The core group, now in their mid to late 60s, reconvene on Holy Island for their latest gathering with each member assuming their expected and traditional role. On their first reunion, one of the participants, Isobel Hall, died when caught in the rising tide while crossing the causeway. Ann Cleeves takes you craggy windswept shores to unravel old secrets among old friends and to give us a story with people you like, food you can taste, weather you can feel through your pajamas and a really good story that you have not heard before! Vera Stanhope is a person who likes very few people, she can be grumpy and tetchy if things don't go her way, but is an excellent detective.

The aging tribe meet at Pilgrims' House to light candles, reminisce over their years together at grammar school, and dine and drink heartily into the night. There’s a swathe of clues to go through, and false starts, overlayed by the sense of time and Hector’s bits of nonsense bullying Vera from the grave. But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible. Vera is certain the past, the history between these friends, is relevant, although her team are less convinced, but she is their boss and what she says goes. But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible .Holy Island has the distinction of being approachable only during certain hours, at low tide, when the causeway is accessible. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Cleeves takes the time to introduce us to each of the friends and the death doesn’t occur for several chapters.

Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then – or now. You would think that an author that includes a plus sized woman as the main character and has done so for 10 books now (including a TV show, apparently) would understand the difference between fatphobia and plus sized representation. In addition to questioning the four who last saw Rick and were also witnesses to events prior to Isobel's death, other vital connections may play a role in the murder and its solution.Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary.

The island is linked to the mainland by a causeway that floods twice a day – the rising tide of the title that plays a key role in the action.But although Vera is front and centre in the investigation, two members of her team also get a chance to shine in this one—Joe, Vera’s favourite, and Holly, who wants to move up in the ranks. Sometime, she supposed, she’d have to release him and send him out into the world beyond her sphere of influence, but not yet. It’s a well written novel with a plot that goes at a brisk pace and which is extremely well thought out, it thickens and deepens taking us on a twisty journey backwards and forwards across the causeway to Holy Island.

But there's always the unwelcomed visitor of memory over a tragedy that occured there in their midst so long ago. I suspect Ann Cleeves has persistent body image issues, and these emerge in her writing/character development.This is a superb setting especially as the tide rises and rolls in adding an extra dimension of atmosphere especially as concealed secrets find their way to the surface, bubbling up like the waves. So begins a case that seems at first to be slowly progressing as Vera and her team try to figure out if this is a crime that stems from the last or present. However, when a second member of the group is murdered, she also begins to wonder whether secrets in the group’s past may be the key to solving this case. Holly is a wonderful but young police detective who is always looking for validation from Vera, her boss.