Ann Cleeves Books In Order

Palmer-Jones Books In Publication Order

  1. A Bird in the Hand (1986)
  2. Come Death And High Water (1988)
  3. Murder In Paradise (1988)
  4. A Prey To Murder (1989)
  5. Another Man’s Poison (1992)
  6. Sea Fever (1993)
  7. The Mill On The Shore (1994)
  8. High Island Blues (1996)

Inspector Ramsay Books In Publication Order

  1. A Lesson In Dying (1990)
  2. Murder In My Backyard (1991)
  3. A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy (1992)
  4. Killjoy (1993)
  5. The Healers (1995)
  6. The Baby Snatcher (1997)

Vera Stanhope Books In Publication Order

  1. The Crow Trap (1999)
  2. Telling Tales (2005)
  3. Hidden Depths (2007)
  4. Silent Voices (2010)
  5. The Glass Room (2012)
  6. Harbour Street (2014)
  7. The Moth Catcher (2015)
  8. The Seagull (2017)
  9. Frozen (2020)
  10. The Darkest Evening (2020)
  11. The Woman on the Island (2022)
  12. The Rising Tide (2022)
  13. The Dark Wives (2024)

Shetland Island Books In Publication Order

  1. Raven Black (2006)
  2. White Nights (2008)
  3. Red Bones (2009)
  4. Blue Lightning (2010)
  5. Dead Water (2013)
  6. Thin Air (2014)
  7. Too Good To Be True (2016)
  8. Cold Earth (2016)
  9. Wild Fire (2018)

Shetland Island Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Shetland (2015)

Two Rivers Books In Publication Order

  1. The Long Call (2019)
  2. The Heron’s Cry (2021)
  3. The Girls on the Shore (2022)
  4. The Raging Storm (2023)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Sleeping and the Dead (2001)
  2. Burial Of Ghosts (2003)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Dreaming of Rain and Peter Lovesey (2016)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. The Library Book (2012)
  2. The Starlings & Other Stories (2015)
  3. Crime Writers: A Decade of Crime (2016)
  4. Bloody Scotland (2019)
  5. Many Deadly Returns (2021)
  6. An Unnecessary Assassin (2023)
  7. Killin’ Time in San Diego: Bouchercon Anthology 2023 (2023)

Palmer-Jones Book Covers

Inspector Ramsay Book Covers

Vera Stanhope Book Covers

Shetland Island Book Covers

Shetland Island Non-Fiction Book Covers

Two Rivers Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Ann Cleeves Books Overview

A Bird in the Hand

Young Tom French is found dead, lying in a marsh on the Norfolk coast, with his head bashed in and his binoculars still around his neck. One of the best birders in England, Tom put the village of Rushy on the birdwatching map. Everyone liked him. Or did they?George Palmer Jones, an elderly birdwatcher, decides to look into the crime. He finds mixed feelings aplenty, but remains baffled by a deed that could have been motivated by thwarted love, pure envy, or something else altogether. But as he and his fellow birders pursue rumors of rare sightings, George with help from his lovely wife, Molly gradually discovers the true markings of a killer. Now all he has to do is prove it…
before the killer strikes again.

A Prey To Murder

It was Eleanor Masefield ‘s idea to sponsor an Open Day at her beautiful Grose Hill Hotel a celebration designed to raise funds for the protection of the local peregrine falcons that had been her late husband’s obsession. But who knew she’d be dead by teatime? Amateur detective George Palmer Jones, who’s always been a little in love with Eleanor, doesn’t think it was the tea and he’s determined to find out which human did its preying.

Another Man’s Poison

When she finds her beloved cats and some protected wildfowl dead of illegal poison, elderly Ursula Ottway threatens to expose her landlord, politician Marcus Grenville, as an anti preservationist. Within hours, Ursula is dead…
by the same illegal poison. Now, as George and Molly Palmer Jones reconstruct Ursula’s last days, it becomes clear that her sharp eyes and long memory had posed a deadly threat not only to Marcus, but to his chilly wife, his alienated offspring, and others. To bring a killer to justice, Molly and George must uproot a lifetime’s worth of secrets and expose a nest of vicious human vultures.

Sea Fever

Amateur sleuth George Palmer Jones and his fellow bird watchers abroad the Jessie Ellen catch sight of a rare sea bird. But when one of the party goes missing and is found, floating in the sea, his head bludgeoned, Palmer Jones must found out who murdered the man, and why.

The Mill On The Shore

When Jimmy Morrissey, England’s celebrated conservation conscience, kills himself with an overdose of antidepressants, the whole country mourns with his grieving widow. But private investigators Molly and George Palmer Jones are convinced that what looks like suicide is really murder. After all, Jimmy made a lot of enemies while crusading as an environmental activist. Could one of them have been his wife?

High Island Blues

IN A BIRD WATCHER’S PARADISE, MURDER COMES HOME TO ROOST. Among the birders from around the world gathered for the dazzling spring avian migration on the Texas coast are three old friends from England Rob, Mick, and Oliver celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their first unforgettable trip to High Island. But the party’s over when Mick the introvert who surprisingly got the girl they all wanted years ago is murdered. The police tag Rob for the crime, but shrewd birder investigator George Palmer Jones focuses his attention on some odd ducks among the English contingent. Meanwhile, back home in England, George’s wife, Molly, digs up the dirt on a save the earth society. And on High Island, a killer finds that one murder is not enough…
.

Murder In My Backyard

No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry…
but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve. And when detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. Even among her neighbors, Alice Parry’s helpfulness had sometimes misfired; and after her death, tension tight as a clenched fist grips the uneasy village. Meanwhile, the suspects keep rolling in, and Heppleburn’s friendly neighborhood killer continues his nasty piece of work…
.

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy

From the author of MURDER IN MY BACKYARD comes this mystery where a vicar’s wife has done her last good deed…
Vicars’ wives do not usually get themselves murdered…
. especially when they are as vibrant and caring as beautiful Dorothea Cassidy. But murdered she unquestionably was; and from the outset Inspector Stephen Ramsay is hard put to figure out why, let alone who. And though he did not know her in life, she charms him in her death.

Killjoy

Why is everyone afraid of Gabriella Paston? Is it because she’s too beautiful, too talented, too self confident? In the middle of rehearsals for her first big show at the arts center, eighteen year old Gabriella is murdered…
and it seems to Inspector Stephen Ramsay that people are more afraid of her than ever. For Gabriella turns out to have been not only gifted and gorgeous but ruthless, and not everyone mourns her loss. In a community where teen crime is becoming a dangerous problem, the murder is just one more headache for the police. But the stage is already being set for another killing…
.

The Healers

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT AND ERNIE BOWLES IS STEPPING OUT TO DIE. Ernie’s big fantasy is that his blind date with a blonde divorcee will end with the two of them back at the farm, cozily shacked up. Alas, Sunday morning finds Ernie on the cold kitchen floor, all alone and strangled.A simple case of kiss and kill? Perhaps, but Inspector Stephen Ramsay can find no one in the entire village who liked the man, certainly not the young couple who rent his caravan nor the respectable folk on the adjoining farm. Another strangling the even more puzzling murder of quiet housewife Val McDougal compounds the confusion, leading Ramsay to the local center for alternative healing, where both victims were well known. Meanwhile, a murderer quietly observes the hunt, as Ramsay pursues a case in which the astonishing finale will catch even the canniest reader by the throat…

The Baby Snatcher

Marilyn Howe tells Inspector Ramsay that her mother has disappeared, but when Ramsay returns her to her coastal home, they find Mrs Howe safe and well. But six months later, Ramsay receives news that Mrs Howe has disappeared once more. Then a body is washed up on the beach.

The Crow Trap

This is an ingenious psychological suspense novel. At the isolated Baikie’s Cottage on the North Pennines, three very different women come together. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal…
For team leader Rachael the project is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her confidence after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Botanist Anne, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman with plenty of her own secrets to hide…
When Rachael arrives at the cottage, however, she is horrified to discover the body of her friend Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide a verdict Rachael finds impossible to accept. Only when the next death occurs does a fourth woman enter the picture the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope…

Telling Tales

It has been ten years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of fifteen year old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie’s innocence. Abigail’s killer is still at large. For one young woman, Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend and of that fearful winters day when she had discovered her body lying cold in a ditch. As Inspector Vera Stanhope makes fresh enquiries on the peninsula and villagers are hauled back to a time they hoped to forget, tensions begin to mount. But are people afraid of the killer, or of their own guilty pasts? With each person’s story revisited, the Inspector begins to suspect that some deadly secrets are threatening to unfurl…

Hidden Depths

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’.

Raven Black

Long a celebrated crime writer in Britain, Ann Cleeves fame went international when she won the coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger for this amazing suspense novel, Raven Black. Like Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse or Peter Robinson s Inspector Banks, Cleeves new detective, Inspector Jimmy Perez, is a very private and perceptive man whose bailiwick is a remote hamlet in the Shetland Islands.

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter s eye is drawn to a splash of color on the frozen ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor, Catherine Ross.

The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when detective Jimmy Perez and his colleagues from the mainland insist on opening out the investigation, a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine s neighbors nervously lock their doors, while a killer lives on in their midst.

Ann Cleeves is sure to dazzle U.S. mystery readers with this unforgettable series debut.

White Nights

The electrifying follow up to the award winning Raven BlackRaven Black received crime fiction’s highest monetary honor, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. Now Detective Jimmy Perez is back in an electrifying sequel. It s midsummer in the Shetland Islands, the time of the White Nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws an elaborate party to launch an exhibition of her work at The Herring House, a gallery on the beach. The party ends in farce when one the guests, a mysterious Englishman, bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he s come from. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter, and Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that the man has been murdered. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella s musician nephew, is murdered, too. But the detective s relationship with Fran Hunter may have clouded his judgment, for this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.A stunning second installment in the acclaimed Shetland Island Quartet, White Nights is sure to garner American raves for international sensation Ann Cleeves.

Red Bones

An island shrouded in mist and a community with secrets buried in the past…
When a young archaeologist studying on a site at Whalsay discovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient find or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is shot in a tragic accident in the middle of the night. Shetland detective Jimmy Perez is called in by her grandson his own colleague, Sandy Wilson. The sparse landscape and the emptiness of the sea have bred a fierce and secretive people. Mima Wilson was a recluse. She had her land, her pride and her family. As Jimmy looks to the islanders for answers, he finds instead two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness have lasted generations. Surrounded by people he doesn’t know and in unfamiliar territory, Jimmy finds himself out of his depth. Then there’s another death and, as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists, Jimmy must dig up old secrets to stop a new killer from striking again…

Blue Lightning

Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to the Fair Isles to introduce his fiancee, Fran, to his parents. It’s a community where everyone knows each other, and strangers, while welcomed, are still viewed with a degree of mistrust. Challenging to live on at the best of times, with the autumn storms raging, the island feels cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped, tension is high and tempers become frayed. Enough to drive someone to murder…
When a woman’s body is discovered at the renowned Fair Isles bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair, the islanders react with fear and anger. With no support from the mainland and only Fran to help him Jimmy has to investigate the old fashioned way. He soon realizes that this is no crime of passion but a murder of cold and calculated intention. With no way off the island until the storms abate Jimmy knows he has to work quickly. There’s a killer on the island just waiting for the opportunity to strike again…

The Sleeping and the Dead

‘A suspenseful crime story that puts Ms. Cleeves in the Rendell class.’ Peterborough Evening Telegraph

‘Cleeves again excels in her sense of place in this cleverly plotted psychological thriller.’ The Times London

‘Cleeves writes with an easy directness that brings alive the tensions in a place where everyone knows everyone else and nothing can be forgotten.’ The Times Literary Supplement London

‘Ann Cleeves has written a lot of crime novels and collected many admirers without making the kind of headlines that some less skillful authors have achieved.’ The Sunday Telegraph London

Detective Peter Porteous has been called to Cranwell Lake, where the body of a teenager has been discovered. After trawling through missing persons files, he deduces that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive eighteen year old reported missing in 1972.

Prison librarian Hannah Morton is about to get the shock of her life. For Michael was her boyfriend, and she was with him the night he disappeared. The news report that his body has been found brings back dreaded and long buried memories from her past and begins a deadly chain of events.

Ann Cleeves grew up in the British countryside, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. After dropping out of university, she took a number of temporary jobs before going back to college and training to be a probation officer. In 2006 she won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award formerly the Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel of the year for Raven Black.

Burial Of Ghosts

For Lizzie Bartholomew, a holiday in Morocco will change life forever. But not in the way she had hoped…
Lizzie had planned her trip to Marrakech as the perfect escape from her life and her nightmares in Northumberland. Abandoned as a baby, and having spent her childhood moving between foster homes, Lizzie certainly has much to escape from. And for Lizzie, Morocco is the exotic paradise that she had imagined. Especially when she finds herself on a bus sitting next to a fellow tourist, who is also travelling to fulfil his dreams. After a brief affair, Lizzie returns to England. In the days that follow, she is distracted by thoughts of her mysterious lover, hoping against hope that Philip might come and find her. But suddenly she receives a letter from a firm of solicitors. Philip Samson has died. In his will, he has left Lizzie a gift of pound 15,000. But there are conditions attached to this unexpected legacy. Conditions that will alter the course of Lizzie’s life forever.

The Library Book

‘Hill provides us with a reading list the equal of any degree course.’ The Times LondonIn pursuit of a book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year long voyage through her books in order to get to know her own collection again. Susan Hill is the winner of numerous prestigious literary awards. She is the author of a highly successful crime series as well as the famous The Woman in Black.

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