The Blurb (from Goodreads):
In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too.
Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.
The case calls Matthew back into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide.
An astonishing new novel told with compassion and searing insight, The Long Call will captivate fans of Vera and Shetland, as well as new readers.
My Thoughts:
I am a huge fun of “Shetland’ and ‘Vera’, the TV series inspired by Ann Cleeves’s crime novels, but have actually only read one of her books. Most unlike me! So I thought I’d try her newest book, the first in a new series. ‘The Long Call’ is set in Devon, and features a gay detective who grew up in a cult-like evangelical religion until he realised both his sexual orientation and his atheism. He has not spoken to his family since. On the day of his father’s funeral (to which he was not invited), a body is found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.
Compulsively readable, with really interesting and vital characters, ‘The Long Call’ is top-notch contemporary crime. I was not at all surprised to hear it has been turned into a TV series too!
