I have never read a Vera book by Anne Cleeves until now, I’ve only seen the series on television. I was staying in Northumberland on holiday and visited Lindisfarne, the Holy Island, on which the story is set while I was reading the book.
50 years ago a group of teenagers were on a retreat on the Holy Island when one of their group was killed trying to leave the island after a disagreement. She thought she could make it to the mainland when her car was swept away when the tide came in.
Every year they return to the Island for a reunion and to remember their friend who died. On this a occasion one of them, Rick Kelsall, is found hanged. At first it’s assumed it is a suicide as Rick, a tv journalist, has been sacked for inappropriate behaviour. Vera is called in to investigate and soon uncovers hidden secrets amongst the group. An added complication for her is when she realises her
Police Commissioner’s daughter was working as an intern with Rick Kelsall and had been persuaded to report him for his behaviour.
Vera realises that the drowning 50 years ago wasn’t an accident and in doing so puts her own life and her colleagues at risk.

I am such a huge Ann Cleeves fan and as usual this did not disappoint. A complex and engaging plot, an ending you are desperate to reach because you want to know all of the answers and a book you want to read in one sitting. Thank you netgalley

Although I have watched a few episodes of Vera on TV and read and loved the Shetland series this is the first novel I've read in Ann Cleeves Vera series. This is the tenth novel in the series and the author writes so well, I really felt that I was in safe hands and I love that when I'm reading a crime novel. A group of schoolfriends have met every 5 years on Holy Island for 50 years and when one of them is found hanged Vera must investigate past events and the relationships between the group.
The setting of The Rising Tide is glorious and the author really conjures up the sense of place. I'm already thinking of booking my trip to Northumberland for next year !
I love the way the author gradually brings all the pieces of the characters lives together - she has a real skill for characterisation and I felt that I knew all the characters so well. I love the relationships between Vera and her team and the trust and love Vera has for her colleagues Joe and Holly. This was such a tightly plotted and well paced novel that I found hard to put down over the course of 24 hours. The ending was unexpected in many ways.
Highly recommended and I've already started reading the rest of the series,
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc

I really enjoyed this one and I thought the story line was very good and kept me guessing until the end which I really enjoyed because it’s no often that it’s hard to figure out who the killer is - especially in a series that has been running for a long time, so a special well done to the author.

Overall, I really enjoyed everything about this book in all honesty which is hard to come by.

Ann Cleeves has done it again. We meet Vera and her team trying to solve 2 murders that might be linked to the past.. A group of friends who meet every year for a reunion on Holy Island. They are all much older now, are they capable of murder? Well we can leave it to Vera and her team to dig deeper and get to the truth. Well worth reading and Ann Cleeves continues to pull the reader in and write well. I look forward to the next one!

The Rising Tide is book no. 10 is the ever enjoyable detective Vera Stanhope (as seen on tv starring Brenda Blethyn). Vera Stanhope. Is not the usual detective hero of psychological thrillers, she’s often mistaken for the cleaner or a down at heel homeless woman, she’s abrupt, taciturn and can be generally unpleasant, but, she truly cares about her job and catching the perpetrator so the families can get justice. Not perfect, but utterly genuine.
This time around, Vera and her team of Joe, Holly (Hols) and Charlie are investigating the murder of a former celebrity on 'Holy Island' previously known as Lindisfarne. The victim was attending a regular reunion with a group of old school friends when he apparently committed suicide in light of a sexual harassment case that had lost him his job and his status. The team pitch up on the island to investigate only to discover this is definitely a murder and all their suspects are octaganerians that have known each other since they were in school, returning every 5 years to the Island.
This is yet another incredible book from Ann Cleeves, roll on book 11.

Ann Cleeves does it again

Excellent plotting and pacing

Holy island locked room style mystery

A reunion that ends in horror

A very mixed and complex bunch of people having a reunion

One body found, then another. The tide is coming in...

Vera's relationship with Joe gets a nice airing.

Recommended . A standalone and a great addition to the series

This is the first Ann Cleaves novel that I have read, however I am very familiar with the main characters after watching Vera since it first aired on our screens in 2011. In this, the tenth novel in the series, Vera is called to what appears to be a suicide of a well known TV personality who has recently been sacked following a ‘Me Too’ allegation. Vera though suspects foul play and this is confirmed when the pathologist turns up. Vera and her team are drawn into an investigation which involves some very influential people and events 50 years ago that may have a bearing on the case.
Ann Cleaves has a writing style which is very easy and ‘unputdownable’. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

"It hit her suddenly that apart from Eliza, all the suspects in this case were aging. Death was a reality to them in a way that it wasn't for younger people, including Joe, for example...She supposed that older people made fewer plans. They had less time to fill, no endless possibilities stretching into the future. Could this be important for the way this case worked out? If so, as an older woman herself she had no excuse for getting it wrong."

Present day Lindisfarne, Holy Island off the Northumberland coast and a five yearly reunion is taking place. Fifty years ago, when classmates Annie, Rick, Louisa, Ken and Phillip, Daniel, Charlotte and Isobel were in their late teens they stayed on the island as part outward bound, part team-building with their young teacher, Miss Marshall. Most of them became friends for life and continued to meet. This time, marking fifty years, after the first night, the group wake to discover Rick dead, apparently hanged in his bedroom.
DI Vera Stanhope and colleagues DS Joe Ashworth and DC Holly Clarke arrive on the island, suspecting murder, which is soon confirmed. Believing the past holds the key to identifying the murder, Vera and her team begin to investigate. But someone wants rid of them off the island.

Book ten of the DI Vera Stanhope series and I have to confess, that despite watching the TV adaptations, this is the first I have read. I will work my way through the rest of this North East England based police procedural. Easy to read, it's clear it's written by an experienced author who knows her characters, her setting and how to spin a good mystery. Vera is determined and whilst the truth will out there is more tragedy to come. An excellent murder mystery, I enjoyed getting stuck into.

Another great detective story with Vera and her team. A sudden death during a school/friends reunion opens up a whole back story. How are events which happened to some teenage friends on an island retreat tied in with the group now back on the same island in their 60s? Vera is at her best working through the information gleaned by herself and the loyal Joe ably assisted by Holly, who reveres yet continues to question Vera’s methods., but all are relentless in their questioning and curiosity. The setting and scenery are familiar to Vera fans and of course a few birdwatchers are included. The language and descriptions are what is expected and drag you quickly into a familiar ambience. The currency of the novel lies in the accusation of sexual harassment at work and is handled with delicacy and taking a view from all sides. A delightful read and a reaffirmation of of Vera.

The background to this story dates back to when a group of school students were taken on a retreat to Holy Island by a young teacher 50 years before. The trip is a great success and most of them decide to hold a reunion the following year. However, at that first reunion, tragedy strikes when one of their number dies accidentally. When, at a present day reunion, another of their group, now a well-known journalist, is found hanged, Vera is called in to investigate. This is a well-rounded novel with excellent characterisation and lots of dramatic twists that continue to the very end. Ann Cleeves lets the reader into Vera's inner-most thoughts and allows us to see how Vera's own history continues to haunt her.. Alongside Vera's continuing story comes the rivalry between favourite Joe Ashcroft and their colleague Holly which sees Holly doing everything she can to impress Vera with unexpected results. I also enjoyed the descriptions of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) and the causeway that separates it from the mainland during high tide which forms a pivotal part of the story. This is yet another cracking read from Ann Cleeves. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Love this writer and her series. I feel this one adds to the collection. It was well written, fast paced as the story unfolds. Look forward to more from the author.

I was immediately hooked. A fast paced, effortlessly quick read where the pages just turned themselves and I was engaged throughout, mission accomplished. Whirlwind of a thriller! I loved it. This author has a knack for writing the perfect thriller and delivering it at the perfect pacing. I am immediately identified with the main characters.

Old school friends have been having a reunion on Holy Island every 5 years for the last 50 years since the first trip organised by a young go ahead teacher. On this initial trip one of their number had died whilst trying to leave the island on the causeway on a rising tide . After a drunken night one of them , a media personality who had just been disgraced for his behaviour , is found hanging in his bedroom. Is it suicide or is there more to it as he had announced he was writing a "Tell All " biography which would include them all . Vera Stanhope and her team , Joe and Holly investigate in their usual fashion .

Fifty years ago a bunch of schoolfriends went on a trip to Holy Island, now five survivors are back; shortly there will only be four. The trip had been organised by a young, keen teacher as a sort of bonding exercise for the pupils embarking on their A levels, and had been successful in that aim. The group, only there some attrition, have held together and still meet, in the same place at the same time of year, every five years. The five are Philip, now a C of E cleric, Annie, purveyor of food and solace, Rick, bombastic TV personality currently in a #MeToo situation but boasting about the tell-all 5book he is writing, Ken, in early stage dementia, and Ken’s wife, Lou. She wasn’t actually in the original group, being two years younger, but has been attending with Ken. She is also the younger sister of Isobel, a member of the group who had tragically died at the first reunion when her car was washed off the causeway by the rising tide which covers it twice a day. On the first morning of this reunion Annie finds Rick hanging in his room. Suicide might be the first though, but Vera Stanhope, for it is she, suspects murder and so it proves. A number of motives rapidly appear and initially only three people with opportunity. But other suspects slowly materialise, as Vera and her team weave their way through the false trails and obfuscations that befog the plot. The ending and the solution are not easy to spot coming, even when quite close to the reveal.
At base this is a police procedural, but it is almost an insult to put any “Vera” into that category. The textual detail, the depth of characterisation and the skilful writing elevate it above that. Readers who have come to this from the TV version of Vera will find some overlaps, but she is a much more complex character on the page, much more the product of her childhood, more conflicted, more untidy, more selfish, more cavalier. Hard to fault this one.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This is the first book I've read by Ann Cleeves, although I very familiar with Vera Stanhope from the television series. and was delighted to find the television does full justice to the book and the character than the author has created.
This is a story set on Holy Island in the autumn, the weather making things appear worse than they are, perhaps. A group of school friends are having a reunion, something they do every five years even though they've all gone in very different directions since their school days. After a boozy first evening one of the party goes to rouse a lazy head in the morning, only to find he has apparently committed suicide. When she is called out Vera is immediately unconvinced by the suicide and demands checks are made. The death is confirmed as a murder and the. investigation begins.
The story deals as much with the past of the characters as it does with the present and who they have become.. Vera is the same irascible character as Brenda Blethyn plays on television, eating too much, not paying her way, and delighting everyone with her sudden insights. All the characters in this book are well formed and have a part to play. The plot romps along and the setting is wild and wonderful.
A really enjoyable read. Many thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

A group of friends meeting back up for a reunion and then a murder of a disgraced reporter. Enter Vera and her team. A brilliant read with a really emotional resolution. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

I just want to say that Ann Cleeves’ books are always a real treat to read despite the fact their storylines almost always revolve around murder and human suffering! She achieves this by casting fascinating characters in the most wild and beautiful settings and weaving them together around well developed cunning plots. The Rising Tide is her latest triumph set in Holy Island (Lindisfarne) where one of a group of school friends who meet every five years is found hanging from the rafters one morning. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is called to investigate when evidence suggests a suspicious death. The story unfolds as we learn more about the groups members and about a death which occurred at their first reunion on the island forty years ago when a young woman drowned trying to reach the mainland across the causeway during high tide. Vera's instincts drive her to find out more about this incident and how relationships between the characters has shifted over time.

I have read a number of books by Ann Cleeves and this has been my favorite to date. The depth of character development for all the players is magnificent and I found the page turning excitement was not just plot driven but a desire to find out more about these people and their lives. What also adds to the atmosphere is the setting of Holy Island with its isolating tidal causeway and misty nights, especially so in the final crescendo.

For those new to Vera, her character dominates these stories and so it should. She is a crusty, grumbly, seemingly shambolic Detective who eats and drinks too much and avoids social interaction outside of work. Beneath this outward appearance is a keen observer of life with a deep understanding of people and what drives their behaviours. Brenda Blethyn, the Actress who plays Vera in the TV series portrays her character perfectly and I find it hard now not to visualise her in every scene. To me that only compliments the reading and for those who do not watch the show, Ann Cleeves writing provides plenty of colour to create your own images.
I thoroughly recommend this book to all readers and I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publishers for allowing me access for review.

Ann Cleeves never writes a bad book and this is no exception. A well crafted plot and complex characters lead to an addictive read. Highly recommended.

Another gripping case for DI Vera Stanhope, when a murder on Holy Island dredges up secrets from the past.

Cleeves' novels are almost deceptively easy to read - it wouldn't be hard to overlook just how skilled a writer she actually is. Few writers can capture character so succinctly, and Cleeves' isn't afraid to let her plot take the back seat at times t0 let her characters steer the narrative. There's something wonderfully bittersweet ab0ut Vera as a protagonist, her tough exterior, snarky jibes and confident detective work masking an inner vulnerability. It's nice to see a detective who doubts herself sometimes.

The mystery itself is well-crafted and perfectly paced with a thrilling denouement. There's just enough twists to keep you guessing, while also giving you a fair shot at working out who the killer is, just in time for the reveal.

Smart and absorbing, The Rising Tide is a strong addition to the Vera series.