Book description
A hot summer on the Northumberland coast, and Julie Armstrong arrives
home from a night out to find her son murdered. Luke has been strangled,
laid out in a bath of water and covered with wild flowers.
This stylized murder scene has Inspector Vera Stanhope and her team
intrigued. But then a second body - that of beautiful young teacher Lily
Marsh - is discovered laid out in a rock pool, the water strewn with
flowers. Now Vera must work quickly to find this dramatist, this killer
who is making art out of death.
Clues are slow to emerge from those who had known Luke and Lily, but
Vera soon finds herself drawn towards the curious group of friends who
discovered Lily's body. What unites these four men and one woman? Are
they really the close-knit, trustworthy unit they claim to be?
As local residents are forced to share their private lives and those of
their loved ones, sinister secrets are slowly unearthed. And all the
while the killer remains in their midst, waiting for an opportunity to
prepare another beautiful, watery grave . . .
‘Hidden Depths is another classic, traditional crime novel in a
contemporary setting by Ann Cleeves, winner of last year's Duncan Lawrie
Dagger... The story follows each of the main characters in turn, but it
is fat, lonely Vera, awkward with her staff and unaware that they are
frightened of her, who makes the biggest impression in this skilfully
crafted mystery’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Ann Cleeves improves with every book. Her previous novel, Raven Black,
was a deserved winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger for best
crime novel of 2006... Hidden Depths is a subtle, nuanced book and
Cleeves draws her characters with care and compassion. The landscape of
rural Northumberland is vividly evoked and Inspector Stanhope -
overweight, fallible and driven by personal demons - is a terrific
central character' Tribune Ann Cleeves worked as a probation officer,
bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started
writing. She now promotes reading for Kirklees Libraries and as
Harrogate Crime-Writing Festival's reader in residence, and is also a
member of 'Murder Squad', working with other northern writers to promote
crime fiction. In 2006 Ann was awarded the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Best
Crime Novel, for Raven Black . Ann lives in North Tyneside.
