THE DARKEST EVENING - Ann Cleeves

​4.5 stars

The perfect winter night read with a dash of murder and buried secrets.

Enjoyment: ★★★★ 1/2
Plot/Pacing: ★★★★
Villain(s)/Reveal(s): ★★★★ 1/2

A car is found stranded on the side of a snowed-in road later one dark evening. The door is open. Inside the rapidly freezing car is a small baby boy staring out.

What happened to the mother? Why did she appear to go peacefully, yet leave her child to the freezing elements with the door open?

Vera Stanhope and her squad of British cops are on the case. It's Vera herself who discovers the baby and the car, and when she takes him to the nearest lit house in the dark she's shocked to realize that it's the ancestral manor home of her estranged father. That side of the family is rich and snooty and Vera's not thrilled to be back. But the baby and his mother take priority.

This interesting clashing of the classes occurs in the midst of the missing persons case turned deadly: within a few hours, the mother's body is discovered brutally murdered on the grounds of the estate.

With a closed list of suspects, a small town filled with buried secrets, and the threat of an undiscovered murder, it's time for Vera to connect the dots of the past and see just what happened on the darkest evening.

So this was my first Vera Stanhope and Ann Cleves novel, but it will NOT be my last one. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Vera took some getting used to and her team was odd, but overall a really solid mystery tale with all the hallmarks of the classics. Strong points in this novel were the final reveals, the atmosphere, and the unfolding of secrets.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.