Publisher: Minotaur Books

The Darkest Evening

The Darkest Evening

The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves
Published by Minotaur Books on September 8, 2020
Series: Vera Stanhope #9
Pages: 336
Format: arc_pdf
Genres: Mystery, Suspense
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

From Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes the stunning new Vera Stanhope novel, The Darkest Evening."Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers."—Louise Penny
"As a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high expectations for Cleeves’ latest. . . . A stunning debut for Cleeves’ latest crimefighter."—David Baldacci on The Long Call
On the first snowy night of winter, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets off for her home in the hills. Though the road is familiar, she misses a turning and soon becomes lost and disorientated. A car has skidded off the narrow road in front of her, its door left open, and she stops to help. There is no driver to be seen, so Vera assumes that the owner has gone to find help. But a cry calls her back: a toddler is strapped in the back seat.
Vera takes the child and, driving on, she arrives at a place she knows well. Brockburn is a large, grand house in the wilds of Northumberland, now a little shabby and run down. It’s also where her father, Hector, grew up. Inside, there’s a party in full swing: music, Christmas lights and laughter. Outside, unbeknownst to the revelers, a woman lies dead in the snow.
As the blizzard traps the group deep in the freezing Northumberland countryside, Brockburn begins to give up its secrets, and as Vera digs deeper into her investigation, she also begins to uncover her family’s complicated past.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC of this book. It’s been a while since I have read an Ann Cleeve book and now I am wondering why I don’t read more of them. I am a fan of the Vera TV series starring Brenda Blethyn and it is Blethyn that has made DCI Vera Stanhope come alive for me on the pages of Ann Cleeve’s newest book in the series.

DCI Vera Stanhope

Death in Brittany

Death in Brittany

Death in Brittany by Jean-Luc Bannalec
Published by Minotaur Books on June 30, 2015
Pages: 320
Genres: Mystery, Police Procedural
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Synopsis

At the Central Hotel in Pont-Aven, Brittany, ninety-one-year-old manager Pierre-Louis Pennec is found murdered. Commissaire Georges Dupin and his team take on the investigation and narrow the list of suspects down to five people, including a rising political star, a longtime friend of the victim and a wealthy art historian. Further incidents – first a break-in, then another mysterious death – muddy the waters yet more. As Commissaire Dupin delves further and further into the lives of the victim and the suspects, he uncovers a web of secrecy and silence that belies the village’s idyllic image.

A summer hit in its original German, Death in Pont-Aven introduces readers to the enigmatic Commissaire Dupin, an idiosyncratic penguin lover and Parisian-born caffeine junkie whose unique methods of detection raise more than a few eyebrows. It is a book so atmospheric readers will immediately want to wander through the village’s narrow alleyways, breathe in the Atlantic air and savour Brittany’s seaside specialty dishes. Death in Pont-Aven is a spellbinding, subtle and smart crime novel, peppered with cryptic humour and surprising twists.

The Island

The Island

The Island by Ragnar Jónasson
Published by Minotaur Books on May 21, 2019
Series: Hidden Iceland #2
Pages: 336
Format: hardback
Genres: Mystery, Scandinavian and Nordic Mysteries & Thrillers
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Synopsis

Elliðaey is an isolated island off the coast of Iceland. It is has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain and is an easy place to vanish.

The Island is the second thrilling book in Ragnar Jonasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy. This time Hulda is at the peak of her career and is sent to investigate what happened on Elliðaey after a group of friends visited but one failed to return.

Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts?

Written with Ragnar's haunting and suspenseful prose The Island follows Hulda's journey to uncover the island's secrets and find the truth hidden in its darkest shadows.

The Missing Corpse

The Missing Corpse

The Missing Corpse by Jean-Luc Bannalec
Published by Minotaur Books on April 23, 2019
Series: Brittany Mystery #4
Pages: 320
Format: hardback
Genres: Mystery, Suspense
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

"Roll over Maigret. Commissaire Dupin has arrived." —M.C. Beaton on Death in Brittany "Very satisfying…along the lines of Martin Walker’s novels set in Dordogne, or M.L. Longworth’s Aix-en-Provence mysteries." —Booklist on Murder on Brittany Shores

The Missing Corpse is internationally bestselling author, Jean-Luc Bannalec’s fourth novel in the Commissaire Dupin series. It’s picturesque, suspenseful, and the next best thing to a trip to Brittany.

Along the picturesque Belon River, home of the world famous oyster beds, between steep cliffs, ominous forests and the Atlantic Ocean, a stubborn elderly film actress discovers a corpse. By the time Commissaire Dupin arrives at the scene, the body has disappeared. A little while later, he receives a phone call from the mystical hills of Monts d'Arree, where legends of fairies and the devil abound: another unidentified body has turned up. Dupin quickly realizes this may be his most difficult and confounding case yet, with links to celtic myths, a sand theft operation, and mysterious ancient druid cults.