The Dying Light

A heatwave has settled over Devon at the start of summer when the body of a young woman, Lottie, is found in the swimming pool of a smart holiday home. Her best friend Hannah, whose family owns the house, has vanished. The two girls had come down to celebrate the end of their exams and had already riled the locals with social media videos mocking the place as parochial. Hannah's father, Paul Armstrong, is a rising politician with powerful enemies, and the press soon follows.

In this fourth Matthew Venn novel, Ann Cleeves sets her quiet, watchful detective among holidaymakers and a close community full of secrets, where the truth lies less in what people say than in what they leave unsaid. It is a patient, atmospheric mystery for anyone who likes their crime rooted in place and character.