The Long Call

Where the Taw and the Torridge meet the sea in North Devon, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church while his father's funeral goes on without him. He walked away from the strict evangelical community he grew up in, and lost his family with it. Now he is back, leading his first major case in the Two Rivers region, after a man with an albatross tattooed on his neck is found stabbed on the beach near Matthew's new home.

The investigation leads him straight back into the community he left behind. Ann Cleeves, creator of Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez, opens her Two Rivers series with a quiet, troubled detective and a stretch of coast less idyllic than the tourists suppose. It is now an ITV series. For anyone who likes their crime rooted in place and conscience.