The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves

 

A group of school mates meet up every five years on the island where they first connected at a school workshop.  Now in their late sixties, they can look back and see if the bright futures they anticipated as teenagers has played out.  Some are not there; Dan quit coming after he and Annie divorced and Isabella died in a car accident at the first reunion.  Ken is now in the early stages of dementia but his wife Louise takes care of him.  Rick went on to be a celebrated journalist and media player but lost much of his career when allegations of sexual misconduct with young girls hit the papers.  Phil is perhaps the most surprising.  A party guy, he became an Anglican priest after Isabella's death.  Annie is still living near the island, running a deli on the other side of the island causeway.

Everyone enjoys the first night, laughing and reminiscing and drinking.  But when Annie goes to wake Rick for breakfast the next morning, she finds him dead, hanging from the ceiling of his bedroom.  Was it suicide?  Inspector Vera Stanhope and her team are called to the scene and she quickly decides this is no suicide.  Rick has been murdered.

Vera and her team, Joe Ashworth and Holly Clarke, start to investigate.  Vera feels that the solution lies in the death of Isabella at the first reunion, some secret that has remained hidden for fifty years and festered.  The teacher who arranged the first conference is still in the area as is Rick's ex-wife.  Both of them have secrets as well.  Can Vera and her team solve the murder before more deaths occur?

This was the tenth Vera Stanhope mystery.  Ann Cleeves is a recognized mystery master, writing both the Vera Stanhope and the Shetland mystery series, as well as recently branching out into new series.  She lives in the Northumberland area many of her books are set in.  I listened to this one and the narrator did such an excellent job, her accent making the location and characters come alive.  The mystery is rooted in the past of the characters and Vera and her team are the best at digging into the past and excavating the secrets hidden there.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.