When the body of a missing staff member is found in the early hours on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for teens, DCI Vera Stanhope is assigned the case. The death seems linked to missing 14 year old Chloe, which is unsettling. Vera does not want to believe that a troubled 14 year old killed someone. Is the girl hiding or has someone taken her? Complicated by a local witch hunt festival at the Dark Wives standing stones and the complex administration of the privately managed homes for troubled teens, Vera is involved in a complex case, wondering who knows what and who is hiding dark secrets. What is the real dark secret at the heart of this mystery?

The Dark Wives is the 11th book in the DCI Vera Stanhope series, set in Northumberland. This series has elements of character development that you can enjoy if you read them in order, or you can dip in and read any one as a standalone, police procedural style, mystery if you prefer. Part of the charm of this series is the gruff, bumbling exterior of Vera herself, hiding a razor sharp mind and her own sad past. She’s a wonderful lead detective. The other is the rich Northumberland location, with it’s cold winds, birds and winding country roads.

This story was, the author tells us, inspired by a real events that the author saw in a documentary, about the way that these care homes used to be state run, but are now run by private companies, meaning that they often have share holders and are run for profit. Some bad things can happen when you’re making money from the broken lives of people, perhaps especially at risk children and teenagers. Because they are for profit they can be underfunded and have a sense of pointlessness about them. In this story, the Commissioner wants to bring them back into the state sector and not have them as a privatized business. It’s a really interesting and sad subject matter.

Like all Vera novels, I really wanted to sit and read this in one sitting. I really loved the sense of folklore and local community custom here, with the Dark Wives and the witch hunt. I used to live in a place that had a similar festival. And also the woods and commons, the birds and nature lovers, and isolated bothys. It’s beautiful country. Into this is woven threads that lead from Chloe to the young man who was killed, his secrets, his parents, to the school she attended and the home she’s staying in. We have afew threads we follow and the plot thickens nicely as we go. It’s perhaps a little more slow or meandering than some in the series, but it’s also classic, solid Ann Cleeves storytelling and makes for another excellent book in the series.

Read It If: you love a UK set mystery or crime novel, if you’re a Vera fan or if you love an autumnal wander through the countryside.

Thank you to PGC Books for the ARC of this book for review, and for the stylish Ann Cleeves book tote to match!