Three very different women come together to complete an environmental survey on the Northumberland countryside.

At the isolated Baikie’s Cottage on the North Pennines, three very different women come together to complete an environmental survey. Although the clues come slowly from those who knew Luke and Lily before, Vera quickly finds herself drawn to the curious group who found Lily’s body.It’s arty, you have young kids who are from public school who go there to celebrate their exams with surfing and frolicking on the beach and it’s the interaction between these different communities which specially interests me. Eleanor's interest in a local ghost legend seemed unhealthy to her friends, but the detectives suspect there may be more to her sudden death.

As day and night blur together, Perez's relationships and judgment come into question in this captivating sequel to crime fiction's Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award winner, Raven Black. With each person’s story revisited, the Inspector begins to suspect that some deadly secrets are threatening to unfurl. But murdered she unquestionably was; and from the outset Inspector Stephen Ramsay is hard put to figure out why, let alone who. Isolated by the storm, Venn and his team embark on a perilous investigation, unaware that their own lives may be at risk.When another death occurs, Vera Stanhope enters the picture, and she might be the only person able to uncover the truth. Lizzie had planned her trip to Marrakech as the perfect escape from her life and her nightmares in Northumberland.

As Vera is drawn into the claustrophobic world of this increasingly strange community, she realizes that there may be deadly secrets trapped here. On Shetland, the launch of an exhibition at The Herring House art gallery is disturbed – a stranger bursts into tears, claiming not to remember who he is or where he comes from. After their marriage, they became the only residents of a small island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary: Hilbre.Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie’s innocence. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. As Perez investigates, he finds himself mired in the hidden secrets of the small biddista community. But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible .

But when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wild fire. However, her hippy neighbors keep her well-supplied with homebrew and conversation so that she is more open to them than others.Ann's success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London's Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. Brenda Blethyn stars as the leading lady, Vera Stanhope, and was awarded the Rose d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. Working with Sergeant Joe Ashworth, she starts the hunt for a murderer who is artistic as well as deadly. RAVEN BLACK, the first of the series, won the CWA Gold Dagger, and was adapted as a radio show in both the UK and Germany.