The Dark Wives
A Vera Stanhope Novel
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- ¥1,400
発行者による作品情報
“Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible.”—Richard Osman
As New York Times bestseller Ann Cleeves's beloved Vera series explodes in popularity in print and on TV, this stunning eleventh book explores the web of secrets surrounding a young man's death.
The man’s body is found in the early morning light by a local dog walker in the park outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up.
DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death, with her only clue being the disappearance of one of the home’s residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.
Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, are soon embroiled in the case, and when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever believed possible.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The murder of an employee at a home for troubled youth triggers a search for a missing girl in bestseller Cleeves's forceful 11th Vera Stanhope mystery (after The Rising Tide). When 14-year-old Rosebank Home resident Chloe Spence vanishes the same night that somebody kills Rosebank employee Josh Woodburn, Det. Insp. Stanhope and her Northumbria Police colleagues suspect a connection. The facility houses particularly troubled teens, so some of Stanhope's colleagues believe Chloe attacked Josh and fled. However, Chloe's diary indicates she adored Josh; it also mentions someone "pervy" loitering outside the facility, suggesting to police that Chloe was more likely a frightened witness to Josh's killing. Vera and her team start digging, hoping to find a clue that will lead them to Chloe. Instead, they discover a second corpse in nearby Northumberland that raises even more questions. Cleeves portrays Rosebank's kids and its staffers with compassion and respect, even as she spotlights the pitfalls of a for-profit approach to child welfare. Multiple narrators and a core cast of keenly rendered characters lend the tale dimension while furthering the series arc. Cleeves's fans will be well satisfied.
