Harbour Street

Ann Cleeves is the best selling author of two very different mysteries.  One series stars Jimmy Perez and takes place on the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland.  Harbour Street is the sixth book in the Vera Stanhope series, which takes place in Newcastle in the north of England.  Vera is not your typical detective though she is smart, bold, and patient..  She is also overweight, out of shape and irrascible.

This case begins during a bad snowstorm in the city of Newcastle.  Detective Joe Ashworth and his daughter Jessie are on the Metro train returning home when it is stopped in its tracks by the snow.  Everyone disembarks, except for one elderly lady who Jessie discovers is dead. Margaret Krukowski was stabbed in the back, assailant not seen.  Vera and her team, including Joe, are assigned to the case.

Margaret lived and worked in a boarding house in Mardle Northumberland run by Kate and her two teenage children.  She also volunteered at a shelter for abused women and was active in the local church.  So the list of suspects include the other boarders, the women at the home, and those who reside or work in the neighborhood.

Vera, Joe, Holly, and Charlie work overtime to check out suspects.  Vera deals with supervising more and less and with Holly who wants praise and attention, which is not Vera's supervisory strength.  As the team delves into Margaret's past, which seems to contain the impetus for the crime, another woman is murdered, which throws the case back into the present.

Vera is a wonderful character.  The stories progress slowly so the different characters can be studied.  The weather always seems to play its own part in her novels, and the snow works to her advantage on several occasions.  These novels are published in England about a year earlier than available in the United States.  So this book has already been filmed as part of the "Vera" series.  The entire series is available at the library.  And if you like these, check out her Jimmy Perez books.