All those books in my place, and one Saturday I couldn’t find anything I wanted to read. I really wanted a traditional mystery because I had just watched “Agatha Christie’s England” on PBS. So, I turned to Ann Cleeves and the second Vera Stanhope mystery, Telling Tales. I’ve read the first and scattered ones in the series, including the most recent one, but I went back to the first one I hadn’t read. Ann Cleeves, and Vera Stanhope, with the descriptions of village life in England, a murder that turns a community upside down, and Vera’s investigation, was just what I wanted.

Before she committed suicide, Jeanie Long was imprisoned for ten years for the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. She protested that she was innocent, and finally, killed herself when probation was denied again. Her death came just before a witness came forward to exonerate her. To the small community of Elvet, that means the killer might still be alive, and might be there.

Emma Bennett always said that Abigail was her best friend when they were both fifteen. Now, when she overhears her husband, James, and the neighbor, talk about Jeanie’s suicide, she realizes she’ll have to tell her story again, how she had fled her house and found Abigail’s body in a ditch. But, when Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope shows up in Elvet, she lets Emma brood about the past before she listens to Emma’s account.

Vera was brought in from Northumberland to take a second look at the Abigail Mantel murder. It hadn’t taken the police long to settle on Jeanie Long as the killer ten years earlier. She had been living with Abigail’s father, but Abigail hated her, and urged him to break off the relationship. At least, that’s the story the community heard. But, Vera hears different versions of Abigail’s tale as she questions former police officers, Jeanie’s boss at the local pub, and Abigail’s father. A small community can harbor secrets and lies and untold tales.

That’s one of Ann Cleeves’ strengths. Like Christie, she sets a scene, in a small village or a large country house, and allows the characters to reveal their own secrets, the stories they tell themselves about their past and their lives. Vera listens. At times she doubts herself, but she’s finally able to see the truth, the nugget buried somewhere in all of the tales people tell. The reader might be there for all of the accounts Vera hears, but, time and again, Vera discovers a truth that the reader misses.

Telling Tales is just that. Vera listens as community members tell their tales, but somehow those tales reveal a killer, a truth that no one but Vera was able to catch. It’s a perfect book for anyone searching for an Agatha Christie setting, a book with a depth of character and a startling reveal.

Ann Cleeves’ website is https://anncleeves.com/

Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves. Minotaur Books, 2017. ISBN 9781250122773 (hardcover), 410p.

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