The Long Call - Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves published the first of her thirty-five novels in 1986, A Bird in the Hand, the first novel in what eventually became her eight-book “George Palmer Jones” series. Even before ending that series in 1996, Cleeves was already deep into her six “Inspector Ramsey” books, but she only added one more Ramsey book before ending that series in 1997. That’s when Vera Stanhope, one of the author’s most successful characters came along, and Cleeves has written nine Vera Stanhope novels between 1999 and 2020. During those same years, Cleeves also produced an eight-book series featuring DI Jimmy Perez. These eight novels, because of the television series based on the character and novels, are commonly called the Shetland (Island) novels, but the publisher also labels them “The Four Seasons Quartet” and “The Four Elements” novels. Interestingly, Cleeves has only ever written two standalone novels, one in 2001 and the other in 2003. 

And that brings us to the author’s “Two Rivers” series featuring Detective Matthew Venn. Cleeves began the series in 2019 with The Long Call and the second book in the series, The Heron’s Cry, has just been added. The author’s habit of simultaneously writing two series continues, so hopefully the “Two Rivers” series has helped lessen the pain of fans still mourning the end of the Shetland series. 

All that said, my own first exposure to anything created by Ann Cleeves came via the Shetland television series. More recently, I’ve also watched the first two episodes from season one of Vera. But somehow, despite having seen the name “Ann Cleeves” in bookstores for a long time, I never picked up one of the novels before I finally bought myself a copy of The Long Call.  And The Long Call turned out to be exactly the kind of crime novel, one that is primarily character and setting driven, that I love most. This is particularly true for a series of novels featuring one main character because it is the evolution of the recurring characters that keeps readers coming back for more. If the main characters don’t change, or if they are just inherently uninteresting to begin with, the crimes or mysteries they solve are not enough on their own to keep readers wanting more. 

Well, Ann Cleeves has come up with another winning combination with Matthew Venn and her North Devon, England, setting. Both are unique enough and interesting enough to make readers of this first Venn novel want more. 

Detective Inspector Matthew Venn left the strict evangelical North Devon church community in dramatic fashion years before he took a transfer back to the area to work with the local police. His departure from the church and the area was, in fact, so abrupt and so public, that he is shunned by the church members, including his parents, to this very day. Venn only returns to North Devon because his new husband, Johnathan, runs an important community center in the area, a place depended upon every day by many of the locals, and can’t imagine ever wanting to do anything anywhere else.

But now, even while Matthew is trying to fit in and earn the respect of his new colleagues inside the department, his life is about to get even more complicated. First Matthew’s father dies, and Matthew can only watch from afar as the man is put into the ground, and then someone connected to his husband’s community center is murdered. Not only will the murder investigation lead Matthew Venn directly back to the community which shunned him all those years ago, he will also have to deal with what appears to be a conflict of interest regarding Jonathan’s connection to the dead man. Surely Jonathan can’t be involved…can he? 

Bottom Line: The Long Call is a very good introduction to the Matthew Venn series. Venn is a conflicted character with an interesting take on his fellow cops, and even though he is the lead investigator, he is happiest when out alone following his own leads and hunches. He would never sit behind a desk if he didn’t have to. By the end of this first series book, the reader has a good feel for the supporting cast also: Ross May, a hotshot young constable who irritates Matthew with his obvious craving for attention; Jen Rafferty, a single-mom and a department sergeant who Matthew is starting to see as his go-to investigator; and Jonathan, Matthew’s husband, who is a Matthew’s opposite in so many ways. The murder mystery around which everything else hangs is a rather conventional one that is not particularly difficult for readers to solve for themselves. But that’s not the most important thing here…in the long run, it’s the characters that make this one fun. 

Ann Cleeves