Harbour Street - Ann Cleeves

This Award-Winning Author of Raven Black has a new book, Harbour Street, and I couldn't be happier.

Finished it in two weeks, and the saddest part of the book was when I had to set it down.

I first learned about Ann Cleeves when I started watching "Shetland" a Scottish TV show. Based on her book series, I fell in love with the plots, the intrigued behind every mystery, and the unexpected criminals. So I looked into her biography, the books she wrote, and the Vera Stanhope mystery show which I started to watch.

So when I went to my bookstore, I looked around the Thriller, Crime area when I came upon her book, the only one on the shelf. You cannot image how excited I was when I took over the novel of the shelf, started reading the back and the last phrase of the story... " Vera got into Hector's Land Rover and set off alone for the hills." 

Seems like a normal phrase to half of you but to me, it's the last thing of the story, the mystery, and since it's my first book of hers, I wanted to check it out fast, read it quickly to check out the what she was all about. 

"The shouts and laughter of Christmas revelers follow detective Joe Ashworth and his daughter Jessie as they board the crowded Metro. But when the train stops, Jessie notices that one lady hasn't gotten off: Margaret Krukowski has been fatally stabbed. Retracing Margaret's final steps, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope keeps asking herself one big question: Why are the residents of Harbour Street so reluctant to speak? What secret do they keep that leads to murder? "
Harbour Street, number six of the series followed by The Moth Catcher and preceded by The Glass Room. Ann truly made the whole mystery a real one. Between the lies, the secrets, the families living in a small fishermen's town, and the backstory of the victim's past been unbelievably well structured. It definitely makes me wonder how did this author manage to get every detail so intriguing to readers.

The victim has been an elderly woman who finds herself stabbed on a packed train before Christmas time. Why would anyone want to kill an elderly woman who works for a family, spends her free time in a shelter for troubled women? Famous detective Vera Stanhope comes in town, searching for answers, talking everyone who could be related to the victim, but she stumbles against many issues. Doesn't take lots for a little village to talk, to hide the past and keep quiet, lie. Many questions come to life as Vera tries to find relatives of the victim, not finding any, but finding out a lot more than just a sad past relationship.

Little villages always find a way for rumours, little secrets, and if something has to disappear, oh, you know it will because despite having rumours, people won't talk to police officers. So when I started reading the story, I pictured old lasses getting a bit too chatty and the outcast who barely speaks to anyone. Now, picturing every bit of each character, the places,  the smell of snow and rain, hearing the sound of snowflakes and boots trying to get around town. Cleeves did manage to get every detail in order for you to have a clear image of everything that is going on in the novel. 

If you are into crime, mystery and a bit of a fan of secrets, please read her books, even if I only read one, I know deep down, she has an amazing potential and not enough credit! 

"We don't often notice the people who look after us, do we? Though we'd miss them if they weren't there." -Ann Cleeves, Harbour Street

~Bella