Dark Wives

Dark Wives is the eleventh Vera Stanhope novel by Ann Cleeves, the author of the Two Rivers and Shetland series, and it follows The Rising Tide. Vera is the Northumberland-based detective who was also brought to television in the ITV series Vera, with Brenda Blethyn in the title role. On the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teenagers, a dog walker finds a man's body in the early morning light. The dead man is Josh, a member of staff who was supposed to work the night before but never turned up. DI Vera Stanhope takes the case. Her only lead is that one of the home's residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence, has vanished. Vera finds it hard to believe a teenager could have committed the murder, yet she cannot rule it out. Vera, Joe and a new member of the team, Rosie, are drawn deeper into the investigation. Then a second body, linked to Josh, is discovered near the Three Dark Wives standing stones in the remote Northumbrian countryside, and local superstition and folklore begin to mix with the hard facts. Vera knows that finding Chloe is the way to the truth, but the community's secrets may be more dangerous than she ever imagined.