The Moth Catcher
A Vera Stanhope Mystery
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- USD 11.99
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- USD 11.99
Publisher Description
“Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible.”—Richard Osman
From Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes The Moth Catcher.
“Ann Cleeves is one of my favorite mystery writers.”—Louise Penny
Life seems perfect in the quiet community of Valley Farm. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist, to look after the place while they’re away. But his dead body is found by the side of the lane—a lonely place to die.
When DI Vera Stanhope arrives on the scene, she finds the body of a second man. What the two victims seem to have in common is a fascination with studying moths—and with catching these beautiful, intriguing creatures.
The others who live in Valley Farm have secrets too: Lorraine’s calm demeanor belies a more complex personality; Annie and Sam’s daughter, Lizzie, is due to be released from prison; and Nigel watches, silently, every day, from his window. As Vera is drawn into the claustrophobic world of this increasingly strange community, she realizes that there may be many deadly secrets trapped there . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In British author Cleeves's atmospheric and well-wrought seventh mystery featuring Det. Insp. Vera Stanhope (after 2015's Harbour Street), 25-year-old graduate student Patrick Randle has come from London to house-sit for a grand family in the gentle Northumberland community of Valley Farm, but shortly into his stay, he's found dead by the roadside. Vera later discovers the body of a middle-aged man in Patrick's room; the two turn out to be connected only through enthusiasm for Lepidoptera. Suspicion falls on an unlikely group, the town's clique of couples enjoying early retirement. Cleeves expertly draws Vere's complex relations with her fellow detectives as well as the hidden springs of tension in the circle affected by the crime, touching on class relations, the ennui of middle age, and the deceits, frailties, and tenderness of long marriage. Though the book's deliberate pace may lose pure thrill seekers, patient readers will be rewarded as dread builds and old secrets surface.
