Order of Ann Cleeves Books

Burial of Ghosts

Lizzie Bartholomew is on a solo holiday when a fling leaves her entangled in a dead mans secrets. The story weaves from Morocco to northern England, dealing with betrayal, loss, and identity. Gritty, emotional, and full of raw tension, this is Cleeves exploring the fragility of trust on a global sca...

The Sleeping and the Dead

A body is found in a lake, and jail librarian Hannah Morton is drawn into a web that connects past traumas and present sins. The story is soaked in melancholy and longing. Unlike the procedurals, this one leans more psychological. It asks Can people change? And what if they cant escape their past?

The Baby Snatcher

The Healers

Killjoy

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy

Murder in My Backyard

A Lesson in Dying

High Island Blues

The Mill on the Shore

Another Man’s Poison

Sea Fever

A Prey to Murder

Murder in Paradise

Come Death and High Water

A Bird in the Hand

The Raging Storm

A local hero vanishes during a storm and is later found murdered. Venns search leads to a suspicious pub, a suspicious community, and ghosts from the victims past. Cleeves nails the atmospherehowling winds, crashing waves, and the smothering suspicion of closeknit lives. Venn shines here, both in de...

The Girls on the Shore

The Heron’s Cry

An artist is found stabbed with a shard of glass in his picturesque studio. The case pulls Venn into a world of creative souls hiding painful truths. This one is slow and thoughtful, focused more on emotional fractures than outright thrills. But dont be fooledwhen the twist hits, it lands hard. Its ...

The Long Call

A body is found on the beach, and Venn is thrust into a case that entangles his past and present. This isnt just a whodunitits a reckoning with family, faith, and belonging. Venns cool intellect is perfectly contrasted by his emotional turmoil, and the murder investigation slices through a community...

Wild Fire

The finale to the Shetland series begins with an outsiders murder and unravels a tangled web of gossip, judgment, and past tragedy. As Jimmy Perez faces his final case, everything hes stood for is put to the test. The conclusion is both heartbreaking and satisfying. Youll close the book with a lump ...

Cold Earth

A landslide during a funeral leads to the discovery of a corpse no one expected. What begins as a natural disaster spirals into a murder mystery filled with emotional entanglements and longheld secrets. Jimmy is forced to confront his own demons, and the personal stakes make this one of the series m...

Thin Air

A wedding celebration on Unst takes a dark turn when one of the guests goes missing. As Perez digs deeper, folklore, ghost stories, and haunting local legends blur the lines between myth and murder. Cleeves writing is at its most atmospheric hereshe makes the reader feel the chill in the air and the...

Dead Water

Perez returns from leave to find the Shetland he left now in the hands of a new detective, Willow Reeves. When a journalist is found dead, their joint investigation reveals corruption, media manipulation, and personal vendettas. The shift in perspective gives the series a fresh tone, and Reeves is a...

Blue Lightning

When Jimmy takes his fiance Fran to Fair Isle, tragedy strikes, and hes forced to investigate a murder among ornithologists while grieving a personal loss. The claustrophobia of the isolated island, combined with Jimmys emotional unraveling, creates a poignant, almost gothic atmosphere. Cleeves pull...

Red Bones

A quiet archaeological dig becomes a crime scene when a body is unearthedliterally and figuratively. This entry personalizes the case for Sandy Wilson, Jimmys colleague, while still centering Perez in a complex web of betrayal and buried history. Themes of generational conflict and secrets held tigh...

White Nights

During Shetlands eerie summer, when the sun barely sets, an art exhibition turns sinister after a stranger collapses in front of a paintingand later ends up dead. Jimmy Perez again finds himself in a case where nothing is as it seems, layered with secrets and tensions that simmer just below the surf...

Raven Black

A young girls body is found in the snow, and the entire community of Shetland is thrown into suspicion. Enter Jimmy Perez, a man as much an outsider as a local, who is drawn into the case when fingers point to a reclusive man with a dark past. Cleeves sets the tone with stark, lyrical prose that tur...

The Dark Wives

The Rising Tide

A group of friends reunites on Holy Islanda tradition that turns deadly. Vera must unravel the dynamics of a clique built on guilt, nostalgia, and old sins. As secrets surface like tidewashed debris, Cleeves explores loyalty and regret in a pageturner laced with atmospheric dread. The location is a ...

The Darkest Evening

On a snowy night, Vera stumbles upon an abandoned baby andshortly aftera dead body. The scene unfolds in a grand estate linked to Veras family. Themes of class divide, motherhood, and familial tension simmer beneath the mystery. Veras cold, calculating instincts meet the warmth of surprising vulnera...

Frozen

The Seagull

When Vera reconnects with an old nemesis in prison, she learns of a longburied body and a betrayal that haunts her fathers criminal past. This is Veras most personal case yetdeeply rooted in her own childhood. Its moody, coastal, and loaded with suspense. Fans of gritty family secrets and noir atmos...

The Moth Catcher

Two bodies, one wealthy village, and a shared fascination with mothsyes, moths. Vera delves into the closed ranks of privilege and loneliness, revealing that isolation can breed obsession. What looks like a double murder quickly transforms into a chilling psychological puzzle. Cleeves quietly delive...

Harbour Street

A quiet woman is stabbed to death on a train just before Christmas. Veras investigation leads to a oncebustling boarding house filled with secrets, trauma, and broken lives. This is Cleeves at her most compassionate, exposing how cruelty and silence echo through time. The settinga seaside town in wi...

The Glass Room

An elite writing retreat turns deadly when a controversial tutor is murdered. Veras neighborand friendis found at the scene, placing Vera at a personal and professional crossroads. The backdrop of aspiring novelists and academic egos creates a juicy, intellectual tension. Expect red herrings galore,...

Silent Voices

Vera finds a body at a health spa. Yes, a spa. But this murder has deep roots in trauma and psychological manipulation. The theme of recoveryemotional and physicalruns deep, and Veras empathy comes through more than ever. Its personal without being sentimental. And the twist? Pure noir brilliance.

Hidden Depths

Two bodies, two separate murderslinked by eerie similarities. Vera is at her intuitive best here, navigating between broken families, garden parties, and buried trauma. Cleeves weaves domestic drama with chilling violence. By the end, youll find yourself rereading clues, amazed at how she hid the tr...

Telling Tales

A woman once convicted of murder is found innocentright before her suicide. Vera reopens the case, uncovering lies that have festered for years. The settinga village soaked in suspicionfeels alive with menace. This one questions the reliability of justice, and Vera proves shes more than a quirky cha...

The Crow Trap

The Vera series kicks off with a triple narrative that leads to a single, shocking murder. When a body is found in a secluded house during an environmental survey, Vera Stanhope arrivesa disheveled, sharptongued detective with a brilliant mind. The narrative structure is dense, but stick with it. Ve...