Vera Stanhope 4

Vera finds a body in the steam room of the gym where she goes swimming. The deceased was a social worker. Was her death related to the recent murder of a child by his mother, whose fitness as a parent had been questioned but who had retained custody?

I felt I should have worked out who the murderer was even without the information revealed near the end. And there were parts where I wanted the pace to pick up a bit, but still enjoyable. ( )

Vera herself discovers the body of a woman at the fitness facility where she swims. The corpse's place in the sauna destroys any fingerprint evidence left behind. Why did someone want to kill this well-liked social worker? Vera can be a difficult boss because of her tendency to want to do everything herself, but she does manage to find things for Ashworth, her sergeant, and a lower-ranking female officer to do. Before long, there's a second body, and Vera knows the two deaths must be related. I enjoyed this installment more than some of the previous ones, but I doubt I'll ever like the Vera series as much as the Shetland series. I listened to the audiobook read by the capable Charlie Hardwick. ( )

Surprising ending! ( )

Vera is an unmade bed...a rumpled, discombobulated mess to look at. She knows she's overweight, considers herself ugly in any case, and can't be arsed to take any pains whatsoever. She has no interest in her clothes beyond a moderate level of cleanliness, as long as they are comfortable and don't aggravate her eczema. Her daily footwear is a pair of sandals, sans socks. She'll wear wellies when the circumstances call for them. Her personal habits are irregular...she rarely eats "meals", surviving on chips, bacon sandwiches, tinned soup, coffee, tea and whatever might be offered in the way of cake or biscuits by victims' families, witnesses and suspects as she interviews them in their homes....doesn't really care what goes into her mouth unless it's that tot of Scotch or cold beer at the end of a long day. A nice sit-down in a good restaurant for a leisurely dinner seems never to be a thing she might long for. What Vera wants is a mental challenge and a chance to trip up a killer...to prove (to her dead father, it would seem) that she's fit for her position as Detective Inspector, the only job she can imagine herself wanting to do. Rough and heartless as she may come off to her colleagues, Vera does have some tender feelings, and the sight of a happy couple or a laughing child will bring her to a rueful contemplation of her apparently terminal solitary and childless state. As she considers herself fundamentally unlovable, and blames her father for an unhappy childhood of her own, this all may be just as well.

In this outing, there are many opportunities for Vera to take note of parent/child relationships and how destructive they can be. A social worker found dead in the steam room of an athletic club sets many wheels in motion, and brings the past back around to visit retribution. Many children have been at risk, and worse, before it all gets sorted out. I'm not greatly taken with the author's style...a bit too much beating around the bush in getting the story out there, too many complex connections among the characters. And references to Vera's foibles are beginning to feel like boilerplate; frankly I'm a bit done with them. Her sergeant, Joe Ashforth, as conventional as Vera is eccentric, is almost more interesting, but Cleeves doesn't let us see him outside of work. We know he has a wife and "kids" (2, 3?) and that his wife hates for him to be out late. But that's only at second hand. We never see him at home, never hear him in conversation with his wife. The relationship between Vera and Joe is odd...she needs him as a sounding board, and enjoys the company of a fine-looking young man, but there's no suggestion of anything inappropriate on her part, beyond taking advantage of his time and willingness to jump when she calls...just like every boss I've ever known. His feelings toward her are ambiguous, but he usually acknowledges that they are a good team. Even though I quibble, I have a niggling suspicion that I may return to this series some time. For now, 4 is enough.
November 2020 ( )