The Heron's Cry

I’m a huge fan of Anne Cleeves’ writing, particularly the Shetland series and Vera, and always enjoy the plots and the methodical move towards the solutions. The Two Rivers books are also engaging, but I still struggle to feel anything other than lukewarm about Matthew Venn. Jimmy Perez is always interesting, and Vera, eccentric yet incisive, but Venn seems to barely make an impression. I wonder if the author intends to further develop his character, but after two books, I think she needs to be getting on with it!

Oh dear I so want to like Matthew Venn but I don’t. He’s dull dull dull and how his husband Jonathan (husband you say? Yawn) puts up with him I don’t know.Quite like Jen, possibly the only one with spirit.Fat lazy boss, DC who doesn’t understand women (pah!) overweight overworked dairy worker, lots of characters who merged into a mess, it’s so predictable.In fact a million miles from Vera or Jimmy Perez (be still my beating heart) and you’d never believe it was the same author.North Devon and gay married moody detectives? You can keep em!

I found the constant repetition of phrases and ideas really tedious. Venn is such a weak character that he has no presence . The plot is thin and at times muddled leading to small discrepancies in the scenes and the dialogue is unconvincing . There aren't many major scenes but I found them unconvincing as well. I'm so disappointed, I've read most of Ann Cleeves books and love the Vera and Shetland stories but this is not a patch on either. I really struggled to finish it.

An old style murder mystery. The plot is well developed but unfortunately the characters are not very well developed. The main detective Matthew is married to Jonathan This is fine but the relationship is dwelt on too much. There are numerous references to Matthew’s husband. Reference by name would have sufficed. Cannot help feeling this is introduced for diversity purposes.The Vera books are superior in character development. This book is equal in terms of plot development.In summary. An enjoyable read. Good plot.

The Heron's Cry is the second murder mystery in the Two Rivers series by Ann Cleeves. It's another excellent tale that I thoroughly enjoyed 🙂DI Matthew Venn and his team investigate a series of murders and apparent suicides. With an array of suspects and more than a few twists along the way, I was kept guessing to the very end!Ann Cleeves also starts to flesh out the personal lives of the other members of Matthew's team, Ross and Jen. This augers well for future novels in the series!