agrimes01's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
jfontaine's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
oclay98's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kbranfield's review
4.0
4.5 stars.
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves is an intriguing mystery set in Devon, England.
Detective Inspector Matthew Venn tackles a murder investigation which hits uncomfortably close to home. The victim is Simon Walden whose body is found not too far from Matthew's home. Simon also volunteers at the Woodyard Centre which is managed by Matthew's husband Jon Church. Despite these possible conflicts, he continues working the case with Detective Sergeant Jen Rafferty and Detective Constable Ross May. Their first order of business is to talk to Simon's roommates, home owner and social worker Caroline Preece and artist in residence Gaby Henry. The two women also haveties to Woodyard Centre-Gaby works there and Caroline's father Christopher is a donor and board member. Simon has a bit of a troubled history, but by all accounts, he has turned his life around. So what motive would anyone have for killing him?
Matthew is a very contained and somewhat reserved man. He is quite happy with Jon despite their very different personalities. Matthew is a thoughtful boss who takes care to nurture the detectives who work for him. He has been estranged from his parents for several years due to his rejection of the family's Evangelical church, the Barum Brethren. His father has recently passed away and Matthew remains at odds with his mother, Dorothy, who lives close by.
Simon's murder investigation is a bit slow moving due to lack of information about the murdered man. Could his death have anything to do with his life before moving to town? Or does it have something to do with his puzzling friendship with Lucy Braddick, a young woman with Down Syndrome who attends classes at Woodyard? And is there a connection between Simon's murder and the shocking disappearance of Lucy's friend who also has Down syndrome, Christine Shapland?
The Long Call is a multi-layered, gritty police procedural which features an enigmatic lead protagonist and a suspenseful storyline. The cast of characters is large yet each of the various people are well-developed. With the investigation taking a startling turn, Ann Cleeves brings this engrossing mystery to a dramatic yet completely satisfying conclusion. Readers of British crime novels are going to love this brilliant first installment in the Two Rivers series.
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves is an intriguing mystery set in Devon, England.
Detective Inspector Matthew Venn tackles a murder investigation which hits uncomfortably close to home. The victim is Simon Walden whose body is found not too far from Matthew's home. Simon also volunteers at the Woodyard Centre which is managed by Matthew's husband Jon Church. Despite these possible conflicts, he continues working the case with Detective Sergeant Jen Rafferty and Detective Constable Ross May. Their first order of business is to talk to Simon's roommates, home owner and social worker Caroline Preece and artist in residence Gaby Henry. The two women also haveties to Woodyard Centre-Gaby works there and Caroline's father Christopher is a donor and board member. Simon has a bit of a troubled history, but by all accounts, he has turned his life around. So what motive would anyone have for killing him?
Matthew is a very contained and somewhat reserved man. He is quite happy with Jon despite their very different personalities. Matthew is a thoughtful boss who takes care to nurture the detectives who work for him. He has been estranged from his parents for several years due to his rejection of the family's Evangelical church, the Barum Brethren. His father has recently passed away and Matthew remains at odds with his mother, Dorothy, who lives close by.
Simon's murder investigation is a bit slow moving due to lack of information about the murdered man. Could his death have anything to do with his life before moving to town? Or does it have something to do with his puzzling friendship with Lucy Braddick, a young woman with Down Syndrome who attends classes at Woodyard? And is there a connection between Simon's murder and the shocking disappearance of Lucy's friend who also has Down syndrome, Christine Shapland?
The Long Call is a multi-layered, gritty police procedural which features an enigmatic lead protagonist and a suspenseful storyline. The cast of characters is large yet each of the various people are well-developed. With the investigation taking a startling turn, Ann Cleeves brings this engrossing mystery to a dramatic yet completely satisfying conclusion. Readers of British crime novels are going to love this brilliant first installment in the Two Rivers series.
amberunmasked's review
5.0
The Long Call was my first Ann Cleeves' book. I had seen her name in the credits of Shetland and decided to see what her writing was like. As you can expect, I was not disappointed.
First of all, Cleeves gives us a gay male protagonist who has to navigate through the difficult relationships of his past from when and where he grew up as part of a Mennonite-like Christian sect called the Barum Brethren. Somehow, it wasn't being gay that got him shunned from his family and community. It was questioning them. Questioning the authority of the elders and the church was the more severe misconduct.
Secondly, the supporting cast of characters are women with Down's Syndrome, particularly the one named Lucy who becomes a target for kidnappers, a murderer, and a rapist. Her friend Christine is taken and has to fight against the odds as the North Devon police search for her. There's a third woman who is named and described, Rosa Holsworthy, who becomes integral in the current cases due to a past crime. It was the way that Cleeves treated each learning disabled character that deserves significant praise. There was no monolith. She gave each woman her own personality, size, maturity, family dynamic, and things they liked. Christine's parents and her aunt and uncle play pivotal roles in the criminal conspiracy. They're also tied to Detective Venn's history with the Brethren and to his husband Jonathan's work life at the Woodyard Center.
Detective Venn has a lot of the qualities of old noir gumshoes. He's so dedicated to his job and solving the cases that he has to make the choice to choose the work over being at home with his husband. Fortunately, Cleeves gives readers the character of Jonathan, always forgiving and understanding about Venn's duties as a cop. Jonathan is a breath of fresh air brought in at the right times when the mood is heavy and dramatic. He is the bright light in Venn's world.
Cleeves also includes the St. Hubert's programs for people with mental illness. She handles the situational environmental and the characters who are in roles of social workers, priests, and the clientele with delicacy. Between the people who attend the Woodyard and those who go to St. Hubert's for therapy and group counseling, there were ample opportunities for Cleeves to slide into stereotypes and myths about mental illness, but she never did. The characters surviving suicides of family members are allowed breathing room to be realistic and flat out honest.
Some of the other people had more severe learning disabilities. They were cared for in a different group. Some couldn't talk, but made odd noises, squeaks, and squeals. There was a man with a head too small for his body, people with twisted limbs, who couldn't walk and used wheelchairs. Maurice was embarrassed now at his reaction, his horror, his feeling that this was some kind of freak show and that his Lucy didn't belong there.
Something I noticed about the way the police in this story address each other was that they use first names. I've noticed this on a BBC property, DCI Banks. Perhaps, like other British-isms I had to look up, this is how it really is over there. I think our police are so militaristic especially in larger departments rather than small towns, that they refer to each other by last name or even nicknames.
The elegance of the sentences left me in a trance of pictures dancing through my mind. Her descriptions are lyrical and willowy. They aren't the kind of poetic metaphors that beat one over the head in annoyance. They're beautiful even when the subject is horrifying.
Detective Venn is confronted with violence against the most vulnerable members of his community. His tenacity keeps him moving on little sleep until he protects the next person from being hurt. Part of him worries that his husband will realize how neglectful it feels being at home cooking and cleaning after work only to get the call that Venn won't make it back for dinner.
Venn's colleagues, Ross and Jen are given opportunities to show off their personalities too, though Jen moreso. She's a single mother who would often prefer staying up all night partying than doing either her job or raising kids.
In that one fragment of a paragraph, readers are given all they need to understand what kind of person Jen is.
As for the crimes to solve, there were several which intertwined through the conspiracy. Cleeves takes readers on a ride through the people who define themselves as powerful, entitled, and wielding authority in small towns. She allows the reader to hate a character or change their mind about them as they develop. Simon Walden is a central character, a prime suspect who could be just another alcoholic character looking to be saved. Instead, Cleeves sculpts Walden into a man of mystery, one who takes ownership of his mistakes and seeks redemption. Dennis Salter, a leader of the Brethren and the uncle to Christine, shoots out red flags that he is not a nice man. It's easy to detect Dennis Salter as an evil bastard. That comes out even more in the third act when readers get a better look into his marriage and friendships. Salter never misses the chance to land a digging mocking insult at Detective Venn.
Besides the Brethren, there are other so-called Christians who don't seem to have their moral compass pointing due north. Is allowing someone to get away with a crime also a crime itself? Who gets redemption and who doesn't? Who is worthy of another chance and who isn't? Does saving reputations for places that are supposed to be safe havens outweigh publicizing any wrong-doings? Maybe the author has had her own battles with Christian churches or maybe she wrote this to hold up a mirror to the real world.
The crimes also include issues of sexual consent. I have to open about this as a Trigger Warning / Content Note more than ever because it does involve women with Down's Syndrome. The perpetrator, once cornered and forced to confess, goes through all the defenses: "she had a reputation" to promises of "it'll never happen again." Among other sensitive subjects, some mentioned already, there's: self-harm/suicide, depression, sexual violence, gaslighting and domestic violence, and murder. Cleeves handles these situations in ways that I wish other authors would, particularly cis-male authors who don't seem to understand how to write that content without being exploitative and boring old motivations for the hero characters.* The Long Call gets five stars and a new Ann Cleeves fan.
First of all, Cleeves gives us a gay male protagonist who has to navigate through the difficult relationships of his past from when and where he grew up as part of a Mennonite-like Christian sect called the Barum Brethren. Somehow, it wasn't being gay that got him shunned from his family and community. It was questioning them. Questioning the authority of the elders and the church was the more severe misconduct.
Of course the Brethren had been hot on the sin of gambling, a vice on a par with adultery, sodomy, and not wearing hats to meetings.
Secondly, the supporting cast of characters are women with Down's Syndrome, particularly the one named Lucy who becomes a target for kidnappers, a murderer, and a rapist. Her friend Christine is taken and has to fight against the odds as the North Devon police search for her. There's a third woman who is named and described, Rosa Holsworthy, who becomes integral in the current cases due to a past crime. It was the way that Cleeves treated each learning disabled character that deserves significant praise. There was no monolith. She gave each woman her own personality, size, maturity, family dynamic, and things they liked. Christine's parents and her aunt and uncle play pivotal roles in the criminal conspiracy. They're also tied to Detective Venn's history with the Brethren and to his husband Jonathan's work life at the Woodyard Center.
Detective Venn has a lot of the qualities of old noir gumshoes. He's so dedicated to his job and solving the cases that he has to make the choice to choose the work over being at home with his husband. Fortunately, Cleeves gives readers the character of Jonathan, always forgiving and understanding about Venn's duties as a cop. Jonathan is a breath of fresh air brought in at the right times when the mood is heavy and dramatic. He is the bright light in Venn's world.
Cleeves also includes the St. Hubert's programs for people with mental illness. She handles the situational environmental and the characters who are in roles of social workers, priests, and the clientele with delicacy. Between the people who attend the Woodyard and those who go to St. Hubert's for therapy and group counseling, there were ample opportunities for Cleeves to slide into stereotypes and myths about mental illness, but she never did. The characters surviving suicides of family members are allowed breathing room to be realistic and flat out honest.
Some of the other people had more severe learning disabilities. They were cared for in a different group. Some couldn't talk, but made odd noises, squeaks, and squeals. There was a man with a head too small for his body, people with twisted limbs, who couldn't walk and used wheelchairs. Maurice was embarrassed now at his reaction, his horror, his feeling that this was some kind of freak show and that his Lucy didn't belong there.
Something I noticed about the way the police in this story address each other was that they use first names. I've noticed this on a BBC property, DCI Banks. Perhaps, like other British-isms I had to look up, this is how it really is over there. I think our police are so militaristic especially in larger departments rather than small towns, that they refer to each other by last name or even nicknames.
The elegance of the sentences left me in a trance of pictures dancing through my mind. Her descriptions are lyrical and willowy. They aren't the kind of poetic metaphors that beat one over the head in annoyance. They're beautiful even when the subject is horrifying.
He pictured Alice Wozencroft bent double over the keys, dressed entirely in black, hands like claws, a nose like a beak. As close to a crow as a woman could be. She'd been old even when he was a boy.
Detective Venn is confronted with violence against the most vulnerable members of his community. His tenacity keeps him moving on little sleep until he protects the next person from being hurt. Part of him worries that his husband will realize how neglectful it feels being at home cooking and cleaning after work only to get the call that Venn won't make it back for dinner.
Venn's colleagues, Ross and Jen are given opportunities to show off their personalities too, though Jen moreso. She's a single mother who would often prefer staying up all night partying than doing either her job or raising kids.
Jen liked the idea of yoga, but didn't have the patience for it. The building was deceptively spacious and light. There were posters on the walls, semi-religious imagery of rainbows and doves, slogans about taking power, and loving the inner you. Here it seemed hope and the possibility of redemption abounded. It made Jen feel like punching someone.
In that one fragment of a paragraph, readers are given all they need to understand what kind of person Jen is.
As for the crimes to solve, there were several which intertwined through the conspiracy. Cleeves takes readers on a ride through the people who define themselves as powerful, entitled, and wielding authority in small towns. She allows the reader to hate a character or change their mind about them as they develop. Simon Walden is a central character, a prime suspect who could be just another alcoholic character looking to be saved. Instead, Cleeves sculpts Walden into a man of mystery, one who takes ownership of his mistakes and seeks redemption. Dennis Salter, a leader of the Brethren and the uncle to Christine, shoots out red flags that he is not a nice man. It's easy to detect Dennis Salter as an evil bastard. That comes out even more in the third act when readers get a better look into his marriage and friendships. Salter never misses the chance to land a digging mocking insult at Detective Venn.
"This is all about conspiracy. Entitled people more worried about their own reputations than the people in their care, losing any sense of humanity along the way. A kind of collective madness. They're all involved to some degree."
Besides the Brethren, there are other so-called Christians who don't seem to have their moral compass pointing due north. Is allowing someone to get away with a crime also a crime itself? Who gets redemption and who doesn't? Who is worthy of another chance and who isn't? Does saving reputations for places that are supposed to be safe havens outweigh publicizing any wrong-doings? Maybe the author has had her own battles with Christian churches or maybe she wrote this to hold up a mirror to the real world.
The crimes also include issues of sexual consent. I have to open about this as a Trigger Warning / Content Note more than ever because it does involve women with Down's Syndrome. The perpetrator, once cornered and forced to confess, goes through all the defenses: "she had a reputation" to promises of "it'll never happen again." Among other sensitive subjects, some mentioned already, there's: self-harm/suicide, depression, sexual violence, gaslighting and domestic violence, and murder. Cleeves handles these situations in ways that I wish other authors would, particularly cis-male authors who don't seem to understand how to write that content without being exploitative and boring old motivations for the hero characters.* The Long Call gets five stars and a new Ann Cleeves fan.
puzzlegirl30's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
balthazarlawson's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book in a new series by Ann Cleeves and is based in North Devon around Barnstaple. The body of a man is found at Crow Point at the mouth of the Taw and Torridge Rivers. But the victim has a link to the Woodyard community centre and this is where the investigation leads. Heading up the investigation is DI Matthew Venn, a local who grew up in the area and lives only a short distance from where the body was found. His husband also runs the Woodyard centre which causes a possible conflict of interest. But Matthew perseveres as the DCI is really not a capable officer and just marking time until retirement. In doing so he must also face the past and his troubled relationship with his mother.
The characters are an interesting collection and one can get to like them over time. Having an openly gay married detective as the main character is different but could make for an interesting series. Most the book was enjoyable but the beginning of the investigation was a bit troubling as it didn't seem to be going in any proper direction. But in the end the perpetrator was found.
The characters are an interesting collection and one can get to like them over time. Having an openly gay married detective as the main character is different but could make for an interesting series. Most the book was enjoyable but the beginning of the investigation was a bit troubling as it didn't seem to be going in any proper direction. But in the end the perpetrator was found.
agmaynard's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Magnificently and effectively narrated by Ben Aldridge, using regional dialects well (to my American ear anyway) and varied cadences. Cleeves' writing in this genre is such a terrific blend of age-old human motivation melded with contemporary concerns and issues, including a welcome gay character in a newly-settled relationship. Maybe the community-led book group will go for it; I'm certainly going to try!