connection, so strong and fierce that after fifty years the tie was still there, unbroken and still worth celebrating. This was where it had all started.

The next memory was of a death and a life cut short.'

Rick doesn’t seem particularly fazed by the circumstances surrounding the loss of his job, and is full of the plans he has for a book. But the next morning Rick is found dead in what appears to be a suicide.

DI Vera Stanhope is called out and her suspicions are aroused as she surveys the scene. Along with DS Joe Ashworth and DC Holly Clarke, Vera begins the investigation and, as they discover more about the friends’ lives and uncover secrets, the team are placed in more danger than they ever could have imagined.

Followers of the series will be well acquainted with the main characters, the others are also well fleshed out with a good sense of their personalities. More people connected to the friends’ group are brought into the investigation, including the Police Commissioner. Vera’s appearance is deceptive, people who are unaware tend not to see past her shabby appearance to the sharp mind and innate tenacity, and are very often taken by surprise. The Holy Island setting is hugely atmospheric, with swirling mists and a life dictated to by the tide. An excellent addition to the series.

'Joe thought it was odd to drive off the island. It was as if he were shifting from somewhere dreamlike, made up of water and shimmering light, back to the real world, solid and mundane.'

Ann Cleeves sure knows how to write a crime novel. And all through this page turning book, we clearly hear Vera’s voice as she bullies, cajoles, leads, and sorts through a multitude of red herrings and suspects. The setting on Holy Island is brilliantly captured and adds a load of atmosphere to a complex, twisty plot.

A group reunite regularly on Holy Island despite a death on their first event. It was an accident… then there is another death… and Vera Stanhope and her team have to wade through lies and misdirection to find the truth. As in many of her books, Ms Cleeves creates brilliant characters to add to the circle around Vera. There are no spoilers here but some of the story is very moving.

I really rate Ann Cleeves and I love the Vera and the Shetland series. I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

I have been an avid fan of this series since the beginning, and The Rising Tide does not disappoint. Since the advent of the TV series, it is impossible to read the Vera books without thinking of the character as she is so excellently portrayed by Brenda Blethyn – they are now inextricably linked in my mind. A group that first came on a school trip over fifty years ago, and have been coming back every five years since then, has arrived for their regular reunion on Holy Island. There are only five of them now and this may be the last time. When one of them is discovered hanging in their room, Vera and her team are called in.
As the island is cut off from the mainland when the causeway is flooded, this isolation narrows down the list of possible suspects, but also makes it much more difficult to conduct an investigation. It is very different from Vera’s usual cases which take place in and around Newcastle. There is a lot of backstory to unravel, red herrings and false trails to rule out before Vera can uncover the truth. The unique claustrophobic atmosphere of Holy Island makes an excellent setting for this detective novel. The characters are well written and believable, but I had no clue who the guilty party was until the very end. This series just goes from strength to strength and I look forward to reading the next book. Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

My first Ann Cleeves book but definitely not my last. Only caught bits of the TV show over the years but could picture Vera and the locations in my head as I was reading. Lived the characters and descriptions along with the pace of the story. Now which one to read next?

A good book
Another book n the Vera series
Love this series
And it was another book that I didn’t want to put down
Can’t wait for the next book
Thanks NetGalley

A really good thriller. Ann Cleeves is a great author. Thanks for the opportunity to read & review this book.

Let me just start by saying that I am a complete "Vera Virgin' and have never read a book by Ann Cleeves before (where have i been??) so this was my first step into a new world and author and i really enjoyed it.

Despite being the 10th in a series it was easy to work out what was happening and i didn't feel i missed much by reading as a stand alone, although there is a lot of backstory i must have missed and will go back to start from the beginning at some point!

this starts out as a mystery involving a group of people who were friends from school but now in their 60s and who don't appear to be particularly interesting. I didn't start with high hopes to be honest but it soon picked up when Vera and her team begin to investigate. the story gets much more interesting as we learn about the backstory of each character, more specifically as the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place.

some of the relationships are quite complicated but this just added to my interest..

Here we find Vera in a slightly different guise, more mellow and thoughtful, still forthright but less combative. There are even moments of self-doubt. As ever she carries the emotional baggage of her father Hector like a Geordie sherpa but there are no late-night drinking and brooding sessions resulting in a bad night’s sleep in the armchair. No matter how much she tries to socialise and empathise with people his legacy will remain the defining factor in her life.

The novel starts as a variation on the classic country house murder, with a group of friends together on Holy Island whose causeway to the mainland is cut off at high tide. After determining that the victim was murdered, rather than being suicide as it was disguised to be, there is a small list of suspects. This setting allows for a compactness within storyline, as Vera teases out the personalities of the suspects, but without the claustrophobia of a more limited setting once a second murder happens on the mainland.

The themes of the novel are love and loyalty that spread over a lifetime. The group has managed to stick together over fifty years through a combination of friendships and shared secrets, a loyalty to those who were on the first weekend away. Members of the group have also loved each other, married and divorced, providing more strong and lasting bonds between them but also loneliness for others.

The plot weaves in and out as suspects are discarded, only for some to be later re-considered, and red herrings exposed. Vera is tenacious as ever, with Joe and Holly dutifully doing her bidding and starting to absorb some of her traits, including Holly coming up with ‘bollocks’ as an unsaid but thought response.
As ever there is some great dialogue and subtle humour.

About two thirds through I thought that the story was going to peter out, but when the jeopardy commences the tension ratchets up nicely to produce an excellent final third and a bold conclusion. Any thoughts I may have held of the series running out of steam being banished. Most series and characters naturally have a literary shelf life, thankfully there’s room for a few more in this great one.

The Vera series of novels remains in rude health and The Rising Tide is an excellent addition to it. With clever plotting, acutely observed characters and tense climax, if you’ve enjoyed the previous ones, you’re going to love this one.

Excellent story. Most are familiar with the series ‘Vera’ on ITV. This is the latest instalment of those stories. I haven’t read any before this one and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommended.

Love this author but didn't get the usual connection with this book. Somehow it felt a tad long-winded and possibly a little too much irrelevant detail which detracted from what I hoped would be another pacey & entrancing read. Still enjoyable, especially the setting. Worth a read as you may get more from it than I did

This was, for me, a late ‘discovery’ of the written version of Vera Stanhope. Having read a few Ann Cleeves detective novels I was confident that ‘The Rising Tide’ would not be a tick the boxes police procedural and I was not disappointed. Ms Ckeeves’s particular skill seems to be endow her characters with real personalities and feelings such that the reader truly engages with the characters’ emotional involvement with the developing narrative. Add to that already strong theme the author’s usual convincing descriptions of time, place and ambience and you have all the ingredients for an enjoyable novel. Then you need to acknowledge the never less than secure police procedural aspects conveyed so well by the author and you have a first class read. In this particular book the setting of Holy Island is conveyed to perfection and the murders at the heart of the story convey the necessary sadness, mystery and challenge for our detective team. A perfect combination and, necessarily strongly recommended.

This is the latest book in the DI Vera Stanhope series, which this time is set on Holy Island.
In this book we meet an elderly group of friends who meet every five years for a weekend together as a reunion from when they first went to the island on a school trip. On their latest visit Vera and her team are called in to investigate the death of one of the friends.
This is a great book, and an excellent addition to a series that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Thanks to netgalley for this read.

This was so exciting I love Ann Cleeves books so, I just gobbled this one up very quickly. I find them so interesting and love to try and guess who did what and I’m usually wrong. Another winner. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This new offering from Ann "Vera" Cleeves is a great autumnal read, full of darkness and sea mists. Set on Holy Island (Lindisfarne to non-North East Englanders), it involves a disparate group of 60-something year olds, who have met up once every five years since their sixth-form days, to reacquaint and enjoy a bottle or three, whilst swapping stories. However, on their first night, something dreadful happens and, you've guessed it, Vera and her trusty team are hauled in to solve the crime. There is nothing particularly new here, just the usual Vera-thinking-outside-of-the-box sleuthing, but that doesn't mean it isn't a jolly good, page-turning yarn, well worth putting on your warm, book-reading socks and snuggling up on the couch to enjoy the frisson of murder in a cold climate.

As usual what starts out as a fairly commonplace occurrence,a reunion of friends, soon becomes a tangled and complex murder mystery for Vera to solve. She is a wonderful character. Great story.