‘Cleeves deftly paints in the personalities and their relationships, as the police inquiries disrupt the close-knit community. It’s a good, character-led mystery, which displays the art of storytelling without recourse to slash and grab’
Sunday Telegraph

‘A carefully constructed, atmospheric and interesting mystery’
Literary Review

RAVEN BLACK

‘Raven Black breaks the conventional mould of British crime-writing, while retaining the traditional virtues of strong narrative and careful plotting’
Independent

‘Beautifully constructed . . . a lively and surprising addition to a genre that once seemed moribund’
Times Literary Supplement

‘Raven Black shows what a fine writer Cleeves is . . . an accomplished and thoughtful book’
Sunday Telegraph

‘This is an absolute must for crime drama fans and you’ll be kept guessing right up until the last crucial moments on a beach as to who is the real villain of the piece’
Radio Times (Radio 4 Saturday Play of Raven Black)

‘Ann’s characterization is worthy of the best writers in the field . . . Rarely has a sense of place been so evocatively conveyed in a crime novel’
Daily Express

BLUE LIGHTNING

Ann Cleeves worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other northern writers to promote crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Best Crime Novel, for Raven Black. Ann lives in North Tyneside.

The novels in Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope series, The Crow Trap, Telling Tales and Hidden Depths are available now and are forthcoming major ITV productions.

Visit the author’s website at:

By Ann Cleeves

A Bird in the Hand

Come Death and High Water

Murder in Paradise

A Prey to Murder

A Lesson in Dying

Murder in My Back Yard

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy

Another Man’s Poison

Killjoy

The Mill on the Shore

Sea Fever

The Healers

High Island Blues

The Baby-Snatcher

The Sleeping and the Dead

Burial of Ghosts

The Vera Stanhope series

The Crow Trap

Telling Tales

Hidden Depths

The Shetland series

Raven Black

White Nights

Red Bones

Blue Lightning

For my wise, funny and indomitable daughters

Acknowledgements