The brightest light casts the darkest shadow ...
Best-selling crime writer Ann Cleeves has revealed that her next book - coming in autumn 2026 - will be a return to North Devon and a new mystery for Detective Matthew Venn.
Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death. The body of a young woman has been found in the swimming pool of Tide House, a luxurious holiday home in North Devon, and her best friend is missing. The property belongs to rising political star Paul Armstrong and the case quickly draws intense media scrutiny.
As a scorching heat wave rages and further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community brimming with secrets. The dead woman and her friend had been spotted at a nearby music festival the day before, an event which brought locals and outsiders together - some of whom may have been more connected with the Armstrongs than first thought.
Caught between a powerful family's secrets and a powder keg of local tensions, Venn must navigate a treacherous path. Knowing that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silence that they keep ...
More about The Dying Light.
Read what Ann told subscribers to her newsletter about how the book came about - and If you aren't already on Ann's mailing list, you can sign up here.
"Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible"
Richard Osman, author of 'The Thursday Murder Club'
The return of Jimmy Perez
Out now - and coming soon in paperback - an exciting new book from best-selling crime writer Ann Cleeves, a new mystery for long-time favourite detective DI Jimmy Perez! Readers said a sad goodbye to Jummy at the end of Wild Fire when he left the Shetland islands to make a new life with partner Willow Reeves and the baby they were expecting. Jimmy's many fans have been wondering how they were getting on - and so, it seems, has Ann! To find out, she weote a standalone novel, The Killing Stones, published on autumn 2025.
As Ann explained in her new newsletter, "I'd thought I'd finished writing about Perez after Wild Fire, the last of the Shetland books, but he's become a part of my life again. I'd felt a longing to return north in my writing, a kind of homesickness for the islands. Wild Fire ended with a trip to Fair Isle, before the central characters flew on to their new home in Orkney. It occurred to me that I could move with them too. After all, I thought, why not?"
More about The Killing Stones here - or read more about Shetland: the tv series and the books.
A local myth. A deadly threat. And Vera
Vera Stanhope returns to her beloved hills to solve a suspenseful mystery in Ann Cleeves' eleventh VERA novel. The Dark Wives, now available in paperback in both the UK and the US.
A man's body is found in the early morning light by a local dog walker in the park outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up.
DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death. Her only clue in this, her eleventh case. is the disappearance of one of the home's residents, fourteen year old Chloe Spence; Vera can't bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder - but even she can't dismiss the possibility.
Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, are soon embroiled in the case, which takes Vera back to her beloved Northumberland hills, and when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever believed possible.
More about The Dark Wives - and about all things Vera - in print and on TV - here.
"Like Rendell and James before her, like McDermid and Rankin today, Ann Cleeves is one of our secret chroniclers, charting - under cover of a series of expertly plotted and mesmerising crime novels - how we live now"
Mick Herron, author of 'Slow Horses'
"I do love Vera!"
Val McDermid
A Champion for Libraries
Award-winning novelist Ann Cleeves has been an outspoken advocate for public libraries throughout her career; she was a worthy first recipient of the new Public Library Champion award. This has been established to recognise a public figure who has used their platform to promote, celebrate and raise awareness of libraries. Ann says "Delighted to pick up my Public Library Champion Award last week at the Libraries Connected 2024 Awards Ceremony. Met some great people too. Without libraries, I wouldn't be a writer. There'd be no Vera or Shetland on our screens, selling all over the world and bringing money and tourists into our country. More importantly, I probably wouldn't be a reader."
Ann Cleeves Classic Crime
Book Break guides you through the books of Ann Cleeves: you may know Vera Stanhope, but did you know about Ann's first series set in Vera's county of Northumberland, featuring Inspector Stephen Ramsay? Or maybe you've read all of the Shetland books, but didn't know about Ann's standalone titles. Or maybe you'd like to read some short stories next...?
Some of Ann's classic crime novels are now easier to find than they used to be. A series of temptong new editions from Pan Macmillan started in 2023 with two stunning standalone mysteries, The Sleeping and the Dead and Burial of Ghosts. Next came the chance to discover Ann's very first detective series, featuring George Palmer-Jones, an elderly birdwatcher - helped by his wife, Molly, starting with A Bird in the Hand.
The latest arrival is Another Man's Poison places Molly Palmer-Jones at the heart of the enquiry: she arrives at her aunt Ursula's house one morning, only to find her body slumped lifeless on the sofa...
Ursula Ottway's beautiful cottage is wanted by her landlord, politician Marcus Grenville, so he can convert it into a holiday residence. So when Ursula discovers that the illegal use of poisoned bait on Grenville's land has killed not only a rare bird of prey but also her two beloved cats, she storms to his house and threatens revenge...
More details of Ann Cleeves's stand-alone mysteries, and other books here.
In true Agatha Christie style, Cleeves once again pulls the wool over our eyes with cunning and conviction
Colin Dexter
A most satisfying mystery set in an isolated and intriguing location
Peter Robinson
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Last update: 2nd April 2026.