I reminded you earlier, and I’ll say it again, if you haven’t yet read Ann Cleeves’ The Rising Tide, you might want to pick it up before reading The Dark Wives. This eleventh in the series is a major spoiler for the previous one. In fact, there is a point in my review that may spoil the previous one, so don’t read the review if you want to read the Vera Stanhope books in consecutive order.

When a young man’s body is found outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope’s team is brought in. Josh Woodburn was a counselor at the home who was supposed to have worked overnight. Although it’s a murder investigation, it quickly becomes much more. Chloe Spencer, a fourteen-year-old, is missing from Rosebank. Is Chloe a killer, a runaway, or a terrified witness?

While Vera sees Chloe as a terrified witness, her team doesn’t necessarily feel the same way. Joe is inclined to see her as a killer. Rosie Bell, the newest member of the team, has wanted to work for, and learn from, Vera for quite some time. Although Vera tries to include everyone in her decisions, she still is close-mouthed, and tends to keep her own confidences.

Just before another resident of Rosebank is found dead, the investigation shifts to the wild Northumberland countryside, and the location of the legendary Three Dark Wives, standing stones that are the center of a community’s eerie post-Halloween celebration. This time, when the town’s lights go out, will the team find Chloe or her body?

Although the ending and solution seems a little abrupt, readers who are looking for Cleeves’ interesting characters will be satisfied with the latest in the series.

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

The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves. Minotaur Books, 2024. ISBN 9781250836847 (hardcover), 384p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley from NetGalley in order to review the book for a journal.