Bundle up and stay warm as you read the third Detective Matthew Venn novel by Ann Cleeves. The Raging Storm takes readers to Greystone in Devon, a storm-tossed coastal community where townspeople volunteer to work on lifeboats to save struggling sailors. This time, they can’t save one of their own.

Jem Rosco is an adventurer, a sailor, and a legend in Greystone. He surprised everyone when he walked into the local bar, the Maiden’s Prayer, with his canvas bag. He’d gone to school locally, and then left to sail the world, becoming a TV star and celebrity. Now, he’s rented a cottage in Greystone, where he says he’s waiting to meet someone. Night after night, he comes into the bar, buying a round and chatting. Then, one night he doesn’t appear.

The local lifeboat is called out when someone calls Mayday. There’s a dead body in the dinghy they find, Jem Rosco’s dead body. Detective Matthew Venn is sent to the forbidding remote coast of rocks and cliffs. He’s there to investigate the death of a national treasure, Jem Roscoe. But, he’s haunted by his own childhood memories of Greystone. He finds people who are still members of the Barum Brethren, his parents’ faith, the one he left when his parents rejected him. Matthew can’t let those memories interfere with his case.

As Matthew and his team investigate, they uncover stories that indicate Jeremy Rosco may have been an adventurer, but he wasn’t a saint. And, the people who welcomed him to the bar might have reasons to resent him. When there’s a second death, Matthew realizes he’s not the only one who remembers the past with bitterness.

As Ann Cleeves develops a series, she builds a team of supporting characters. While some readers have a hard time with Venn, it’s interesting to watch his supporting team, Jen Rafferty and Ross May, step up. Everything is a competition between them, even as they compete for Venn’s attention. When they’re all trapped with the power out and an oak across the road during the storm, it’s fascinating to watch the team and individual dynamics.

As I said, Cleeves carefully develops a series. The Raging Storm, with its stormy atmosphere, conflicts, and power plays, may be the best in the Matthew Venn series. At least, the best yet.

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

The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves. Minotaur Books, 2023. ISBN 9781250836779 (hardcover), 400p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .pdf so I could interview the author for a panel.