There is a lot to like in this book, the setting in North Devon, the intricate crimes/mysteries in the book and the background of aspects of living by the coast . The characterisations of both the police team and those they come into contact with are well done and interesting, though I found most of the described family relationships a bit off. Maybe because (in the case of Mathew & Jonathan) of experiences in their youth, but I found myself wondering why they were married to each other. I would have liked a little more depth rather than the superficial contact they seemed to have in this book.
The plot was interesting with a couple of twists and quite easy to keep track of, it perhaps stretched the bounds of credibility at times, in my view again regarding relationships . All in all entertaining though.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Raging Storm is another great Ann Cleeves book, back with Matthew, Jen and Ross. A murder takes them to Greystones and another link to the Barum brethren that Matthew can’t seem to escape. There are plenty of secrets in Greystones but with Matthew and his team in the case can they solve the case before there are more murders. Set around the blustery Devon coastline the sea is an ever present character. I love this series with some very clever twists and turns

When famous sailor, adventurer and all-round rascal Jem Rosco pitches up in the village of Greystone, Devon, a ripple of excitement stirs among the locals. But not everyone is pleased to have this particular celebrity in their midst. When his body is found in dinghy off Scully Cove on a wild and stormy morning, Detective Inspector Matthew Venn is called in to investigate.
It’s familiar but not exactly welcome territory for him, as the place hold memories of his childhood and the evangelical community he abandoned. Assisting him is down-to-earth single mom Sergeant Jen Rafferty and the resentful Constable Ross.
The three police officers base themselves in the local pub and set about unravelling a tangle of romances, grievances and feuds amid a community fuelled by superstition, myth and gossip.
When the bibulous commodore of the sailing club winds up dead in the same location as Jem, Venn realises someone with a dark secret from the past will do anything to protect themselves –and even nosy coppers are fair game.
As ever, crime queen Ann Cleeves, who also wrote the Vera and Shetland series, delivers a satisfying thriller that will keep you guessing to the end.

This is the latest atmospheric and twisted crime offering from Ann Cleeves in her Two Rivers series, featuring her gay, married DI Matthew Venn, set in North Devon. When the larger than life, famous local sailor and adventurer Jem Rosco blows into the small, dreary, remote coastal town of Greystone, he brings excitement, colour and drama in his wake. He is staying at a basic cottage, dropping into the Maiden's Prayer pub run by Harry Carter on a daily basis, making his presence felt. He tells people he is waiting to meet someone there, but does not elaborate any further, although the consensus is that it is a woman he is planning to meet. Rosco disappears, only for his naked body to be found in a dinghy at Scully's Cove, a feared and cursed legend of a place swirling in superstitions.

It is a strange murder that feels oddly posed, but for what purpose? Greystone is a place familiar to Venn as a child, spending time there with his family, members of the Christian sect, the Barum Brethren, a sect that he later dropped out of. This traumatic past has Venn ill at ease and not always seeing what is in front of him, the sect dominates the Greystoke community, and there are some faces he remembers from long ago. Venn is viewed with suspicion by many, the police are greeted with a wall of silence that hampers their ability to make fast progress in their inquiries. As ferocious storms rage, there are power cuts and the community are cut off, with Venn, his Scouse, single mother DS Jen Rafferty and the often awkward, sometimes resentful, but ambitious DC Ross May, stranded and having to stay over.

There is more murder, mysteries, intrigue, deeply buried secrets and deadly dangers revolving around Scully's Cove and Greystoke as the police delve into the past and present life and personal history of Rosco in their search for the truth. By now Venn has become a established leading character with his own low key, thoughtful style of working, and we have become familiar with his close and loving relationship with his husband, Jonathan Roberts. Jen has still not settled down in Devon, and still misses her beloved Liverpool which she briefly visits, she has some regrets over how she has raised her children, the emphasis she has placed on her career, and finds herself pining to have another baby. This is shaping to be another great series from Cleeves, with a superb sense of location in the North Devon coast, and after that conclusion, I look forward to the next book! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of The Raging Storm, the third novel to feature DI Matthew Venn, set in the fictional North Devon village of Greystone.

Local man Jem Rosco is a celebrity adventurer so the locals in Greystone are delighted when he comes to stay in the village. When he disappears nobody bothers until a hoax lifeboat call leads to the discovery of his body in an anchored dinghy. Matthew Venn has happy memories of Greystone where he spend many childhood holidays as part of Barum Brethern sect. Now that he has lost his faith he isn’t so enthusiastic.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Raging Storm, which is an engrossing read with an unusual approach as it mingles the investigation with the personal and the present with the past. The novel is told from various points of view so the reader gets a broad look at events, and, to my mind fortunately, there isn’t a peep from the perpetrator so the mystery of who and why remains.

I was glued to the pages as Venn and his team try to establish a motive for the murder of such a well known and apparently inoffensive victim, a man who has been keeping secrets, like why he was in Greystone in the first place or where he lives. There is plenty of fodder for an enquiring mind to ponder and try to work out. I didn’t get close to a solution despite much pondering and I don’t think many people will as the actual solution is a bit of a tour de force, unexpected and unusual. I was very impressed by the author’s imagination.

There is a slightly dreamy feel to the novel, where nothing is quite clear until the denouement and some of that is intentional by the perpetrator as if everything is staged in an attempt at misdirection. And yet, there is a second murder and an attempted murder so it’s not lacking in hard reality, even if hard facts are more difficult to come by.

Venn is haunted by his memories and that affects his clarity of thought, while DS Jen Rafferty hates the place and DC Ross May wants excitement and glory to an annoying extent. They’re an oddball team but they work effectively.

The Raging Storm is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Another great story from Ann Cleeves, did not disappoint. Set in Cornwall and featuring D.I Venn ,who had been brought up in a religious sect by his parents until he lost his faith and escaped at 18 , and his partners. The Lifeboat is called out and a body is found posed naked in a small boat.It transpires that the body belongs to a local celebrity ,Jeremy Roscoe,who has recently moved back to a rented house in the area and has become a local in the village pub "The Maidens Prayer". He has kept saying that he is expecting a special guest but nobody knows who.
It seems in his younger days he had a crush on the girl who is now married to a local Magistrate and Commodore of the sailing club,where he spends most evenings drinking heavily.Shortly afterwards his body is found in the same place {Scully Cove) as where Jeremy's body was found.There are plenty of suspects but few clues until Venn's husband Jonathon finds a little known path down to the cove.
Many twists and red herrings as one would expect from Ann.

I was at 86% on the Kindle and still none the wiser about who was the murderer (or murderers). I found myself ekeing it out because I didn't want to finish the book.

Kudos to Cleeves for creating such a spell binding narrative, set in a grim village in North Devon where half of the population seem to be Barum Brethren, who keep to themselves.

Tasked with investigating the death of well known yachtsman Jem Rosco is DI Matthew Venn, also born into Barum Brethren but cast out after renouncing religion and marrying a man.

Most police crime thrillers have a central character with a particular calling card, such as autism, or being a loner, rebellious, or a would-be poet. While Matthew Venn could be neatly labelled as "former Brethren," Cleeves has created a character with such depth that it becomes irrelevant. He is slightly morose, considered, and anxious, giving the impression that he's slightly baffled as to why his husband Jonathan married him, as if he doesn't deserve him. It feels like Cleeves cares for him, whereas she's openly dismissive of the young and inexperienced DC Moss, who doesn't think about anything in a less than superficial way.

In the claustrophobic village Venn and his team of Jen and Moss struggle to unravel the mysterious life of the murder victim amidst gossip and silence.

Somehow I've never read any of Cleeves's books before, although I'm familiar with the TV series Shetland. But I'll definitely be seeking out the rest because this book gripped me until the end. Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the eARC in return for an honest review.

Ann Cleeves is one of my favourite mystery writers and this was another great detective story by her. This is the third in the Two Rivers series set in Devon but I’m sure that it could easily be read as a stand alone.
The mystery of who murdered local celebrity Jem Rosco is a pleasantly convoluted one. There is no obvious motive for his murder but there are plenty of unanswered questions. As the story progresses, we find out more about his character but he seems a difficult person to get to know which makes the investigation tricky for Venn and his team.
I like Matthew Venn. Like many fictional detectives, he is a bit of a misfit but he is aware of how socially inept he can be and does try to overcome his less likeable traits. The two sergeants Jen and Ross, make an interesting double act. I liked Ross a lot more in this book. He is still irritating but his good qualities are becoming clearer and it was really good to see his happy marriage which is a bit of a rarity in detective fiction.
As always, with Ann Cleeves, the setting is a key part of the novel. The story opens dramatically with a lifeboat rescue during a storm and the weather continues to add an extra dimension to the story. This is not a pretty, tourist spot in Devon but a bleak spot near a quarry. With its small village setting and addition of a religious cult to which many of the villagers belong, the atmosphere is almost claustrophobic.
The mystery had plenty of twists and turns and while guessing part of the solution, there were surprises and drama right up to the end.
I would definitely recommend this novel to any lover of detective fiction who enjoys a dramatic setting with an interesting mystery. Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers Pan Macmillan for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

For lovers of detective fiction, a new Ann Cleeves book is something to look forward to- this is the third book in the Two Rivers - Matthew Venn series. A celebrity sailor and adventurer - Jem Rosco -returns to the area of his youth and within a short period of time his body is found in a dinghy discovered by a the local life boat crew during a raging storm. The small closed village is hiding a killer but with a multitude of red herrings and suspicion , Venn and his team have their work cut out trying to discover the truth. When another body is found at the infamous Scully Cove the team are further challenged and very soon are placed in personal danger . Ann Cleeves is supreme at building up the world and lives around the victims , their families and the local communities. The attention to detail of everyday life takes the routine and mundane to darker areas. An array of possible perpetrators and complex plot take the reader another excellent detective story. Venn is a winning detective- full of self doubt, introverted and nervous of losing the world of security he has established with his husband but ultimately perceptive to all forms of the human condition . Another excellent read.

I have not read the previous books in the Two Rivers series but it was not really a problem to pick up the characters and their backgrounds. I was intrigued to read a novel by this author which does not involve Vera Stanhope and the north east of England.
The setting here is a bleak grey village in north Devon where the main character detective inspector, Mathew Venn, spent part of his childhood, as part of a religious sect. A call out to the local lifeboat station takes them to Scully Cove where they discover a small boat, moored, with the naked and battered body of local celebrity, Jeremy Rosco, in it. Venn and his partner DS Jen Rafferty come to investigate and Mathew finds the burden of his childhood pressing down on him.
The plot is cleverly constructed, with twists and turns and red herrings along the way, and way more complicated than the average murder, I suspect. However it makes for a great read and the setting is wonderful - gloomy and menacing and just perfect for the tale - and it only goes to prove you should never take anyone at face value and grudges can be carried for years.
With thanks to Netgalley and Pan MacMillan for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

fantastic story, very in depth, I loved the characters and how the story flowed. I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them all., highly recommended .

📖 FROM THE COVER

Detective Matthew Venn returns in The Raging Storm, the next captivating novel in the Two Rivers series from Ann Cleeves, the number one bestselling author and creator of Vera and Shetland.

When Jem Rosco – sailor, adventurer and local legend – blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. The residents think nothing of it when Rosco disappears again; that’s the sort of man he is.

Until the lifeboat is launched to a hoax call-out during a raging storm and his body is found in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own.

This is an uncomfortable case for DI Matthew Venn. He came to the remote village as a child, its community populated by the Barum Brethren that he parted ways with, so when superstition and rumour mix and another body is found in the cove, Matthew soon finds his judgement clouded.

As the stormy winds howl and the village is cut off, Venn and his team start their investigation, little realizing their own lives might be in danger

REVIEW ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another banger from the Queen of atmospheric crime, thank you for the ARC.

Taking us to Devon once again Mathew Venn and his team we are blown away with winds and high seas to investigate another truly original murder. Full of twists, mystery and a underlaying of simmering sinister tension this slow burner won’t keep you all night but it will keep you reading into the night.

This a great addition of the series, what I always enjoy about Anne’s work is that within her series she dose not favour the copy and paste style of writing a lot of authors favour, the characters are familiar but with each novel the process and we learn more about them. While there is on going themes within her novels there is never the same cut and paste format and reuse of paragraphs I really admire that it must be hard to follow that format when you are publishing as much as she does, Ian Rankin, Alan Parks and M.C Beaton have written some of my favourite series but do follow this style which can be annoying and come across lazy, Anne’s work never does this it’s always fresh with the familiarity you look for a series. This is very unique in how the murders are played out I don’t know she comes up with the ideas…great mind

As big classic golden age of crime fan I sometimes find Cleeves work a little hard going her style is very different there is a lot deep inner monologues, this no different however I really enjoyed the on going self reflection Venn has though out the novel and I feel am really getting to know him as character, he is complex and deep with loads of room to grow, I look forward to reading more about him especially after he ending. What Anne does well if take the classic motives and present them in a new way, it’s always something so ordinary, so everyday, something we could all fall easy to, something caused by feelings we all have that push the murder to do what they do. Anne keeps this classic motive and presents it in her unique fresh way there is no cosy crime feel there is raw real feel to her work but she keeps the classic rules there. As I find with all good crime novels there is echo of Christie but with Anne’s work you could miss it as she writes so well, there is that classic feel but with a police procedural feel as well as I character lead novel. Brilliant writing, and as always brilliant story telling. Within this book I really loved the back stories and connections the characters had. My parents have a holiday home in a small seaside port and I could really engage with lifeboat sections in the novel I always find it very interesting the reasons for people volunteering and I always wonder what goes though their heads on a call this novel gave a small insight.

As always an addition character is the setting and this book is no exception, you can literally feel the wind on your face, smell the sea air and feel the cold in the book. She describes the setting so beautifully. I will say my favourite setting is always the Shetland books but the Devon setting with its mixture of the bleakly beautiful and postcard beautiful is a close second.

Great addition to the Venn, River Books, I look forward to the next.

I have long been a fan of the series written by Ann Cleaves on television but until now I have not read any of her novels….that was a big mistake ..I must now read more. not only a great story teller but a great writer. A cast of believable characters and an intricate plot, there is nothing not to like.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This new offering from Ann Cleeves sees detective Matthew Venn, shy and awkward but rigorous in his work, trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of an adventurer and round-the-world yachtsman, who has turned up naked and very dead in the bottom of a small boat anchored off the coast near the small coastal village of Greystone. Another suspicious death follows, and then a disappearance, and it seems as if Venn and his colleagues are still far from solving the crimes, when Venn himself finds himself staring mortal danger in the face.
Written with Cleeves' trademark tight plotting and plenty of red herrings thrown into the mix, the ending is satisfying and tidy. Highly recommeded.

I’m not very enamoured with this I’m afraid. Maybe if I’d read one of the previous books in the series I could have warmed to some of the characters, but I haven’t and I didn’t. I started to dislike Venn near the beginning when he went into the Maiden’s Prayer to speak to Harry Carter. Harry was very pleasant to him, made coffee, and answered all his questions in depth. Venn asked Carter if Gwen would have a key to the cottage that Roscoe was renting and he answered ‘Bound to have.’ Then Venn asked ‘Where will I find her?’ … and … ‘just about managed to control his impatience’. Why???? What was there to be impatient about? I don’t know why that annoyed me but it did! Anyway this was an OK read, but for me it wasn’t the ‘brilliant and tense mystery’ it was described as. I felt the plot was too convoluted and it was all a bit too Agatha Christie-like for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, and I’m sure the book will be a great hit. Sadly, it didn’t quite work for me.

This is the third in the Venn series. When a former inhabitant of the area, renowned sailor Jem Rosco, is found dead in a boat at sea Venn is drawn back to to his childhood village of Greystones to investigate. Jem was excited to be expecting a visitor but would give nobody a clue as to their identity. When Jem is murdered the police wonder if the mystery visitor could be the culprit.
Background plays a large part in the novel: the Scully cove, sailing club and the village with its small community of lifeboat crew, pub and school. With only a moderate number of people living in the the village the suspects should be few but for Venn and his colleagues Ross and Jen there seems to be no motive or person behind the murder.
Ann Cleeves gives plenty of police questioning of people so the reader can try to work out the ending and again delivers a clever murder mystery.
Thank you to the publishers for the ARC.

I loved this book. I am a huge fan of Anne Cleeves books but this is the first of the Inspector Matthew Venn I have read and it certainly won’t be the last.

The books is centred around a costal town called Greystone which has a very close knit community. A lot of the locals sail as a hobby and the story is centred around this and the local sailing club.

A local celebrity comes back to stay there for a short while and is found dead in awful circumstances. Inspector Venn and his team decamp into the local pub and conduct their investigations. There are a lot of people linked to the dead man as he grew up in that area but they find themselves struggling to find the killer.

A really good read and I would definitely recommend it.

Fantastic mystery and great to be back with these characters. The writing and storyline was so engaging. I highly doubt this whole series and author.

I think this is the third in a series featuring DI Matthew Venn, but it's the first one I've read. Thus I'm probably missing a bit of the backstory to the characters, but it didn't really seem to matter - it was still an enjoyable read.

A lifeboat call-out in the Devon village of Greystone results in recently returned local celebrity, round the world sailor and TV personality, Jem Rosco, being found dead in unusual circumstances. Matthew and his DS Jen Rafferty are called in to investigate.

Many people in the community are heavily religious, members of the "Brethren", and Matthew himself has some childhood history with them, which makes things a little awkward.

As always, a well written and plotted police procedural by mistress of the genre, Ann Cleeves. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy!

This is the third book in the Two Rivers series that began with The Long Call where readers were introduced to a new character in detective Matthew Venn. A man full of self-doubt after leaving his family and the religious group he grew up with as a teenager because he was gay.

I am thoroughly enjoying the development of Matthew and his husband and two constables. Ann excels in creating clever mysteries while exploring the human psyche in all its forms.

In this new book Matthew and his team are called to a small coastal village where a dead naked man has been discovered in an anchored dinghy close to a rocky cove that has a sinister reputation. What makes this even more challenging is that the town is mostly Barum Brethren, the same religion that Matthew left.

Another wonderful mystery from one of my favourite crime authors which, like all her books, can be read on its own. However, I always recommend reading them in order because of the back stories of the main characters.