#TheDyingLight #NetGalley

Mystery & Thrillers

384 pages

Five stars *****

Pub date: 29 September 2026

My thoughts:

Ann Cleeves is absolutely one of my favorite authors. I have read all of the Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez novels. The Matthew Venn books are the ones in her newest series and this title is the fourth of these. I think that it is the very best so far. I was completely absorbed in this novel from start to finish.

Matthew is a complex character, in part because of his experiences when he was growing up. He is now married to Jonathan who has something significant happening in his life over the course of this story.

And, of course there are murders. Two young girls have been killed as the story opens. There are a plethora of suspects.

The settings are vividly described. The political rise of one character was interesting as were the stories of other wealthy incomers to the neighborhood. There is also a visiting American couple, and those who have lived in the community for far longer. Readers also spend time with the police officers who will be known to readers of the series.

I so enjoyed this book. Matthew Venn come back soon!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur for this title. All opinions are my own.

Post first published on 29 July 2026

Description:

from the publisher

“Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible.”—Richard Osman

DI Matthew Venn peels back layer upon layer to discover the dark secrets one family is keeping in this searing new novel, brimming with energy and taut with claustrophobic tension.

A scorching heatwave marks the start of the summer in Devon. Detective Matthew Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death, when the body of a young woman, Lottie, is found in the swimming pool of a luxurious holiday home. The girl’s best friend, Hannah, whose family owns the house, is missing. The girls had arrived a few days earlier to celebrate the end of their school exams, quickly stirring unrest in the small community with incendiary social media videos mocking the place as parochial.

When further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community filled with secrets. The fact that Hannah’s father, Paul Armstrong, is a rising political star with powerful enemies draws intense media scrutiny to the case.

With the summer heat come holidaymakers, and it emerges that some of them may have stronger connections with the Armstrong family than first thought. Venn knows all too well that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silences that they keep.

Taut, atmospheric, and brimming with suspense, this searing new novel finds DI Matthew Venn caught between a powerful family’s secrets and a powder keg of local tensions.

From the Ann Cleeves website:

The deadliest truths are those in the shadows…

Detective Matthew Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death. The body of a young woman has been found in the swimming pool of Tide House, a luxurious holiday home in North Devon, and her best friend is missing. The property belongs to rising political star Paul Armstrong and the case quickly draws intense media scrutiny.

As a scorching heat wave rages and further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community brimming with secrets. The dead woman and her friend had been spotted at a nearby music festival the day before, an event which brought locals and outsiders together – some of whom may have been more connected with the Armstrongs than first thought.

Caught between a powerful family’s secrets and a powder keg of local tensions, Venn must navigate a treacherous path. Knowing that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silence that they keep …

Try it:

Prologue

THE TWO GIRLS CLIMBED OUT OF the car and there it was, in all its glory. Tide House, so white in the morning sun that it hurt their eyes to look at it. The pool blue and glittering. The sea below them partly hidden by trees. Lundy Island on the horizon. They’d driven overnight on Thursday to avoid the traffic on the M5, so they’d arrive as soon as possible after the exams were over, and in time for the weekend. Hannah had needed to be in Millscombe for the weekend. For the festival. For Jake. They’d told their parents that it would be more comfortable to set off late in the evening. After all, the country had been in the middle of a tarmac-melting, climate-emergency heatwave for weeks.

‘Wow!’ Lottie was impressed and it was hard to impress Lottie, super-cool, with her place at St Hilda’s, Oxford, and her model good looks. Her string of super-cool boyfriends. Her sporting prowess. ‘We could be in the Mediterranean.’

Soon, Hannah thought, they’d separate, head off to different universities, different lives. The thought gave her an unexpected and overwhelming sense of relief.

She was dizzy and light-headed after the drive, grateful to have arrived safely. She’d had to persuade her mother that of course she’d be fine coming down early with Lottie. She’d passed her driving test first time, and though the car her parents had given her wasn’t new, it was perfectly reliable. Her father had winked and reminded her mum of their reckless youth, the miles they’d travelled in their crappy minivan. The festivals and the squats.

‘I think we can trust this lovely lass to make it from London to North Devon in one piece. She’s far too sensible already,’ he had said.

So here she was, the stress of A levels over, with her bestie, her saviour, in her parents’ holiday home in North Devon. Three days of freedom, of sunshine, of independence, before the olds turned up with her younger brothers.

Hannah opened the boot and began to pull out the bags. There was a splash, and she turned to see that Lottie had already stripped off and was in the pool, her blonde hair dripping, her face just above the water, grinning.-from Criminal Elements website

Editorial reviews:

Det. Insp. Matthew Venn investigates a murder and a disappearance connected to a prominent British politician in Cleeve’s effective sequel toThe Raging Storm. Venn and his team are called to Tide House, the Devon vacation home of well-known MP Paul Armstrong, where Armstrong’s daughter, Hannah, and her friend, Lottie, had been staying ahead of a family vacation. Armstrong found Lottie dead in the pool, with Hannah nowhere to be seen. His public profile means the U.K.’s ministry of the interior watches and weighs in on every move Venn makes as he searches for answers, which come via observations from local villagers and conversations with the girls’ parents and friends. As always, Cleeves is strong on atmosphere, and she crafts well-rounded characters whose overlapping secrets form an engrossing puzzle—developments in the personal lives of Venn’s investigators land with the same sense of occasion as bombshells about the victims’ lives. By the time Cleeves has narrowed her large list of suspects to a guilty few, readers will be eager to see where Venn goes next. (Sept.)–Publishers Weekly