Books: The Long Call By Ann Cleeves (2019)

 

“In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide.”

The Long Call is the first in a new series of detective novels from the writer known mostly for the Vera Stanhope novels and the Shetland Island tales. It details the career and home life of Detective Matthew Venn. His back story is a bit interesting; at one time he and his family belonged to a strict religious community. When he was teen, though, he broke away when he finally realized he no longer believed in anything he had been taught. He was banished from the church and disowned by his parents. Eventually, he would become a cop and marry a man named Jonathan. But the death of father brings him back into the orbit of old life and with people he left behind. Now his job and home life are mixing, with the murder of a man who volunteered at the Woodyard, a community center where Jonathan is the administrator.  Per usual, there are many potential suspects, but Matthew’s team lack any evidence that connects anyone to the murder (and a few abductions of young women with Down syndrome, as well).

The story unfolds slowly, sometimes with tediousness, but ultimately a satisfying whodunit. It does not fully explore Mathew’s time after he left the church and his relationship with Jonathan is not that fully developed –they seemed more like best friends than spouses (Cleeves sort of neuters them, perhaps because most of the readers of her previous works are women who, while accepting a gay detective, don’t want to read passages where they show affection towards each other?).

Cleeves also does not offer any real opinion on Venn’s religious upbringing. Sure there are some typical lines about powerful men who make up rules because it brings them power and prestige, and his relationship with his mother is strained, but she plays it relatively safe here. Whether she plans to expand on this in the next book...well, we'll see.