The Heron's Cry: Now a major ITV series starring Ben Aldridge as Detective Matthew Venn

This is Book 2 in Ann Cleeves’ series about DI Matthew Venn, which is set in North Devon. The first book – The Long Call – was really enjoyable, introducing interesting characters and wonderful settings. It was a story that was obviously going to work well on television and the series aired just as this new book was published. In terms of timings, it takes place not long after Venn has solved the previous crime. That case is still pretty fresh in people’s minds and it is referred to several times in this novel.

The story
Devon is in the middle of a heatwave and the coast is heaving with visitors. At the home/studio of a group of artists the father of one of them is found stabbed to death with a long shard of glass in his neck. The daughter – the glass blower – is clearly not the killer but it’s hard to see why the man was killed or why the scene has been so elaborately staged.

The victim was the relatively new Chief Executive of an organisation representing patients’ views to the local NHS Trusts, and under his leadership it had widened its brief to work harder to investigate complaints. Little is known about the individual cases, so Venn’s team hasn’t much information to go on. Then another body is discovered and as the pressure to find the killer or killers begins to mount, the clues and misdirections seem to flood in.

My verdict
Ann Cleeves writes excellent mysteries. Her plots are knotty, the characters well drawn and the locations always beautifully described. This novel has all the usual ingredients to make it another bestseller, yet it didn’t quite hit all the high notes for me. When our group discussed The Long Call, we all agreed we were looking forward to learning more about Matthew Venn and his husband, Jonathan. But this book doesn’t reveal anything we didn’t know before and, to my mind, neither of them seems particularly real yet, which I think is a pity. At times the pair seemed more like characters in a play, moving across the stage without giving much of themselves away.

But don’t let that stop you from reading this. It’s an excellent story with all the usual twists and turns that you’d expect from this author. And the subjects it tackles are really thought-provoking and interesting. In fact I wish some aspects could have been examined in a bit more detail.

I will certainly be on the lookout for the next book in this series. I’m sure Matthew Venn will grow as a character and the series will continue to make good television too.
Review by: Cornish Eskimo